The Fujikura Group believes that corporate competitive strength is based on good employee health. We recognize that the health of our employees is an important management resource for continuing to be a company that is appreciated by society. We strive to be a corporate group in which employees work with vigor, and are implementing initiatives to enhance mental and physical vitality and health.

The Fujikura Group believes that corporate competitive strength is based on good employee health. We recognize that the health of our employees is an important management resource for continuing to be a company that is appreciated by society. We strive to be a corporate group in which employees work in vigor, and have actively promoted initiatives aimed at enhancing mental and physical vitality and health.

We were recently recognized for past initiatives. On February 20, 2018, the Fujikura Group was selected as part of the 2018 Health & Productivity Stock Selection, which is jointly managed by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Tokyo Stock Exchange, Inc. President Ito attended the awards ceremony.

Companies that are implementing strategic initiatives that take a managerial perspective on employee health management are selected to be part of Health & Productivity Stock Selection. This year, Fujikura and 25 other companies were selected from among the 718 companies that responded to the survey.

We are using our selection for the Health & Productivity Stock Selection and the Excellence in Corporate Health Management 2018 - White 500 as a catalyst for implementing health management initiatives that will lead to improved health of employees and their families, enhance Fujikura’s competitiveness, and enable us to provide even greater value to society.

Fujikura qualified under the Tokyo Prefecture Sports Promotion Business Certification System in fiscal 2015, the first year it was established. We also qualified as a “Tokyo Sports Promotion Business” in fiscal 2017. This system certifies companies that promote sports activities for employees, provide support in the field of sports, and implement other activities. We were recognized for our program for monitoring commuting by bicycle, our support for and participation in the Companies Compete Athletic Meet, and our Nordic Walking Trial Session. We simultaneously received certification as a Sports Yell Company by the Japan Sports Agency.

This certification system is designed to promote the creation of social sports activities that encourage the hard-working generation that doesn’t get enough exercise to participate in sports. From this fiscal year onward, the Japan Sports Agency is defining “Sports Yell Company” as a company that actively engages in initiatives to encourage company employees to participate in sports and improve their health.

Periodic physical examination, which is the basis of self-health level and disease risk and is the basis of voluntary health promotion, is carried out by adding our own inspection items to statutory inspection items. For additional examination items, we add inspection items aimed at the early detection of lifestyle diseases that are socially problematic, and also instruct employees who have many factors with high risk of onset, such as prevention management and individual. We are developing efforts to improve the health consciousness of the people.

We call this motor function testing and perform it every year to measure the physical strength of employees on the four parameters of grip strength, flexibility, leg strength, and balance. We distribute results charts to employees so they can see what their current physical strength is compared to the nationwide average. We also analyze trends by work location. Determining where a group stands enables us to propose the best next step. In fiscal 2017, we saw a problem with flexibility in the head office area, so we prepared a new Fujikura stretching exercise program and created an environment that enables employees to stretch after lunch.

By fiscal 2017, we had held the step-counting event nine times since we first launched it in fiscal 2013. For the event, each person wears a pedometer that is handed out and competes with others in a virtual space walk. In fiscal 2017, we staged the event in Aomori, using the theme of “create companions in the Fujikura Group” that we launched in fiscal 2016. Participants complete the walk by walking an average of 8,000 steps a day for 80 days in a row. The event provides new opportunities for communication through competitions between divisions and birthday team competitions.

We prepare and hold various seminars on themes that are proposed or desired to encourage Fujikura Group employees to take more ownership of their own health. Among the seminars we held in fiscal 2017 were a women’s health seminar in business locations that have a high percentage of women, a low back pain seminar in locations where employees frequently stand while working, and a sleep seminar in locations where many employees indicated on the health exam questionnaire that they were not sleeping well. These seminars provide an opportunity to change the mindset of employees.