Sustainability Respect Human Rights

Human Rights

The Kurita Group has operations in over 30 countries, where it encounters diverse working environments, business customs, and trading practices. It is important to approach business with a respect for stakeholders’ human rights. Therefore, recognizing that human rights are a priority issue for management, the Kurita Group promotes respect for human rights among all stakeholders, including employees, in the countries and regions where it conducts business.
The Group recognizes that these initiatives need to be thoroughly implemented both internally and throughout the supply chain. We therefore request our business partners to consider human rights and require their understanding and cooperation, and we confirm that human rights are being respected through periodic monitoring surveys.

Contribution to Achieving the SDGs

Basic Concept of Human Rights

The Kurita Group Code of Conduct presents a model for specific practice of correct conduct based on observation of laws and regulations and on social ethics. The code stipulates that all officers and employees should respect and observe human rights in their conduct. Furthermore, we have also established the Kurita Group Human Rights Policy to complement the corporate philosophy and the Kurita Group Code of Conduct.

Policy

This policy applies to every directors and employees of Kurita Water Industries Ltd. and its consolidated subsidiaries. Moreover, the Kurita Group will encourage its business partners and other related parties on which it can have an influence to implement this policy.

  • The Kurita Group will respect the human rights as set out in the International Bill of Human Rights and the fundamental rights and principles as set out in the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work. In addition, we will promote efforts to respect human rights in accordance with the Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights stipulated by the UN.
  • The Kurita Group will comply with applicable laws and regulations of each country and region in which it performs its business activities. In the case of any conflict between the internationally recognized human rights and any law, regulation or rule of any country or region, Kurita Group will search for a way to respect the principles of internationally recognized human rights.
  • The Kurita Group will establish a mechanism for human rights due diligence to identify any adverse human rights impacts and seek to prevent or mitigate such impact.
  • In the event of any adverse human rights impacts or its revealed involvement in such adverse human rights impacts, the Kurita Group will endeavor to provide a remedy to those affected through proper proceedings.
  • The Kurita Group will publicize this policy. Furthermore, it will provide appropriate education and training to ensure the effectiveness of this policy.
  • The Kurita Group will consult with the relevant stakeholders on responses regarding potential and actual impacts on human rights.
  • The Kurita Group will report the progress of its efforts to respect human rights in its corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports and on its website.

Promotion System (FY2023)

The Kurita Group’s promotion system for human rights initiatives is shown on the right. The Corporate Planning and Management Office undertakes human rights awareness-raising activities, mainly for employees, and manages initiatives for fostering a rewarding, work-friendly organizational culture, while the Engineering Division is in charge of requesting suppliers to respect human rights.

Targets and Achievements

The Kurita Group’s target for the theme in fiscal 2023 and its achievements are as shown below.

Target for FY2023 Achievement in FY2023
Rate of participation in human rights-related training 100% 100%
  • * Courses in fiscal 2023 were targeted at employees of the Company and Group companies in Japan.

Main Initiatives

Formulation of the Kurita Group Personnel Management Guidelines

The Kurita Group has put in place the Kurita Group Personnel Management Guidelines with the aim of managing personnel based on a common approach throughout the Group. The guidelines set out basic approaches to personnel management such as management development, sincere employment, and respect for diversity. The Group manages personnel in accordance with the guidelines, integrating them with the unique personnel management strategies of each company based on its individual circumstances, such as country, region, culture, and company culture.

Human Rights Due Diligence

The Group conducts human rights due diligence to identify human rights risks and adverse impacts on human rights in its business activitie, analyze and evaluate those risks, and formulate and implement appropriate measures. To promote respect for human rights throughout the value chain, we encourage our business partners to consider human rights including by prohibiting forced labor, prohibiting child labor, and eliminating discrimination. We use periodic monitoring surveys to check the status of compliance by our business partners. In fiscal 2023, we conducted an independent and professional audit of our supply chain. As a result, we have found out that certain companies had long working hours or health and safety issues, so we have advised them to correct these. We also identified a risk the foreign technical intern systems used by our business partners, whereby a local staffing agency would collect fees exceeding the stipulated amount from interns themselves. To prevent human rights violations that may occur when a business partner accepts foreign workers, we will use briefings and other activities to actively engage with business partners. We will continue to strengthen our response by further expanding our scope of evaluation and listing up risks.

