Health and Productivity Management

Well-being Declaration

In October 2021, Nippon Shinyaku issued its Well-being Declaration, which gives an overall picture of the company’s Health and Productivity Management.
In 2018, the company formulated the Nippon Shinyaku Health Declaration to express its commitment to promoting Health and Productivity Management through active involvement in maintaining and enhancing the health of its employees and their family members and serious efforts to improve the workplace environment and working conditions.
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic brought drastic changes to the way we work. In response to that new situation, we issued the updated Health Declaration 2020. In addition, Chairman Maekawa (then president) shared with employees his thoughts embodied by the Health Declaration and his way of keeping healthy to raise employees’ awareness of health maintenance.
Promoting Health and Productivity Management requires increasing the health literacy of every employee.
A change in their awareness will lead to a change in their behavior. With the belief that such changes will have a massive favorable impact on their family members and coworkers, we will work toward our Health and Productivity Management goal: the well-being of all employees.

Well-being Declaration 2021

― Co-creation of Well-being ―

To date, Nippon Shinyaku has been actively committed to maintaining and enhancing the health of its employees and their family members with the aim of advancing its Health and Productivity Management. In Health Declaration 2020, Chairman Maekawa declared that the “well-being” of all employees is “the very goal of the company’s Health and Productivity Management” and that the company aims to become “a company that goes beyond being an easy place to work, creating a healthy workplace that makes work more worthwhile and adds purposefulness in life.”

Do you find happiness in your days working at Nippon Shinyaku?
It is you who should play a leading role in ensuring your own well-being.
The company is your partner who co-creates your well-being with you.
Let’s co-create well-being together to become a company where everyone can demonstrate their talents fully and work cheerfully.
Only a company where everyone can work cheerfully can build “a healthier future,” which Nippon Shinyaku aims for.

We hereby declare that we will work toward the co-creation of the well-being of employees and their family members.

October 1, 2021
Toru Nakai
President
Nippon Shinyaku Co., Ltd.

Health and productivity management story

Objective

Following Nippon Shinyaku’s fundamental idea that “employees and their families who support them should enjoy good physical and mental health, creating a workplace that overflows with smiles and vitality,” we strive to provide a healthy and comfortable workplace environment as a step to realizing our Business Philosophy and Management Policy.

Health and productivity management issues

In order for each employee to work with peace of mind, be physically and mentally healthy, and maximize their performance, we promote health and productivity management with “presenteeism,” “absenteeism,” and “work engagement” as our KPIs.
The background to this is the Chairman’s thoughts on the health of employees and their families, which he expressed at the time of issuance of the Health Declaration 2020, and the Company’s serious commitment to co-creating well-being, which goes beyond health and productivity management, as stated in the Well-being Declaration 2021.

KPI

(1) Priority indicators

Item FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 Provisional target value (FY2025)
Presenteeism (%) 75% 76% 80%
Absenteeism (person) 5 persons 2 persons 6 persons 5 persons or less
Work engagement (points) 7.6 points 7.8 points 7.6 points Cannot be set due to survey changes from the next fiscal year onwards
  • * Absenteeism: Number of employees on personal injury/sickness leave of 30 days or more
  • * Presenteeism: Percentage of employees who answered that their performance was “higher than average” on a six-point scale as result of a survey and analysis using the stress check contractor’s original scale (partially modified from the University of Tokyo model) (The response rate is similar to the stress check participation rate.)
  • * Work engagement: To clarify job satisfaction of employees and in workplaces using commitment theory, a state close to employee engagement is demonstrated through employees’ sense of belonging and sense of contribution, and how the company and superiors are involved in this is indicated on a scale of 10 as “recognition from the company.” (The response rate is similar to the stress check participation rate.)

Health and Productivity Management Strategy Map

(2) Awareness/behavioral change indicators

Item Judgment criteria FY2020 FY2021 FY2022 Provisional target value (FY2025)
Percentage of those with high stress Standards from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare used 4.1% 4.4% 5.1% 5.0% or less
Smoking rate 15.1% 12.6% 8.5% 6.0%
(Target 0% in FY2035)
Have a habit of exercising Percentage of those doing light exercise for over 30 minutes two or more days a week for one year or more 28.4% 33.0% 33.7% 35.0% or more
Skip breakfast
(Persons not subject to risks)
Percentage of those who answered
“no” to the question “I skip breakfast three or more times a week”
82.1% 79.8% 78.9% 80.0% or more
Sleep indicator
(Persons not subject to risks)
「Percentage of those who answered “yes” to the question “I get enough rest through sleep”」 77.2% 74.6% 73.3% 80.0% or more
Those who have undergone follow-up checkups 58.2% 59.6% 66.0% 100%
Health guidance implementation rate after periodical medical checkups
(including follow-up measures)
* Excluding those excluded by industrial physicians, such as those with low lipids, from persons who require a detailed examination according to the criteria of the Japan Society of Ningen Dock 56.2% 100%
Thorough medical examination rate 29.1% 37.2% 35.4%

Structure/system

In addition to discussions with management about the promotion of health and productivity management, the health insurance association, the labor union, and the Well-being Promotion Section of the Personnel Department work together to plan and operate overall health and productivity management measures. With the aim of disseminating health and productivity management throughout the Company and listening to the opinions of employees at each business site, we have assigned well-being supporters to consider health and productivity management and well-being in organizations unrelated to occupational health and safety.

