Promoting Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)

Initiatives

In a rapidly changing business environment, the JFE Group believes that the fusion of various values and ways of thinking will lead to the creation of unprecedented ideas and solutions, which ultimately results in sustainably enhancing corporate value. For this reason, the Group has positioned the promotion of DEI as a key management concern. It has established a DEI promotion department in each of its operating companies to steadfastly advance initiatives such as creating an environment where each employee’s diverse experiences, abilities, and individuality can be utilized. In addition, management and the promotion organization are working together to formulate and implement companywide policies, including the establishment of a DEI promotion committee headed by the president. Initiatives are being strategically advanced to particularly encourage the active participation of women. These efforts include recruitment measures to increase the number of candidates for female management positions, and retention measures through the enhancement of internal and external networking and the presentation of role models, as well as placement and development measures through the creation of individual training plans for female employees.

ST Accelerating and Strengthening Diversity Promotion

JFE Steel fosters a workplace culture in which diverse human resources can play an active role across a variety of fields, through such initiatives as management and supervisor training and activities for raising awareness through Diversity Month. Furthermore, directors and general managers strive to accelerate and strengthen the promotion of diversity by setting diversity targets and exercising leadership in their own divisions.


To promote women’s advancement, the company provides career training for female employees and their supervisors, actively sends them to external training, and has started to hold online career networking events to connect the entire company and women’s health seminars based on the voices of female employees. For female employees engaged in shift work, health seminars by occupational health nurses are provided to facilitate adaptation to shift work, and the human resources department periodically conducts follow-up interviews. For employees experiencing life events such as pregnancy or childbirth, interviews on work-life balance are offered, during which employees can discuss the future of their careers with their supervisor as well as the human resources department. A detailed support system has been established for employees to continue to play an active long-term role while balancing work and childcare. As part of helping employees balance work with childcare and nursing care, the company disseminates joint labor-management messages that encourage male employees to take childcare leave. It also holds seminars to assist employees with balancing work and nursing care. Through these initiatives, it has supported employees through various stages of life while establishing a workplace where they can feel work engagement.


Additionally, the company changed the name of the promotion department to the DEI Promotion Office in FY2024, and it has bolstered its activities as a means of confirming its commitment to diversity from the perspective of equity while also raising the level of understanding of its activities.

EN Promoting Awareness-Raising Activities within the Company

JFE Engineering engages in activities for reforming its corporate mindset, including lectures for executives, diversity seminars for managers, e-learning programs for all employees and the annual Diversity Month.


For female employees, the company supports career development by providing opportunities for external training and networking events. To help employees balance work with childcare and nursing care, workshops are held for those returning from childcare leave, and training sessions are conducted for supervisors on childcare and nursing care. Through these initiatives, we are striving to create a workplace where employees facing life events can also thrive.


The company accepts 36 locally hired employees of overseas Group companies to provide on-the-job training. We also strive to create an environment where workers can spend their time in Japan with a sense of security, by offering information through a portal site and providing Japanese language classes. Every year in Japan, the company actively hires around 100 mid-career recruits possessing diverse characteristics and values, such as those with experience in other industries.

SH Initiatives to Raise Awareness within the Company

JFE Shoji promotes companywide awareness by periodically conducting diversity seminars for the management team, diversity management seminars targeting managers including those at Group companies, and e-learning for all employees, as well as Diversity Month (every November). In addition, the Diversity Promotion Committee, comprising the management team, was established to share overall policies and develop and implement departmental plans. It also supports the career development of female employees by building networks through roundtable discussions with senior employees and actively dispatching them to external training programs and activities.


The company organizes information exchange meetings for employees on maternity leave and follow-up seminars after they return to work to ensure that women can continue working after childbirth or periods of childcare or nursing care. As part of efforts to encourage male employees to participate in childcare, in addition to explaining the system during rank-based training, explanations are provided to eligible employees and their supervisors.

Promoting Women’s Professional Development

The JFE Group is implementing a broad range of initiatives to promote women’s advancement, including active recruitment, planned development and appointment of women to management positions, enhanced childcare-support programs that significantly exceed statutory requirements, and development of training and awareness-raising activities. The initiatives and issues faced by each company are shared among operating companies. They are also discussed at the Board of Directors’ and other meetings in an ongoing effort to promote the initiatives. In recognition of its efforts to encourage the empowerment of women, JFE Holdings has been selected three times as a Nadeshiko Brand* since FY2013.

  • *A joint project of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Tokyo Stock Exchange. One company per industry is selected from among those listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange and announced as a company that is actively promoting the careers of female employees, including improvements to environments where women can continue to work.

Formulation of an Action plan for Promoting Women’s Professional Development

The Act on Promotion of Women’s Participation and Advancement in the Workplace went into effect on April 1, 2016.


The JFE Group has designated the promotion of workforce diversity as a key management strategy for maximizing the potential of every employee and has been actively hiring and supporting the advancement of female employees.