Human Rights Awareness Training

Kurita Water Industries provides ongoing “Human Rights Training Programs” to raise employees’ awareness of human rights. We also conducted human rights awareness raising training for the management of the Company and its domestic Group companies, aiming to raise management’s awareness of the human rights, which is becoming increasingly important in corporate management, and to promote initiatives with employees. In fiscal 2023, we also conducted training for the management of the Company and Group companies in Japan, on the theme of “Business and Human Rights.”

Number of Participants in Human Rights Awareness Training

  FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
Theme Anger management Diversity and inclusion Human rights violations in the age of social media
Number of participants 2,095 4,778 4,754

Fostering an Organizational Culture that Embraces and Capitalizes on Diversity

To ensure the diversity of the Group’s human resources, we established a dedicated group in October 2020 to accelerate progress on diversity. The group works to foster an organizational culture and develop mechanisms and systems for generating innovation from diverse perspectives and backgrounds.

Dialogue with Employees

Since October 2016 the Company holds “Town Hall Meetings” in which President Kadota and employees can speak directly with each other (42 meetings had been held as of March 2023). In 2023, we held a roundtable discussion with members of the global project team. Nine participants in the project’s training program participated in the discussion, talking about what they had learned during the training and how they have been putting it into practice.

  • * Title as of 2022.

Dialogue with the Labor Union

In addition to securing the Company’s sound growth and continuation, Kurita Water Industries and the labor union maintain a sound and fair relationship. Labor and management each do their utmost to improve the economic and social standing of union members and to maintain and improve working conditions. Specifically, the Company and the Labor Union have concluded a labor agreement, share management information and exchange opinions at management consultation meetings and so forth, and promote dialogue.

CSR Requirements of Suppliers

The Kurita Group considers it vital to obtain cooperation from suppliers to ensure respect for human rights across the entire supply chain. We have established the Kurita Group CSR Procurement Guidelines, and we have asked suppliers to respect basic human rights, such as prohibiting forced labor and child labor and eliminating discrimination, and to provide appropriate information. In particular, we ask major suppliers to conduct a self-evaluation based on the guideline and to implement improvement measures.
In addition, since fiscal 2022, we have been using the platform* of EcoVadis for the purpose of expanding evaluation items, enhancing the reliability of evaluation results, and reducing the burden on suppliers. As of March 2023, 123 suppliers in Japan and overseas (accounting for 28% of total order amount in fiscal 2021) were registered on the platform.

  • * A platform for rating the sustainable procurement capabilities of suppliers from a CSR perspective. The content and number of questions are customized according to industry, company size, and country or region.

Status of Labor Issues and Response

Number of Consultations Regarding Discrimination

The number of consultations from individuals regarding instances of discrimination (including harassment) in the Kurita Group is as follows. The human resource and legal affairs divisions conduct an investigation of the facts while maintaining the anonymity of the person making the complaint. If the facts are confirmed, guidance and warnings are issued to the persons concerned.

  FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
Kurita Water Industries 4 3 10
Domestic subsidiaries and affiliated companies 10 16 4
Overseas subsidiaries and affiliated companies 2 0 0
Total 16 19 14

Evaluation of Employee Human Rights Risk

The results of human rights risk evaluations at Kurita Water Industries are as follows.

  FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
Child Labor Number of business sites with significant risks regarding child labor 0 0 0
Number of business sites with significant risk of hazardous work undertaken by people aged under 18 0 0 0
Forced Labor Number of business sites with significant risks regarding forced labor 0 0 0

Securing Diverse Human Resources

Employment of Personnel with Disabilities

Kurita Water Industries and Group companies in Japan work to attract and retain diverse personnel by providing a wide range of employment opportunities for people with disabilities. In April 2013, With Kurita Ltd. was established with the goal of securing employment opportunities for people with disabilities. As of May of the same year, With Kurita has been approved as a special subsidiary company under the Act on Employment Promotion, etc. of Persons with Disabilities.
As of March 2023, the Company and three Group companies in Japan were eligible under the special subsidiary system*, and satisfied the statutory number of employees with disabilities in Japan.

