Diversity and Inclusion

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 diversity and inclusion as a key management concern. It has established a diversity promotion department in each of its operating companies to steadfastly advance initiatives such as creating an environment where employees with diverse backgrounds, including gender, nationality, values, and different lifestyles, can demonstrate their abilities. In addition, management and the promotion organization are working together to formulate and implement company-wide policies, including the establishment of a diversity promotion committee headed by the president.


We developed even more ambitious KPIs particularly to support the advancement of women, such as number and ratio of women appointed to management positions and the ratio of female hires, starting in FY2022. Every operating company formulates a company-wide policy through discussions with management. 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, it has established a flow of work-life balance support interviews during which employee discusses their future career with their supervisor, as well as the human resources department when they experience life events such as pregnancy or childbirth, and 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 feel motivated to work.


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 diversity seminars for managers, e-learning programs for all employees and the annual Diversity Month. In FY2022, as part of the CSR promotion system*, the Diversity Committee, comprising the management team, was established to deploy company-wide policies and formulate and implement plans for each organization. For female employees, the company supports career development by providing opportunities for external training and networking events. It also accepts around 60 locally hired employees of overseas Group companies at any given time to provide on-the-job training. The company also strives to create an environment in which 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, JFE Engineering actively hires around 70 mid-career recruits possessing diverse characteristics and values, such as those with experience in other industries.

  • *The name was changed to the Sustainability System in FY2023.

SH Initiatives to Raise Awareness within the Company

JFE Shoji promotes company-wide 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 providing a career training program for mid-career female employees together with their supervisors while holding roundtable discussions with senior employees and actively dispatching female employees 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, we hold seminars on male childcare leave and provide explanations to department heads and to the employees.

Promoting Women’s Professional Development

The JFE Group is implementing a broad range of initiatives to promote women’s advancement, including active recruitment, 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.

  • 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, see:

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, see:

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 2024, 938 veteran employees (about 4.9% 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.

JFE Group Creating an Inclusive Workplace

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 curriculums. 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.

Securing Diverse Human Resources

Recruitment Results for University Graduates (FY2024) and Mid-career Recruits (FY2023)
683employees (total of three operating companies)
Women in positions with prospects for promotion 23.2% (104 out of 448)
Women in white-collar positions 37.8% (71 out of 188)
Mid-career and year-round recruits 32.4% (221 out of 683)
Recruits in positions with prospects for promotion 33.0% (148 out of 448)
Recruits in on-site positions at steelworks 31.1% (73 out of 235)

To ensure sustainable growth, the JFE Group steadfastly recruits from a diverse pool of applicants and actively hires women, foreign nationals and mid-career personnel, and recruits year-round.


The Group also operates overseas businesses across a broad range, and its overseas sites hire employees locally, thereby contributing to communities with employment opportunities.

Recruitment Results (Three Operating Companies) for University Graduates (FY2024) and Mid-career Recruits
Category Career-track Positions On-site and Clerical Positions Total
White-collar Technical Total
Male 117 227 344 219 563
Female 71 33 104 16 120
Total 188 260 448 235 683
Ratio of women (%) 37.8 12.7 23.2 6.8 17.6

For more on employees, refer to the following data.