The creation of a society where women can excel, have confidence, and take action in their lives is one of the most important tasks that Japan and the UN-centered international community face when it comes to measures for creating our future. As members of the United Nations Global Compact, the Company and other companies within the Group are working to create corporate environments where female employees can excel.

In an effort to promote the success of women in the workplace, the Fujikura group has set a mid-term vision and goals in our basic diversity philosophy and CSR policy. These are based on international trends with a focus on the UN, and general laws and plans within Japan.

As a dedicated employer of diverse human resources, we are promoting participation in the human resources diversity team's "Diversity Promotion Project." Starting in 2017, we have renamed the existing "Diversity Promotion Project" to the "Work Way Reform Project" and expanded its scope in an effort to create an organizational culture and atmosphere that diverse personnel can hold diverse work styles whole still participating fully. In so doing, we are expanding our focus from surface-level diversity to authentic work style reforms.

The Fujikura Group, as a global corporate entity, has been fostering measures to help women display more of their abilities in line with the international trend and specifically based on the Nairobi Forward-looking Strategies for the Advancement of Women and the Women's Empowerment Principles announced by the United Nations. For such measures, we also refer to the Basic Act for Gender Equal Society of Japan, the Basic Plan for Gender Equality, the Third Basic Plan for Gender Equality, and other statements made by the Cabinet Office of Japan, while giving consideration to recent movements in the EU.

Our Group aims to promote employee vibrance and corporate growth through work on gender equality and female empowerment as set out in UN’s Women's Empowerment Principles (WEPs*), treating these as CSR issues. As specific benefits, we can expect to enjoy improvements in employee satisfaction and productivity, a better understanding of our own level of initiative when compared to other companies, and share examples of good practices.

• *WEPs（Women's Empowerment Principles）
  The 7 Principles were created in March 2010 as a cooperative effort between the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and the United Nations Development Fund for Women (presently, UN Women). “Empowerment” is a term from sociology that refers to providing hopes and dreams and encourages themselves. It is able to bring out the vigor that is within us.

From the viewpoint of realizing social responsibility and normalization (engaging in mutual assistance with disabled and elderly people), we are actively engaged in employing people with disabilities and improving their working environments. Our aim is to achieve a statutory employment rate of 2%, realizing normalization* and our social responsibility by promoting improvements in working environment throughout for people with disabilities the entire Group.

• *Normalization
  Normalization refers to improving the social environment and welfare so that people with disabilities and the elderly can live on an equal footing in society. The concept originated from the activities conducted by Bank-Mikkelsen (Denmark) and others in the 1950s to improve facilities for people with intellectual disabilities. Normalization contributes to changing the social environment and enabling people with disabilities to lead ordinary lives in local communities. The concept began to be widely known after the United Nations proclaimed 1981 as the International Year of Disabled Persons, and it now represents the basic principle for social welfare.

[Employment Ratios for People with Disabilities]

As Fujikura advances the employment of persons with disabilities, we have begun to encounter new hires who participate in track-and-field in wheelchairs.

As we continue to advance global management, and as the need rises for human resources management that transcends borders, we currently have more than 50 foreign employees even within Japan. We are currently emphasizing hiring of foreign employees, and gain multiple new members from all over the world each year.

We have initiated the "Fujikura Scholarship System" to support education for future science and technology leaders in Myanmar. This scholarship offers financial support to passionate, driven students in need. In February of 2017, we held a scholarship awards ceremony for 20 students from 4 universities in Myanmar and their families, attended by President Ito and Senior VP Takizawa. We also presented their universities with the past 10 years of the "Fujikura Technical Report" as a means of sharing the latest technical information, and began activities for contributing to Myanmar's economic development and human resources training.