  • * Established by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare to promote and stabilize the employment of persons with disabilities. If an enterprise establishes a subsidiary with special consideration for employment with disabilities and meets certain requirements, the workers employed by the subsidiary can be regarded as being employed by the parent company as a special case.

Status of Employment of Personnel with Disabilities at Kurita Water Industries and Group companies in Japan*

FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
Number of people employed 68 72 73
Employment rate (%) 2.4 2.5 2.6
  • * The number of employees with disabilities in group companies deemed to be subject to group application under the Employment Rate System for Persons with Disabilities.

Employment of Foreign Nationals

Kurita Water Industries seeks to recruit diverse human resources without regard to nationality. We employ foreign nationals, mainly from among overseas students studying in Japan.

Status of Employment of Foreign Nationals at Kurita Water Industries

FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
Number of people employed 19 19 19

Securing Employment Opportunities for Senior Personnel

In conjunction with the enforcement of the amended Act on Stabilization of Employment of Elderly Persons from 2006, Kurita Water Industries has established a system to secure employment opportunities for people who have retired having reached the mandatory retirement age. These employment opportunities are offered for up to a maximum of five years from the time of mandatory retirement (60 years old) in accordance with the 2013 amendment to the Act on Stabilization of Employment of Elderly Persons.

Establishment of SOGIE Minority Related Consultation Desk, Formulation of Regulations Regarding Same-Sex and Common-Law Partners

The Company and its domestic Group companies have set up an external SOGIE* minority related consultation desk where employees (including dispatch staff) can be consulted anonymously. The purpose is to reduce the psychological burden due to sexual minorities in daily life and to enable manager and colleagues to respond appropriately to them based on advice from qualified persons such as psychological counselors.
We also extend the various personnel systems provided to executives and employees to same-sex and common-law partners as well. We are developing similar regulations for domestic Group companies with a large number of employees, and in fiscal 2023 brought them into effect at one such company.

* A term that combines Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity, and Gender Expression.

Fair Personnel System

Ratio of Employees Receiving Personnel Evaluations

To bring out the best of each individual employee’s abilities, companies need to conduct fair evaluations of each employee based on their roles and results, and provide appropriate remuneration, education, and roles based on the evaluation. At Kurita Water Industries, the employees confirm their own results and issues together with their supervisor at an interview in an effort to ensure transparent and fair evaluations.

Ratio of Employees under the Personnel Evaluation System at Kurita Water Industries (%)

Classification FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
Management 100 100 100
Non-management 100 100 100

Introduction of a Self-Reporting System and Implementation of Transfer Survey

Kurita Water Industries has introduced the Self-Reporting System for employees to express to the Company their own views of their duties and workplaces, and their intentions regarding development and utilization of their own potential. Once a year, supervisors and employees talk about the employee’s suitability for their current duties, their hopes for transfers to future career formation, their family status, and other matters. This enables the Company to understand the employee’s thinking and the results are used to assist personnel development and workplace invigoration. In other initiatives, a Transfer Survey is conducted to enable employees to tell the Company about their aspirations for career advancement.

Creating a Corporate Culture that Facilitates Work

The Company is taking measures to support employees seeking to balance their careers and family life in order to create an environment that makes it easy for employees to work.

Parental Leave and Shortened Working Hours for Childcare

In accordance with the Act on Advancement of Measures to Support the Development of the Next-Generation Children, we have established a workplace that supports employees who need to balance work with raising children. In principle, employees can take childcare leave until the child reaches two years of age, but the period can be extended in certain specified conditions. Furthermore, employees may choose to work for shorter hours until the end of their child’s third year of elementary school. In addition, we are working to improve our system by introducing childcare leave at birth and allowing employees to take their childcare leave in installments.

