Diversity & Equal Opportunity

Our Approach

At LIXIL, we believe diversity is the very thing that enhances our uniqueness and competitive edge. Diversity is what drives innovation and sustainable growth as we strive to develop innovative products and services that meet diverse needs and realize LIXIL’s Purpose to “make better homes a reality for everyone, everywhere.” Creating a comfortable working environment and culture for all employees helps us become an organization of people who feel empowered to tackle difficult challenges with an entrepreneurial spirit and see their achievements justly rewarded.

To achieve this aim, we have set goals to establish a culture of inclusion and achieve gender equity throughout the company by FYE2030, and are promoting measures in line with our Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Strategy.

Learn more about our D&I Strategy and Governance >

Fostering an Inclusive Culture

We added inclusion as one of the key metrics in our LIXIL Voice employee opinion survey, and are visualizing progress and implementing measures based on the survey results in order to embed the culture of inclusion that we set as a goal for establishing an inclusive culture.

Results of the LIXIL Voice employee opinion survey >

So far, we have conducted workshops and released e-learnings on a global scale for all employees to deepen their understanding of D&I topics such as unconscious bias and psychological safety. We are now focusing on the following initiatives.

D&I Promotion Program for Managers

We launched a dashboard for senior managers that visualizes metrics such as LIXIL Voice inclusion scores and the ratio of women in senior roles to enable each function to monitor the impact of their D&I initiatives themselves, and take appropriate actions based on these insights. We also published our own ‘Leader’s Guide to Advancing D&I at LIXIL’ that shares more practical case studies. This guide, which was designed to promote effective D&I, was developed based on external studies and incorporates internal case studies and feedback.

A total of 125 workshops on how to use the guide were held worldwide in FYE2024 and attended by approximately 6,000 managers, which equates to 86% of total managers. In each workshop, business or function leaders would act as a facilitator and share their own experiences and thoughts on how to use the guide. Participants learned about the importance of D&I, how to apply D&I in practice, and reflect on D&I principles in their daily actions. The workshops used real-life case studies on how to ensure psychological safety, followed by team discussions. Such efforts resulted in an increase of our score on the psychological safety question in the FYE2024 LIXIL Voice employee opinion survey, with a one-point improvement over the previous year.

LIXIL Voice Score on Psychological Safety

Leader’s Guide to Advancing D&I at LIXIL

Internal Tools to Raise Awareness

In October 2023, during Global Diversity Awareness Month, we shared an infographic that illustrated LIXIL's commitment to D&I. It showed that LIXIL respects the diversity of all employees and that clear targets and metrics have been set to create a work environment where everyone can maximize their abilities. The infographic also highlighted our dedication to ensuring equal opportunities for everyone through reforming human resources systems and providing training programs, how our inclusive culture fosters innovation, and the external recognitions we have received.

Infographic showing LIXIL’s commitment to D&I

Employee Resource Groups (ERGs)

LIXIL has established frameworks to strengthen employee-driven activities and build an inclusive working environment. To help coordinate individual regional efforts and create organizational change through these activities, in FYE2022, we set up five global ERGs focusing specifically on a diversity dimension: Better Together (Gender Equity), Multicultural, Ability, Working Parents & Caregivers, and LGBTQ+. An executive officer is assigned to each ERG to serve as an executive sponsor who ensures all ERG activities closely align with overall company policy and to reflect the feedback received through these activities in our systems, products, and services, thereby accelerating our efforts to realize an inclusive work environment and society.

Five ERGs

ERG Activities

ERG activities are led by steering members for each region and each theme. Information and event announcements relating to the theme are actively shared in each group on our internal social media, and employees are able to join all groups in all regions.

October is designated worldwide as Global Diversity Awareness Month and ERGs hold events that any employee can attend. Twelve events were held in FYE2024, including a session on fostering allyship by the LGBTQ+ ERG and a discussion on cross-cultural communication hosted by the Multicultural ERG. We also created a video relaying messages from the steering members of each region and worked together to promote ERG activities.

ERG event calendar for Global Diversity Awareness Month

In Japan, we are trialing a real-time subtitling system as part of our ERG activities. This innovative system provides instant captions of spoken words, enabling employees with hearing difficulties to fully participate in meetings. It also assists non-native Japanese speakers in understanding the language more easily.

