Press Release

Press Release

November 9, 2017

NSK Ltd.
CSR Division Headquarters
Public Relations Department

NSK initiatives to create a dynamic and inclusive workplace

Announcing new systems and educational programs

NSK Ltd. (NSK; Headquarters: Tokyo, Japan; President and CEO: Toshihiro Uchiyama) has been actively implementing initiatives to bring out employee potential, and create a positive, inclusive work environment that enables each and every employee to thrive in their individual context. Detailed below are a selection of these initiatives, including caregiving seminars, national holiday childcare services, and education and training to reform and promote diversity and inclusion.

Caregiving Initiatives

1. Caregiving Seminars
Overview With the aim of reducing the number of employees who quit their job to care for elderly relatives, we will be regularly holding two kinds of seminars. First, seminars for general employees to teach the basics of caregiving for the elderly. Second, seminars for manager-level employees will cover the fundamentals of how to support employees who need to care for their elderly relatives.
Target NSK and subsidiary company employees age 40 and older. (Participants: 3,000 in FY2017 and 3,500 in FY2018)
2. New system enabling employees to balance both caregiving and work
Overview One employee per family can now take up to 186 days of caregiving leave. Also, in special circumstances requiring extensive care, up to 365 days may be permitted. Further, there is no limit to how caregiving leave may be taken (i.e. all at once, or a day at a time). Note that this far exceeds the amount required by Japanese law, which states that up 93 days of caregiving leave must be allowed, with this time being taken off in three or fewer continuous intervals (i.e. 3 x 31 days, or 60 days + 33 days).
Caregiving support stipend In cases in which an employee takes over a month of leave (continuous) for caregiving, a special support stipend of 4,800 Yen/day will be conferred.
Additional systems and
benefits to enable caregiving		 Explicit limits on off-hours work, reduced working hours, no limit on paid leave being taken as half-days, and other systems to enable a good work-life balance to be maintained.

National holiday childcare services

Overview On-site childcare services are provided when employees work on national holidays that are set as NSK work days (Note: employees receive equivalent time off on different dates). NSK is expanding these services to plants and technology departments in order of necessity.
Target NSK employee children (from 1 to 3 years old).
Implementation Fujisawa plant and Fujisawa technology department (from January 2017)
Haruna plant (from July 2017)
Ishibe plant (from November 2017)
NSK Steering Systems Co., Ltd. (planned to begin in 2018)

Other Initiatives

NSK provides employees who have children many benefits to enable them to balance childrearing with work. NSK bestows parents with childcare leave that exceeds the legal requirements, sets reduced work hours, and offers no-core flextime (trial) and work from home (trial) systems. NSK also implements seminars to emphasize the importance of workstyle reform, diversity, and inclusion. This include seminars on manager-level support for employees with children, and seminars on LGBT inclusion.

Further details can be found at “Creating Dynamic Work Environment” .

Certification and recognition received

In January 2017, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, under the Act of Promotion of Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace, gave NSK the highest possible rating as an “Eruboshi L-Star Company" for its initiatives and currently implemented measures.

Further, since 2014, NSK has been certified by the Ministry, under the Act on Advancement of Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children, as a company friendly and supportive of employees who are raising children. NSK was bestowed with the “Kurumin" mark to represent this certification. NSK will continue to pursue the advancement of its work environment to better enable and draw out the potential of all employees.

Eruboshi L-star mark for Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace
Eruboshi L-star mark for Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace
Kurumin mark for Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children
Kurumin mark for Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children