Status of System Use

FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
Number of people using leave Male 24 30 32
Female 25 24 7
Usage rate (%) Male 37 51 68
Female 100 100 140*
  • * The number of female workers who began or used childcare leave in fiscal 2023 is higher than the number of female workers who gave birth that year, resulting in a usage rate of more than 100%.

Caregiving Leave, Work Less Hours for Caregiving, and Short-term Caregiving Leave Systems

The Company offers a Caregiving Leave system to employees who have family members requiring care and who wish to continue working after caregiving. The system can be used for up to one year (365 days) in principle. Moreover, for each eligible family member requiring care, the Company offers employees a cumulative total of up to 12 months of working less hours to provide caregiving. In addition, when employees apply for leave to provide caregiving or other care to family members who need it, they can receive 5 days of special paid leave for each eligible family member per year, up to a maximum total of 10 days in the case of two or more eligible family members.

Status of System Use (Number of people)

FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
Caregiving leave system Male 0 0 2
Female 0 0 0
Work less hours for caregiving system Male 0 0 0
Female 0 0 0
Short-term caregiving leave system Male 9 11 9
Female 2 3 3

Short-term Nursing Leave System

The Company provides paid leave for nursing. Employees with a child yet to enter elementary school who need to nurse that child because of an injury or illness can take up to five days a year of leave for one child or 10 days a year of leave for two or more children.

Leave System Due to Spouse Being Transferred

The Company offers employees up to three years of leave so that they accompany a spouse transferring overseas so that they can provide living and mental support.

Status of System Use (Number of people)

FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
Leave system due to spouse being transferred Male 0 0 0
Female 0 0 1

Volunteer Leave System

The Company has a volunteer leave system for all employees, enabling them to take up to two days of paid volunteer leave per year.

Status of System Use (Number of people)

FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
Volunteer leave system Male 1 0 0
Female 0 0 0

Promoting Women’s Participation and Advancement in the Workplace

Promoting women’s participation and advancement in the workplace has been an issue for Japan as a country. The average number of years of service among female employees of the Company is 15.8, indicating a working environment that encourages women to continue working for a relatively long period. On the other hand, little progress was made in appointing women to management positions. However, as Japan faces the prospect of a society with a shrinking population, the ability to successfully promote women’s participation and advancement in the workplace has become an urgent issue for the Company in terms of securing management resources. In response, we are working to improve this situation under an action plan based on the Act on Promotion of Women’s Participation and Advancement in the Workplace and the Act on Advancement of Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children. As a “childcare support company” and “company promoting the active participation of women”, we have been certified by the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare as the “Kurumin Mark”*1 and “Eruboshi (Class 3)”*2. Kurita Water Industries has been selected for the MSCI Japan Empowering Women (WIN) Index.
Although we apply the same standards to the wages of our employees regardless of their gender, certain differences arise in terms of average wages due to variations in employee qualifications and the composition of certain age groups. Particularly in the age group over 40, men have a higher proportion of manager-equivalent positions (including managers) than women, resulting in comparatively higher average wages for men. However, the wage gap between men and women at the managerial level is roughly on the same level with the average wage of a female department manager equivalent to 96% that of a male department manager and the average wage of a female section manager equivalent to 92% that of a male section manager. We will actively work to ensure diversity by carrying out initiatives such as increasing the proportion of female hires, supporting women in their career development, and promoting women as core human resources. In addition, among our part-time and fixed-term workers, a higher proportion of male contractors held more advanced positions, such as qualified personnel such as construction management and executives of consolidated subsidiaries. This results in comparatively higher average wages for men.

Wage difference between male and female workers (%)

FY2023
All employees 68.0
Of which, full-time employees 67.5
Of which, part-time and fixed-term workers 65.9
  • *1 A system in which Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare certifies companies that meet certain requirements as “childcare support company” among companies that are working to support the balancing of work and childcare.
  • *2 This is a system in which the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare of Japan certifies as a "company promoting the active participation of women" based on the Act on Promotion of Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace.