The feedback we have received through these ERG activities is also being reflected in product and service development. At the LIXIL Online Showroom, we have begun providing a speech-to-text service using an app powered by AI voice recognition, and are further expanding services that provide peace of mind to those who have difficulty hearing.

Learn more about testing new technology to help create comfortable workplaces for employees with hearing difficulties (Japanese only, a new page will open) >
Learn more about our Online Showroom speech-to-text service (Japanese only, a new page will open) >

#InspireInclusion at LIXIL

LIXIL has been holding events to support International Women’s Day around the world since 2021. In keeping with the #InspireInclusion campaign theme for International Women’s Day 2024, LIXIL illustrated that taking action to promote inclusion is essential for creating equitable working environments, and how important those environments are for empowering employees and inspiring customer-oriented innovation. On March 8, the actual International Women’s Day, external speakers were invited to give lectures, and the Better Together ERG, which promotes gender equity, held participatory events for employees in each region. The sharing of relevant photos and declared actions on our internal social media proved a great opportunity for recognizing the importance of promoting D&I in our daily actions.

Empowering Women

LIXIL has declared its commitment to achieve company-wide gender equity by 2030 and has set targets and measures and introduced initiatives to increase the ratio of women in management positions in each corporate function and business division, and the ratio of women by job grade, etc.

Learn more about our Key Metrics: Targets and Progress >

We have also incorporated a D&I perspective into our People & Organizational Development (POD) process that formulates succession plans for key positions by identifying promising female talent across the company. As a result, female employees constituted 30.5% of the candidates selected as potential successors for key positions in the March 2024 review.

Learn more about Talent Development: Identifying and Developing High Potential Talent >

Number and Percentage of Female Managers

One POD follow-up measure involves the implementation of the Female Talent Outreach Programs that seek to improve leadership skills among our select female employees. The objective of this program is to encourage promising female employees to share their career perspectives in face-to-face sessions with management in order to deepen management’s understanding of female employees and help inspire better organizational development. The program also seeks to encourage the advancement and career development of participating female employees by providing more opportunities for networking, improving skills, and developing careers. In FYE2024, 54 female employees participated in the program in Japan, and the program is expected to be introduced globally in the future.

The Female Talent Outreach Program in action

Furthermore, in Japan, LIXIL has formulated a General Employer Action Plan based on Japan’s Act on the Promotion of Women’s Participation and Advancement in the Workplace that involves promoting recruitment measures, building working environments that empower women and reforming human resources systems to ensure equal opportunities and equitable treatment for men and women.

General Employer Action Plan (Japanese only, a new page will open) PDF: 253KB >
Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare: Database of Companies Promoting Women’s Participation and Advancement in the Workplace (Japanese only, a new page will open) >
Learn more about reforming our human resources systems >

On the recruitment front, we are working toward our goal of hiring an equal ratio of male and female new graduates. To achieve this aim, we speak at external events for female students, hold one-day events to learn about how female engineers within the company conduct their work and view their careers, strengthen targeted recruitment advertising, and approach female talent through direct scouting.

We are also working to develop high-potential female employees through NEXT, a selective next generation human resources development program that we are developing to further promote employee growth.

Learn more about NEXT Programs: Developing Next Generation Leaders >

Ratio of female new graduate recruitment

As a result of these initiatives, the inclusion score among female employees of LIXIL Corporation and its subsidiaries in Japan is rising each year.

Inclusion Score among Female Employees in Japan

Supporting Active Participation of Employees with Disabilities

LIXIL seeks to create an environment in which employees with disabilities can better perform and enjoy their work by tailoring jobs to suit each individual’s skills in a wide range of areas including R&D, production, sales administration, and planning management. As of June 1, 2023, LIXIL Corporation had 309 employees with disabilities in Japan, constituting 2.45%* of the total workforce.

Our LIXIL NIJI office that focuses on the employment of people with disabilities marks its 10th anniversary in July 2024. In addition to supporting employees with different disabilities to perform their work assignments, conducting career aptitude evaluations, and offering job development opportunities, LIXIL NIJI has been undertaking many initiatives to explore the type of environments that would enable employees with and without disabilities to work together most effectively. We strive to create a comfortable working environment based on barrier-free concepts by, for example, introducing software that increases the font size for people with visual impairment and adjustable-height desks for wheelchair users.

LIXIL is also strengthening efforts at each of its sites in Japan, including introducing sign language interpretation in training sessions and putting subtitles on videos for employees with hearing difficulties. We have been making various efforts and considerations to improve job assignments and working environments to suit the characteristics of individual employees. For instance, for people who are prone to anxiety, we ask their colleagues to clearly define their duties and promote active communication. For employees who get distracted by other people, we either leave an empty desk in front of them or allow them to work in a free space.

LIXIL aims to share these initiatives with other companies and government agencies as part of its aim to help create a society in which people with disabilities can play an active role.

* Calculated based on the Employment Rate System for Persons with Disabilities by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

Learn more about NIJI office for the employment of people with disabilities (Japanese only, a new page will open) PDF: 270KB >

Respecting Sexual and Gender Diversity

LIXIL is creating an LGBTQ+ friendly environment.

In Japan, we are treating same-sex partners in the same manner as married spouses and applying the relevant congratulation or condolence leave and financial payments, arranging times and locations for undergoing health checks, and recognizing employees’ preferences for either male or female uniforms.

We are also promoting internal activities to expand understanding and support. Employees are encouraged to watch a series of online lectures relating to sexual and gender diversity. They are also invited to be allies who understand and support LGBTQ+ colleagues through study sessions and workshops. Ally badges and stickers are distributed to employees who register as allies.

Promoting Flexible and Diverse Working Styles

We are working to improve our systems and working environments to promote diverse working styles that enable employees to flexibly choose where and when they want to work and to build their own careers. We emphasize the creation of working styles that produce high levels of output in an efficient manner. These system and work environment improvements are designed to reduce long working hours and improve productivity by striking a healthy work-life balance.

Major LIXIL Corporation Systems and Measures

System/Measure	Eligible Employees	Overview
Remote work system^*1	Regular, part-time and contract employees	Enables employees to decide for themselves where they work. Seeks to improve labor productivity, enhance work-life balance, and facilitate seamless work patterns during natural disasters or pandemics (Remote work system includes working from home arrangements within a reasonable commuting distance to the office)
Flexible work system	Regular employees at head office, function management offices, sales divisions, indirect factory divisions	Enables employees to decide when they start and finish their workday between the hours of 5 am and 10 pm according to individual needs. *No compulsory core hours
Touchdown office space	Regular, part-time and contract employees	Facilitates the temporary use of external shared office services to reduce time lost when changing locations and improve work efficiency when out of the office or on a business trip.
Side job system	Regular employees, and contract employees (excluding employees on temporary leave or employees working shorter hours)^*2	The following two systems are used to support flexible working and employment and encourage employees to build their own careers. A system that enables employees to take side jobs outside the company A system that allows employees to devote 20% of their work time to side jobs within the company

*1 In FYE2022, LIXIL Corporation created clear definitions for “commuter employees” and “work-from-home employees” depending on the number of days those employees needed to come into the office. Commuter employees, who are defined as those employees who come to the office at least four days a week, are paid a commuting allowance. Work-from-home employees, who are defined as those employees who come to the office up to three days a week, are paid a work-from-home allowance.

*2 Includes contract and part-time employees.

Supporting a Healthy Work-Life Balance

We are working to expand systems and create a corporate culture that supports a healthy balance between work, childcare, nursing care, medical care and other commitments so that employees can continue to maximize their full potential through various stages in their lives.

In Japan, we are implementing various measures to achieve a 100%* rate for paternity leave among male employees by 2025. We share relevant information on the 19th day of each month which is the designated day for promoting better understanding of childcare leave. We are also working to promote awareness and understanding of male childcare leave. In FYE2024, we actively promoted this by setting up an advice desk and encouraging eligible male employees to take childcare leave.

* Only for directly hired employees. Encompasses LIXIL Corporation’s Papa’s Childcare Leave (Spouse Birth or Childcare Leave) system.

