Background

The share of the global population at ages 65 and above is projected to rise from 10% in 2022 to 16% in 2050.^*1

The global workforce participation rate for women is still just under 47% (compared to 72% for men), and it is estimated that in over half of the countries the percentage of women engaged in informal employment exceeds that of men. Compared to formal employment, informal work offers fewer opportunities for promotions, wage increases, and is a cause of lower female management ratios and gender pay gaps. According to a 2022 report^*2 from the International Labour Organization (ILO), women’s pay around the world is on average 20% lower than that of men’s.

Furthermore, approximately 15% of the world’s population today also live with some degree of disability,^*3 and this rate is increasing every year. There are 11.6 million people^*4 in Japan who have disabilities, and while widespread compliance with the employment quota system for persons with disabilities has led to record-high employment (642,178 people as of 2023, a 4.6% increase over the previous year)^*5, opportunities are still limited.

To achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Target 8.5, “By 2030, achieve full and productive employment and decent work for all women and men, including for young people and persons with disabilities, and equal pay for work of equal value,” it requires creating a sustainable society where everyone, including the elderly, women, and people with disabilities, is able to thrive utilizing their abilities and individuality, and can lead a healthy and comfortable life.

*1 World Population Prospects 2022: Summary of Results (United Nations) (A new page will open) >

*2 Pay transparency legislation: Implications for employers’ and workers’ organizations (International Labour Organization) (A new page will open) >

*3 ILO (A new page will open) >

*4 Trends of Welfare Administration and Services for the Persons with Disabilities by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (Japanese only, a new page will open) >

*5 Aggregate Results of the Employment Status of Persons with Disabilities for FY2023 by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (Japanese only, a new page will open) >

Our Strategy

LIXIL is committed to providing innovative products and services that meet the diverse needs of customers in order to realize its goal of making better homes a reality for everyone, everywhere. To achieve sustainable growth by ensuring a truly customer-centric approach and realizing innovation that meets diverse needs, we believe it is important to build equitable and inclusive environments that enable a diverse range of employees to demonstrate their true potential. To that aim, we actively promote diversity and inclusion (D&I).

In FYE2018, LIXIL published its D&I Declaration. In FYE2020, we established a global department responsible for developing company-wide measures for promoting D&I. Then, in FYE2021, we established the D&I Committee, which consists of our CEO as chairperson and other executive officers and senior managers from corporate functions and our business divisions. To further promote D&I across our organization, we also conducted a D&I survey of all employees in FYE2021, and used the results to gain a clear grasp of the current situation and any issues and to update our D&I Strategy.

Our D&I Strategy seeks to embed a culture of inclusion across LIXIL and to achieve gender equity by FYE2030. Recognizing the challenges our company faces, such as the gender pay gap and low proportion of female managers, we formulated an action plan to achieve our targets, and we are gradually implementing measures that incorporate D&I perspectives into our HR policies, talent development, and improvement of a work environment.

Our D&I promotion has now shifted from the formulation of company-wide strategies and measures into a new phase of activity led by individual divisions. As such, from FYE2025, we have transformed the D&I Committee into a D&I Council composed of senior managers who participate in lively discussions and promote initiatives based on the latest situation in each of their divisions.

LIXIL’s Global People Strategy focuses on three priority pillars to enhance human capital: embedding inclusion into our DNA, elevating talent across the enterprise, and enhancing the employee experience. These pillars are also closely linked to our D&I Strategy.

Learn more about LIXIL’s Global People Strategy (A new page will open) PDF: 7.8MB>
Learn more about our efforts to establish an inclusive culture >
Learn more about Talent Development >
Learn more about Enhancing Employee Experience >

Our employees are the major driving force behind our value creation. We aim to meet diversifying customer needs by leveraging any innovations generated by employees demonstrating their true potential through these initiatives. We will also promote numerous internal and external collaborations to help ensure everyone can live a healthy and comfortable life regardless of age, gender, or disability.

One such important initiative focuses on helping create an inclusive society through our business by, for instance, developing and providing plumbing products, residential building materials, and services that incorporate universal design (UD) elements which are easy for everyone to use.

We are further engaged in making positive changes in society by not only meeting the needs of end users, but also sharing information on our UD website and LIXIL Public Toilet Lab website, as well as conducting awareness-building activities to promote understanding of people with disabilities, and collaborative research with universities.

Our Governance

LIXIL has set up the Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Council composed of senior managers from corporate functions and our business divisions. The D&I Council reviews various measures based on the D&I Strategy and reports the results of council discussions and deliberations to the Board of Executive Officers via the Impact Strategy Committee on a quarterly basis, enabling any necessary decisions to be made. The Board of Directors also receives biannual progress reports for further discussion and oversight.

Learn more about the governance structure of Impact Strategy >

D&I Governance Structure

Our Targets and Progress

The targets and current progress in relation to KPIs are as follows:

*1 As of March 31.

*2 Directly hired employees only. Excluding those working at consolidated subsidiaries with 100 or fewer employees in Japan.

*3 New graduate and post-graduate hires who joined LIXIL Corporation on April 1, 2024.