Status of Kurita Water Industries

FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
Ratio of Female Personnel (%)* Employees 15.2 15.4 15.9
Of Which, Management 2.4 2.7 4.1
Average Years of Service for Female Personnel 16.4 16.2 15.9

* As of December 1 for each fiscal year

General Employers Action Plan Based on the Act on Promotion of Women’s Participation and Advancement in the Workplace

In the five-year plan for the period from April 2023 to March 2028, Kurita Water Industries has set the following targets.
The targets for the period from April 2018 to March 2023 for the number of women in management positions and the percentage of female new graduates are expected to be met (as of March 2023). In the five-year plan for the period from April 2023 to March 2028, Kurita Water Industries has set the following numerical targets.
① Providing career opportunities for female workers
· Percentage of women in career track employment (new graduates/experienced professionals): About 30-40%
· Percentage of management positions held by women: About 10%
② Development of an employment environment that contributes to balancing work life and family life
· Childcare leave uptake rate among male employees: About 80-90%
· Duration of childcare leave taken by male employees: About 2-8 weeks

  • * The childcare leave targets for male employees are addressed in the General Employer Action Plan based on the Next Generation Nurturing Support Measures Promotion Act.
Initiative Measures Taken
Increasing the proportion of female hires When seeking to hire new graduates and experienced professionals, provide opportunities for candidates to meet with female employees of the Company. In addition, review the recruitment page on our website and provide information to motivate women to actively build their careers
Career development support Carry out career development workshops tailored for three stages until promotion to a management position, and a career development workshop that focuses on expertise, with the participation of executives and the supervisors of female employees.
Systematically appointing women and expanding their roles Share the plan for appointing women to management positions with stakeholders and update.
While assigning female employees to roles that have few female workers, we will strive to support their efforts so that women can become firmly established throughout our workforce.
Establishing internal and external networking opportunities for women Promote the sharing of knowledge of women both inside and outside the company who have balanced work and family. Alongside this, support networking to enable female employees to seek advice about their concerns.

Action Plan Based on the Act on Advancement of Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children

In the period from April 2023 to March 2028, Kurita Water Industries will conduct the following initiatives in stages.
The previous plan for the period from April 2018 to March 2023 has generally been achieved in terms of promoting understanding of the percentage of people taking parental leave, the average number of days taken, and diversity. However, there remains room for improvement with regard to promoting the use of subsidized childcare agency services and promoting the use of annual paid leave. We will continue working to address these areas. Based on these results, the following initiatives will be implemented in phases from April 2023 to March 2028.

Initiative Measures Taken
Promote understanding of childcare leave for male employees Use videos and training for managers, male employees who themselves are eligible for childcare leave, and colleagues to foster an environment where such leave can be taken easily.
Promote understanding of childcare-related systems Promote understanding and use of the system through explanatory videos, expansion of the handbook for introducing childcare-related systems, and internal communications.
Share information about childcare leave of male employees Provide a place for sharing insights from employees who have used the system; use internal communications to promote success stories throughout the organization.
Promote use of annual paid leave Reduce factors that hinder employees from taking paid leave; in parallel with this, promote activities to encourage taking paid leave.

Work Style Reforms

As a work style reform initiative, we are creating workplace environments that allow for more flexibility by amending the practice of working long hours and promoting working remotely.

Policy

  1. Transform the mindset of workers
    Increase individual employee awareness of time and train them to perform their work efficiently.
  2. Reform work processes
    Review work flow and operating procedures, reduce waste and promote standardization to make work more efficient.
  3. Organize working environment and rules
    Establish work rules that set out a balance between working and breaks and create an environment that supports flexible work styles.

Amending the Practice of Working Long Hours

The Company is taking the following initiatives to rectify the issue of working long hours.

  • (1) Introduced working intervals program
  • (2) Lights turned out when employees should leave the office
  • (3) Stricter control of working hours for employees who manage their own hours
  • (4) Promotion of annual paid leave

Promoting Working Remotely

The Company is carrying out the following initiatives to promote working remotely.