LIXIL Corporation’s Major Systems

System		Eligible Employees	Eligible Period	Overview
Childcare related systems	Childcare Leave	Regular, contract and part-time employees	Until the child turns 3 years of age (unpaid)	In addition to statutory leave granted in Japan（until a child reaches the age of one or two in some cases). LIXIL Corporation has introduced the following initiatives that exceed the statutory requirements. 1. Able to extend the eligible period of leave until the child reaches three years of age 2. Can be taken in up to two installments 3. Even employees who have worked for less than one year at the company can also take this leave
	Shorter Working Hours system		Until the child completes the sixth grade of elementary school (unpaid)	Possible to shorten working hours than the defined standard working hours in a day in the following way. Until the child reaches three years of age: Up to four hours a day Until the child reaches the sixth grade of elementary school: Up to two hours a day
	Adjusting work start and end times		During pregnancy or until the child completes the sixth grade of elementary school	Work start and end times can be adjusted by 30 minutes or one hour for pregnancy or childcare reasons.
	Short-term Childcare Leave		10 days a year (paid)	Employees who care for children who have not yet entered elementary school can take this leave in order to care for an injured or sick child, attend vaccination clinics or medical examinations.
	Papa’s Childcare Leave (Spouse Birth or Childcare Leave)		10 days (paid)	This leave can be taken by male employees until the child reaches one year of age.
	Support for childcare services and related expenses	Depends on the system	―	Babysitter Discount Coupon(Japan Cabinet Office) 2x 2,200 JPY discount vouchers can be used per child (up to 24 coupons per month per family) Cafeteria plan 12,000 points given to all employees* annually for the use of the childcare service, etc. Financial support for extended childcare fees Up to 5,000 JPY per child per month Financial support for non-registered childcare facilities use Up to 30,000 JPY per month based on the following calculation:(monthly fee for non-registered nursery school – monthly fee for unavailable registered nursery school) x 50% Company-initiated childcare partnerships A partnership agreement with the relevant childcare facility if conditions are met. Early Return to Work Support Allowance system A maximum of 600,000 JPY depending on the period from the date of childbirth to the date of return to work.
Nursing care-related systems	Nursing Care Leave	Regular, contract and part-time employees	Two years in total (unpaid)	In addition to statutory leave granted in Japan (93 days), LIXIL Corporation has introduced the following initiatives that exceed the statutory requirements. A total of one year of leave can be taken per eligible family member (up to two years if you include the possible extension).
	Short-term Family Care Leave		10 days a year (paid)	Can be taken to care for family members requiring nursing care.
	Shorter Working Hours system		Up to three years from the start date (unpaid)	It is possible to shorten working hours by up to two hours than the defined standard working hours in a day.
	Adjusting work start and end times		One month or more, up to three years (Up to three years within the first three years from the start date)	Work start and end times can be adjusted by 30 minutes or one hour for the reason of caring for a family member who requires nursing care.
Various Leave Systems	Annual Paid Leave		Up to 20 days a year (paid)	Granted according to the number of years of service and the attendance rate in the previous year. Can be taken in one-day, half-day or hourly increments.
	Relaxation Leave		Up to five days (paid)	Employees who have been granted 10 or more days of paid annual leave in the current year are encouraged to take up to five consecutive days of their annual paid leave for the purpose of refreshing their minds and bodies, engaging in self-improvement, or spending time with their families.
	Memorial Leave		Up to two days (paid)	Employees who have been granted 10 or more days of paid annual leave in the current year are encouraged to take up to two consecutive days of their annual paid leave to celebrate anniversaries and other significant days for themselves and their families.
	Self-Care Leave		Up to 12 days a year (paid)	Can be taken when feeling unwell during menstruation or pregnancy, to attend medical appointments for fertility treatment or to alleviate menopausal symptoms as well as when follow-up hospital visits are required due to the results of health checkups conducted by the company (including comprehensive medical checkups that require further examination).
	Leave of Absence for Fertility Treatment	Regular employees	Up to 18 months (unpaid)	Designed to support diverse life choices, ensure a healthy work-life balance and achieve D&I. The period of permitted leave under this system depends on length of service.
Other systems	Career Return system	Regular employees	―	Employees under the age of 65 years will be given the opportunity to return to work if they were employed for a period of three years or more before retiring for one of the following reasons. Reason for retirement: Childbirth Childcare Fertility treatment Nursing care Marriage Relocation due to job transfer of spouse
Other systems	Shorter Working Hours system	Regular, contract and part-time employees	Number of days deemed necessary by the company	It is possible to work fewer hours than the defined standard working hours in a day for any of the following applicable reasons or with the company’s approval. Nursing care Childcare Return to work after sick leave Regular employees who are 60 years old and above

*Regular employees and contract employees of LIXIL Corporation and its subsidiaries.

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