With employees

The NIKKON Group engages in business activities by maintaining a compliance system with a strong sense of ethics to respect human rights and increase our value to society.

1. Develop a compliance structure and promote compliance by positioning compliance as the top management priority and strive to maintain and improve the effectiveness of the structure used by our corporate group.
2. Fulfill our duties as a member of society by instilling compliance in our workforce and practicing compliance within the operating companies, and carry out business activities aiming to be trusted by all stakeholders.
3. Engage in corporate activities by respecting the human rights of individuals, without infringing on human rights through acts such as the unequal or discriminatory treatment of individuals.
4. Create a structure for transactions that enables mutual trust to be developed through every transaction and which ensures fair, unrestricted transactions.
5. Do not engage with antisocial forces which threaten the safety of civil society, such as organized crime groups, and do not have any relationships with them.

NIKKON Holdings Co., Ltd. has established the Compliance Committee to enhance its compliance-related measures and functions and the Risk Management Committee to manage the entire Group's risks appropriately and establish frameworks for risk management under the Risk Management Rules, in its efforts to ensure the soundness and appropriateness of the operations of the entire Group. The Legal Affairs Department is in charge of overseeing compliance matters, and a Compliance Leader is appointed at each Group company.
In addition, an internal control system has been established to ensure that operations are law-abiding and appropriate and that decision-making processes are transparent, fair and prompt. The Group Business Audit Office has been established to maintain and operate the system appropriately. Through business audits and internal control audits by the Group Business Audit Office, we promptly share information and make improvements. We are working hard together with all of our employees to accelerate measures to prevent the materialization of the risks faced by the entire Group to prevent compliance issues.

We distribute the Compliance Handbook created by the Compliance Committee to all employees including directors, auditors, part-time employees, and temporary workers, to increase their awareness of compliance. We revise the contents of the handbook every year. We are also particularly committed to harassment training, which we provide using the Harassment Handbook, videos and other training materials.

The NIKKON Group holds the QC Group Competition. It is an opportunity for QC circles to display their achievements from their activities. A total of 14 teams from eight companies in Japan and six companies in other countries participate in the competition. The teams are selected through preliminary competitions at each company. Held globally with participants from all over the world, the goal of this event is to increase the activities of QC circles and increase awareness of the Group's unity and improvement activities. The NIKKON Group will continue its small-group improvement activities, aiming to improve safety, quality, efficiency, and the environment.
The QC Group Global Competition has been held four times. In fiscal 2021, we held it remotely by distributing presentation videos.

This school was established to develop the next generation of NIKKON Group business leaders. The school trains young directors in their 40s to 50s from the NIKKON Group's operating companies. At the school, trainees analyze one specific Group company from various angles, identify current issues that should be addressed to improve and stabilize business performance, select themes to envision what it should be, and formulate a new strategy through discussion.

Intended for employees of the NIKKON Group, this program solicits employees to be overseas trainees. Toward the overseas expansion of the NIKKON Group's businesses, this program sends employees to Group companies outside Japan, where they experience overseas operations, acquire expertise in these operations, and experience different cultures, aiming to develop human resources that will be the future leaders of our business locations outside Japan.

At the NIKKON Group, we take initiatives to retain female employees and expand opportunities for their active participation in the workplace. These include the promotion of a healthy work-life balance and the creation of an environment where employees are able to raise children or provide nursing care while continuing to work. The following are initiatives taken by the NIKKON Group's operating companies in accordance with the Act on the Promotion of Female Participation and Career Advancement in the Workplace.

ITO-EXPRESS.CO.,LTD

In its plan of action for general employers (April 1, 2021 to March 31, 2023), the company clarified its intent to increase the percentage of employees that are women to 20%. To achieve this target, the company is working on initiatives including (1) building an environment which facilitates the taking of maternity leave, (2) promoting women to senior positions, and (3) establishing the category of area-specific career-track employees (with no transfer to other areas).
In recognition of these initiatives, ITO-EXPRESS was certified by the Aichi prefectural government's program certifying companies and other organizations which are proactive in their initiatives to promote the active participation of women (Aichi Josei Kagayaki Company certification program).

NIPPON UNYU CO., LTD.

The company has set a five-year target relating to the employment of women of increasing the percentage of employees that are women to 22%. In its recruitment activities, the company introduces examples of actively participating women. The company also checks its business inventory at each branch and proactively encourages women to participate in management development training while assigning women to appropriate positions.

NIPPON KONPO UNYU SOKO CO., LTD.

The percentage of employees that are men tends to be high in cargo handling and packing operations and forklift operations in warehouses and workshops. In recent years, however, the percentage of women has increased, with female forklift instructors working internally. There are also women who perform brilliantly in the national forklift competition and the national driver contest. Women from the company are active both internally and externally.

The NIKKON Group proactively employs foreign technical interns. At NIPPON KONPO UNYU SOKO CO., LTD., NIPPON UNYU CO., LTD., and NikkonKyusyu Co., Ltd., 67 interns from Indonesia and 9 from Vietnam are receiving training. (As of December 31, 2021)

We create opportunities for employees of NIKKON Group companies outside Japan to learn driving skills at the operating companies inside Japan (currently suspended). Leveraging the foreign technical intern program, we invited three employees from Thailand who are tractor-trailer drivers. They learned driving skills at NIPPON KONPO UNYU SOKO CO., LTD. for ten months. They use the skills they learned as instructors training drivers in Thailand.

The NIKKON Group has established a program hiring area-specific career-track employees with the goal of enabling community-based business activities, creating management-level positions which permit workstyles that are appropriate for the characteristics of each area, and forming a foundation as a company welcomed by local communities. Area-specific career-track employees have a wide range of duties. They experience an array of jobs at business sites and departments in limited areas and then engage in core operations, including the operation of business sites, budgeting, the management of budgets and the sales and profit results at business sites. They play an important role linking operations scattered across the country and passing their knowledge on to the next generation.

NIPPON KONPO UNYU SOKO CO., LTD., a core operating company, was established in 2014 and operates an internal day-care center for children at a family dormitory in Sayama City, Saitama. There are many children on day care waiting lists mainly in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area, preventing mothers who want to work from doing so. The company is a response to this need and is promoting the employment of women as drivers able to work in the Sayama area, where it has many business sites.

N Logi, a consolidated cargo service provided by NIPPON KONPO UNYU SOKO CO., LTD., is a service transporting cargo with special characteristics that other consolidated cargo service providers are not good at transporting, such as cargo that is long, large or heavy, unpackaged goods, and goods in small lots. This service is provided using the company's nationwide consolidated cargo transportation network, which the company has built through its consolidated transportation of automotive parts and other goods.
In N Logi trunk transport, 21-meter full-trailer trucks are used in a relay transportation system, enabling drivers to return on the same day. The goal is to reduce drivers' work hours and environmental impact. The company is proactively introducing automatic hybrid vehicles for pickup and delivery to reduce environmental impact and create a comfortable working environment for women and aged employees.

Many of the NIKKON Group's operating companies support the White Logistics Movement promoted by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. The movement's goal is to contribute to economic growth through the securing of stable logistics services that are necessary for people's lives and industrial activities in response to the serious shortage of truck drivers. We strive to improve the productivity and efficiency of our logistics services and develop a work environment where women and aged workers can work comfortably.

The NIKKON Group is working group-wide to improve the safety and efficiency of operations through systematization and automation.

Introduction of Shelf-Moving Robots

The robots use AI to automatically calculate the movement of frequently used shelves to areas in the warehouse that are close to work stations. They replace frequently warehoused and picked products in real time, enabling highly efficient warehousing operations.

Benefits

Labor-reducing robots: Reduce the amount of labor hours required by approx. 30%

They increase the area where lights are not needed, reducing power consumption by 22%.

Introduction of shuttle racks

NIPPON KONPO (THAILAND) CO., LTD.'s Laem Chabang warehouse in Thailand

Shuttle racks are a storage system featuring dollies which travel in racks with rails for storing and delivering palettes. The number of dollies installed is determined by processing capacity. Dollies can be moved by using a forklift. This system is appropriate for storing products with a large quantity of inventory per lot. The system is capable of supporting first-in-first-out and first-in-last-out procedures.

Benefits

High storage efficiency enabled by the high-density installation of racks

Reduction of forklift operators needed for operations

Our Group companies have established their own safety and health regulations, and following these regulations they strive to ensure the good health of their employees and create comfortable workplace environments. They also provide employees with training on health and stress management to maintain good health.

The NIKKON Group believes in the importance of the prevention, early diagnosis and early treatment of diseases in the management of our drivers health and it is engaged in an array of initiatives accordingly. Dispatchers responsible for promoting these initiatives play an important role in ensuring safe transportation. They are trained to manage the health of drivers through roll call and other opportunities. In addition, health management prevents accidents while driving, while also protecting the comfortable everyday lives of drivers and their families.
Examples of our initiatives include a test for sleep apnea syndrome (SAS) and MRI tests for drivers, which we conduct in addition to the statutory medical examination. From the viewpoint of preventing accidents caused by health problems, we are proactively introducing screening tests which effectively detect brain disorders at an early stage. At NIPPON KONPO UNYU SOKO CO., LTD. and CHUETSUTEC Co, Ltd, approx. 600 drivers received MRI tests in fiscal 2020. Among the drivers who were tested, the people who had abnormal test results were promptly retested to enable treatment. We also participate in the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's model project related to the promotion of brain checkups, in which we are striving to prevent accidents caused by health problems throughout the industry through a 3-year follow-up survey and questionnaire.

Within the NIKKON Group, companies bear part of the cost of influenza vaccinations.
In addition, in 2021, NIPPON KONPO UNYU SOKO CO., LTD. enabled approx. 1,500 people including employees of Group companies working and living in the suburbs of Saitama, their families, and employees of subcontractors to receive COVID-19 vaccine through the workplace vaccination program, reducing the risk of employees becoming infected and preventing clusters of infections. We will continue to enhance prevention efforts to ensure the safety of our employees and other related people and enable them to continue living secure lives.