  • (1) At all sites, employees work from home in principle (excluding jobs that require working from the office or visiting business partners for the sake of ongoing customer projects or the public interest, etc.)
  • (2) Develop and maintain infrastructure for working remotely (personal computers, smartphones, etc.)
  • (3) Promote online company events, internal training, and internal/external meetings, etc.
  • (4) Online training to improve IT skills
  • (5) Promote paperless administration and introduce digital signatures (approval seals)
  • (6) Provide work-at-home benefits

Streamline Operations by Introducing IT Equipment

The Company has distributed mobile IT devices primarily to employees engaged in design work to streamline operations. Specifically, the confirmation of construction work that was previously done on paper, is now carried out using the screen of the IT device and photographs of the site. In addition, the confirmed items can be quickly shared inside and outside the Company, which has eliminated differences in understanding between relevant parties, and cut down reworking. The system also enables speedy communication with suppliers and reduces travel time to offices. By reducing the work time of engineers, they are able to shift their focus to creative operations.

Health and Safety

The Kurita Group recognizes that due to the nature of its business, its employees and those of business partners are often faced with various safety risks for manufacture and delivery of water treatment chemicals or assembly, delivery, and installation of water treatment facilities. We have therefore positioned “occupational health and safety as the top priority in operating business.” We are working to ensure the safety and support the health of Kurita Group directors and employees, as well as employees of suppliers to create working environments where they can work with confidence.

Basic Policy

The Kurita Group has established a common policy for the Group in an effort to ensure the health and safety of directors and employees, create comfortable working environments, and improve on them. We continuously promote initiatives for health and safety based on this policy.

Policy

  1. Compliance with laws
    Kurita Group will observe laws and regulations related to occupational health and safety which apply in each country or region where it conducts business activities.
  2. Investment of management resources
    Kurita Group will strive to maintain and improve a safe, comfortable work environment by investing its management resources such as human resources, equipment, and funds.
  3. Clarification of roles, authority, and responsibilities
    Kurita Group will clarify the roles, authority, and responsibilities of occupational health and safety organizations and occupational health and safety managers of Group companies, so as to conduct autonomous, sustained occupational health and safety activities.
  4. Setting targets, planning, and implementation for occupational health and safety
    Kurita Group will have the occupational health and safety organizations of Group companies set targets for their occupational health and safety activities in accordance with business contents and regional characteristics of each company, as well as the laws and regulations which apply in each country, develop plans to achieve the targets, and implement the plans through the united efforts of employer and employees. In addition, Kurita Group will conduct appropriate reviews based on the results of implementation and make continuous improvements.
  5. Elimination and reduction of risk factors and hazards
    Kurita Group will conduct risk assessments, identify risk factors and hazards to make improvements, and eliminate or reduce the risks.
  6. Education and training
    Kurita Group will provide education and training on occupational health and safety to its directors, employees, and business partners and inform them thoroughly of the Occupational Health and Safety Policy and the objective, plans, and measures of its occupational health and safety activities.

Promotion System (FY2023)

The Company and its domestic Group companies have established a health and safety system based on labor safety laws and regulations such as the Industrial Safety and Health Act. Under the Headquarters Health and Safety Committee, a joint labor-management committee which is chaired by an executive officer of the Company, each office and division of the Company has established a Health and Safety Committee (chaired by the office manager or persons designated by the chairperson of the Headquarters Health and Safety Committee), and domestic Group companies have also established Health and Safety Committees. Each Health and Safety Committee holds discussions on creating the work environment and preventing work-related injuries, and works to maintain and improve the health and safety of employees. Furthermore, the activity policy of the Headquarters Health and Safety Committee and the activity results of each Health and Safety Committee are reported to the Board of Directors of the Company once a year.
The Quality Control Manager determines and assesses safety outcome goals and progress toward process goals, reporting the results to the Board of Directors once a year.
The Safety Promotion Department, which is dedicated to safety group wide, supports on-site safety initiatives, as well as planning and implementing work-related injury prevention measures and following up on the efforts of the Health and Safety Committee. Among 21 Health and Safety Committees of domestic Group companies, 16 are joint labor-management committees (as of March 2023). In addition, the percentage of employees who participate in the Health and Safety Committee is 0.4%* at the Company and 8.5% at Group companies in Japan.

  • * The percentage of employees who participate in the Health and Safety Committee at the Head Office.

Targets and Achievements

The Kurita Group’s target for the theme in fiscal 2023 and its achievements are as shown below.

Target for FY2023 Achievement in FY2023
Rate of front-line employee participation in safety training directly related to site operations 100% 100%
  • * Courses in fiscal 2023 were targeted at employees of the company, and number of participants in training is 5,294 (Fiscal Year Totals).

Main Initiatives

In fiscal 2023, the Health and Safety Committee stated the direction for its initiatives as “reinforcing that health and safety are the highest priority in carrying out business, and thoroughly implementing the education needed to properly recognize, avoid, and eliminate various risks.” The main themes for our priority measures have been 1) prevention of work-related accidents and 2) health management. Our main initiatives in fiscal 2023 were as follows.

Preventing Work-Related Accidents

Based on the incidence of work-related accidents to date, the Company has focused on preventing of medical injuries, falls, crushing or entanglement, heat stroke, and work-related accidents according to business characteristics. We are working hard to prevent such accidents, including engaging with our partner companies. In fiscal 2023, the Company’s Safety Promotion Department conducted 575 safety patrols at sites on new and existing businesses and projects with a high risk of work-related accidents, which included some performed remotely because of travel restrictions due to the pandemic, and efforts were made to discover and eliminate risks at worksites and raise the safety awareness of the employees of the Company and its business partners. In safety patrols, worksite safety measures and other aspects were evaluated by points, following which the results were reported back to employees and business partners and improvements and remedies of the indicated items were carried out.

Fostering a Safety Culture

The Company and Group companies in Japan work to share the value of making safety the highest priority in carrying out business, and to foster a culture in which employees take personal responsibility for safety. Since fiscal 2021, targeting departments related to manufacturing and construction sites of the Company and Group companies in Japan, we have been conducting a safety culture diagnosis to gauge the extent to which efforts to prevent work-related accidents have taken root in each organization. We work continuously to monitor safety status and make improvements.

Number of Safety Patrols (Kurita Water Industries)

FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
Japan 523 567 491
Overseas 22 8 4
Total 545 575 495

Number of Participants in Safety Education (Kurita Water Industries)

Training name FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
Training on handling fires 138 52 156
Training on handling chemicals 238 62 141
Safety training for new employees 84 70 64
Safety training for overseas national staff employees 9 0 0
Special training on full-harness type fall prevention devices 12 55 13
Others 35 23 0
Total 516 262 374

Work-Related Accident Cause Identification and Recurrence Prevention

The types of injuries that occurred during work at the Company and domestic Group companies in fiscal 2022 are listed below. For the accidents that occurred, the Company’s dedicated department for promoting onsite safety investigated the cause and established measures to prevent recurrences, which are promoted through the Company and domestic Group companies.
To prevent the recurrence of serious work-related accidents that have occurred in the past, in fiscal 2022, we also began adopting a Stress Strength Model-Safety (SSM-S)* approach. As a further development of this initiative, in fiscal 2023, we officially launched the Kurita-Safety Approach Tool (known internally as “K-SAT”), a model for preventing the recurrence of and mitigating the risk of work-related accidents.
K-SAT is a tool that accumulates knowledge from past work-related accidents in the system, allowing personnel to extract and use the information they need. By using this tool, we will develop knowledge from past work-related accidents into risk assessments that contain no omissions. By ensuring that decided measures are implemented onsite, we will strive to prevent the recurrence of work-related accidents. to extract and use the information they need. By using this tool, we will develop knowledge from past work-related accidents into risk assessments that contain no omissions. By ensuring that decided measures are implemented onsite, we will strive to prevent the recurrence of work-related accidents.