We formulated the following action plan in accordance with the Act to establish a working environment that encourages female employees to demonstrate their abilities and create satisfying workplaces for all employees.

  • Action Plan Period

    Period of five years starting on April 1, 2021 and ending on March 31, 2026

  • Target of the Action Plan

    We have set a common goal for the JFE Group to increase the ratio of women in managerial positions above the section manager level to at least 10% by 2030 (of which at least 20% are in administration and the sales divisions). Under this goal, we will actively promote the appointment of women to managerial positions. As of April 2025, the ratio of women in managerial positions is 4.3% (of which 8.0% are in administration and the sales divisions) total for operating companies.

  • Action Plan for Each Operation Company

Company Policy Explained by the President

The president of JFE Holdings has endorsed the Declaration on Action that was introduced by a group of male leaders in Japan who intend to create “A Society in which Women Shine” with the support of the government’s Gender Equality Bureau Cabinet Office. He also announced additional measures to support the professional development of female personnel, thereby communicating both inside and outside the company that women can play active roles at JFE.


For more information, please refer to:

Promotion of Childcare Leave for Male Employees

We believe that creating an environment where male employees can more easily take childcare leave will make it possible for both male and female employees to balance work and childcare, enabling diverse employees to fully demonstrate their vitality and strengths. Each operating company is promoting childcare leave for male employees through such efforts as holding seminars on childcare leave, encouraging supervisors to recommend taking the leave, and internally sharing best practices.

Employment of People with Disabilities

The JFE Group has three special subsidiaries, JFE Apple East Corporation, JFE Apple West Corporation and Mie Data Craft Co., Ltd., to employ people with disabilities and create enjoyable workplace environments for them.


For more on the employment of people with disabilities, please refer to:

Programs for Employees Over 60 Years Old

To ensure that the skills and experience of veteran employees are handed down, JFE Group companies have either raised the mandatory retirement age to 65 or introduced a system that enables all employees to work until the age of 65.


As of the end of March 2025, 973 veteran employees (about 5% of the total) are working at JFE Steel, JFE Engineering, and JFE Shoji.

ST Passing on Techniques and Skills and Promoting Human Resource Development

JFE Steel raised its mandatory retirement age to 65 in April 2021 to increase the motivation of veteran employees in their work, pass on their techniques and skills, and steadily promote human resource development. While we used to rehire anyone who wished to continue working after reaching the age of 60, we recently established a personnel and wage system to cover all employees up to the age of 65.

EN Maintaining and Strengthening Competitiveness and Passing on Skills

JFE Engineering regards veteran employees as highly specialized experts in business and technical fields and expects them to play roles in maintaining and strengthening competitiveness while passing on their skills to the next generation of workers. To encourage their further success, we raised the retirement age to 65 in fiscal 2023.

SH Realizing Flexible Workstyles

JFE Shoji is mindful of creating an environment that allows veteran employees over 60 to continue working with high motivation, while also seeking to realize flexible workstyles and develop a healthy working environment. Employees may choose from a variety of working arrangements, including full-time employment, shortened workweeks, and shortened daily work hours in accordance with their lifestyles.

Respect for Sexual Minorities (LGBTQ)

The JFE Group is creating a workplace that does not discriminate on the basis of gender, sexual orientation or gender identity by conducting internal human rights seminars and position-specific training programs . LGBTQ concerns have also been incorporated into the Group’s compliance guidebook, which is distributed to all employees and used as a common reference during the annual Compliance Month of October toward nurturing greater understanding. JFE Steel has revised its benefit program to extend coverage to same-sex or de facto partners from FY2022 and holds program briefings and educational training sessions. At JFE Engineering, e-learning programs are offered to all employees, and seminars are held mainly for personnel in human resources. Seminars are conducted at JFE Shoji for management, including executives, and e-learning programs are offered to all employees to promote understanding.

Securing Diverse Human Resources

Recruitment Results for University Graduates (FY2025) and Mid-career Hires (FY2024)
1,080 employees (total of three operating companies)
Women in career-track positions 21.9% (128 out of 590)
Women in administrative career-track positions 38.5% (94 out of 244)
Mid-career hires 39.7% (429 out of 1,080)
Career-track employees hired mid-career 39.5% (233 out of 590)
Operational employees hired mid-career 40.0% (196 out of 490)

To ensure sustainable growth, the JFE Group is diversifying its recruitment sources to reliably secure talent and is actively hiring diverse personnel, including women, foreign nationals, and mid-career recruits.


In addition, it has a broad overseas presence and hires employees locally, thereby contributing to communities with employment opportunities.


Recruitment Results (Three Operating Companies) for University Graduates (FY2025) and Mid-Career Recruits (FY2024)
Category Career-Track Positions Operational Positions Total
Administrative Technical Total
Male 150 311 461 469 930
Female 94 35 129 21 150
Total 244 346 590 490 1,080
Ratio of women (%) 38.5 10.1 21.9 4.3 13.9

For more on employees, please refer to: