Japanese Companies Get Serious About Workplace DEI

Japanese businesses are stepping up efforts to promote “human capital management,” responding to government calls to regard human resources as capital and maximize their value in order to enhance medium- to long-term corporate value.

A key focus is diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI), which aims to create workplace environments in which people can thrive regardless of gender, race or disability. Across the business community, companies are starting to take such initiatives more seriously.

In late January, human resources personnel from about 50 Japanese companies gathered at the Tokyo office of law firm Nishimura & Asahi. There, they took part in a workshop while wearing goggles, masks, mittens, headphones and other items designed to simulate various disabilities.

The workshop was part of joint research on DEI training for companies launched by Heralbony, a Morioka, Iwate Prefecture-based company engaged in intellectual property businesses involving artworks by people with disabilities, and Natsuki Hosoya, an attorney at Nishimura & Asahi.

Participants played a card game developed by Heralbony, taking on roles of people with various disabilities, such as those who are unable to speak, have difficulty seeing or cannot use their hands. The exercise allowed them to gain firsthand experience of the challenges of playing under rules intended for nondisabled people. Afterward, they discussed and revised the rules before playing the game again.

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Hosoya of Nishimura & Asahi pointed to a common challenge in corporate DEI initiatives. Many Japanese companies, she noted, “divide efforts among different departments — for example, the advancement of women, employment of people with disabilities, and responses to LGBTQ+ sexual minorities — with training conducted independently for each.”

She urged companies to “build more comprehensive initiatives while recognizing that multiple factors, including gender, sexual orientation, nationality, and the presence or absence of disabilities, interact with each another.”