  • * A mechanism for structurally identifying and rendering into shareable knowledge the mechanisms of defects, to be used to prevent defects and stop issues from reoccurring. A quality management approach mainly used in the manufacturing sector, developed by Yasuhiko Tamura of the Institute of Structured Knowledge Yielding Co., Ltd.

The types of injuries that occurred at the Company and domestic Group companies in fiscal 2023

Crushing and entanglement, falls and trips, projectiles and falling objects, chemical-related injuries, overturning, incidents of being struck in a collision, collisions, recoils, excessive force

Regular Health Examination

The Company conducts regular health examinations for employees. We ensure that all eligible employees receive their examinations.

FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
Rate of Employees Receiving Regular Health Examinations 100 100 100

Response to Hazardous Operations

The Company’s employees may handle organic solvents, designated chemical substances, and other materials when performing analysis and experiments. To deal with hazardous operations by its employees, the Company has devised exposure prevention measures, such as installation of onsite ventilation equipment and protective equipment. We also conduct special health examinations based on surveys of employee’s substance usage records.

FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
Rate of Employees Receiving Special Health Examinations 100 100 100

Health Promotion Initiatives

The Company conducts measures to improve employee health, such as seminars on how to improve diet, measuring physical age, and holding health events such as walking rallies.

FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
Number of Health Seminars 34 67 60
Number of Health Events 30 20 10

Initiatives to Prevent Mental Health Issues

In our initiatives to prevent mental health issues, each Health and Safety Committee holds seminars on mental health. In addition, we conduct a Stress Check, which is a survey given to all employees for promoting self-awareness, carried out under the guidance of the stress check systems designed by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare according to the Industrial Safety and Health Act.

FY2021 FY2022 FY2023
Number of Mental Health Seminars 10 16 6
Ratio of Employees Receiving Stress Checks (%) 98.6 98.6 96.0

CSR Requirements of Suppliers

The Kurita Group considers it vital to obtain cooperation from suppliers to conduct safe business across the entire supply chain. We have established the Kurita Group CSR Procurement Guidelines, and we have asked suppliers to ensure the safety of their employees in accordance with laws and regulations, ensure healthy working environments, and conduct labor safety education for workers, and to provide appropriate information. In particular, we ask major suppliers to conduct a self-evaluation based on the guideline and to implement improvement measures.
In addition, since fiscal 2022, we have been using the platform* of EcoVadis for the purpose of expanding evaluation items, enhancing the reliability of evaluation results, and reducing the burden on suppliers. As of March 2023, 123 suppliers in Japan and overseas (accounting for 28% of total order amount in fiscal 2021) were registered on the platform.

  • * A platform for rating the sustainable procurement capabilities of suppliers from a CSR perspective. The content and number of questions are customized according to industry, company size, and country or region.

Acquisition of ISO 45001 Certification

The Kurita Group is developing a safety management system based on the concepts of ISO 45001 to ensure safety at production and construction sites and prevent work-related injury. The status of ISO 45001 certification as of March 31, 2023 is as follows. See the “Social” section of the ESG Data sheet for group wide certification rates and other data.

Companies with ISO 45001 certification

  • Kurita (Taiwan) Co., Ltd.
  • Kurita Water Industries (Dalian) Co., Ltd.
  • Hansu Co., Ltd.
  • Hansu Technical Service Ltd.
  • Kurita Europe GmbH
  • Kurita France S.A.S.
  • Kurita Turkey Kimya A.S.
  • Kurita AquaChemie FZ
  • Kurita AquaChemie Saudi Arabia Co.
  • Kurita do Brasil LTDA.
  • Kurita (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.
  • Kurita Water (Malaysia) Sdn. Bhd.
  • PT Kurita Indonesia

Status of Work-Related Accidents

The number of work-related accidents at Kurita Water Industries and Group companies in Japan is indicated in the graph.
The number of work-related fatalities involving employees of the Company or its Group companies in Japan from fiscal 2021 to fiscal 2023 was 0. During the same period, there was one fatality involving a non-employee.