Structure/system chart

Related Initiatives

1. Exercise-related measures

Walking event “arukatsu”

This is a walking event jointly held with the health portal site “kencom.” Participants form teams on the app and compete for the number of step counts, and the team that achieves the goal (team average step count of 8,000 or more) will receive a prize.

Walking event

“Minna-de-arukatsu” participants/teams

Health Challenge Campaign

This is an event where employees can choose a course related to diet, exercise, sleep, and other behavior according to their situation and participate while having fun, with the aim of improving lifestyle habits and promoting health.
In FY2022, the participation rate was 45.4% (51.2% in the previous year), and the achievement rate was 61.5% (55.7% in the previous year).

Graph of the Health Challenge Campaign participation rate and achievement rate

The three most popular courses in FY2022
(number of participants and percentage of participants who reach the achievement standard*)

Course Number of participants Achievement rate
1. Greet and communicate with others 497 persons 68.2%
2. Sleep well to recover your body 323 persons 61.0%
3. Use the stairs 243 persons 64.6%
  • * The achievement standard is defined as meeting the basic requirements set out in each course for more than 40 days during the two-month campaign.

2. Dietary measures

We make various efforts to improve the dietary habits of employees. Specific initiatives are as follows:

  • - Introducing “smart meals” at the Head Office canteen and offering “glycation reduction menu” to provide more nutritionally well-balanced meals that help promote good health
  • - Conducting “glycation level check,” which measures the degree of glycation (Head Office, Odawara)
  • - Conducting “vege-check,” which measures the amount of vegetable intake (Head Office, Odawara Central Factory, Tokyo Business Office, Tokyo Branch Office, Discovery Research Laboratories in Tsukuba)

In FY2022, we held a salt reduction awareness event at the Head Office canteen in collaboration with the Kyoto City Public Health and Welfare Bureau. In order to raise awareness of salt intake and salt reduction, which are considered to be one of the causes of high blood pressure, we conducted a salty taste threshold test, blood vessel measurement, and dietary consultation with a registered dietitian, with more than 75 participants.

  • Salt reduction awareness event
  • Blood vessel aging measurement at a salt reduction awareness event
  • Salty taste threshold test at a salt reduction awareness event
Glycation level check
Vege-check
Glycation reduction menu
Odawara Meal Seminar

Vege-Championship

This event aims to raise awareness of vegetable intake in daily dietary habits. In the championship, teams formed by internal organizations compete for points that are gained by entering their vegetable intake for each meal and answering the daily vegetable quiz on the app.
The participation rate in FY2022 was 69.5% (70.4% in the previous year).
The following changes occurred before and after this event.

  • (1) Vegetable intake per meal has increased (based on participants’ records of vegetable intake).
  • (2) The percentage of employees who consume 350 g of vegetables per day has increased (based on a questionnaire after the event).
Vege-Championship images

3. Anti-smoking measures

Nippon Shinyaku’s anti-smoking measures began in 2004, with the complete separation of smoking and non-smoking areas on the company’s premises. In October 2020, the smoking areas were entirely abolished to prevent passive smoking. The Company now prohibits smoking throughout working hours, with the aim of achieving an employee smoking rate of 0%. Thanks to our efforts so far, the smoking rate has been decreasing year by year, reaching 8.5% in FY2022.

Nippon Shinyaku shares with all employees information on anti-smoking measures on the 22nd of every month.

Nippon Shinyaku No-Smoking Day

Since October 2021, we have launched a company-wide initiative named “Suwan Cup 2021,” with the aim of raising smokers’ awareness of the need to stop smoking and helping them quit smoking with the support of non-smokers. Company-wide initiatives have included presenting mementos, holding round-table talks, supporting medical treatment for smoking cessation through the health insurance association (providing financial support to cover the cost of receiving outpatient or online treatment for smoking cessation), and providing smoking cessation consultations by public health nurses. We will continue to work to achieve a zero smoking rate.

Nippon Shinyaku shares with all employees information on anti-smoking measures on the 22nd of every month.

Nippon Shinyaku No-Smoking Day
Evolution of Nippon Shinyaku's smoking cessation initiatives
Percentage of smoker employees

4. Women’s health issues

We hold a seminar for all employees on the theme of women’s health issues every year.
In September 2023, we held a seminar on the theme of anemia in women in connection with our anemia treatment drug “MonoVer,” with 197 participants (including participants from Group companies and business partners). Their level of satisfaction(*) was 97.8%.

Theme Overview Number of
participants
Level of satisfaction
FY2020 Seminar on gynecological checkups Listen to a lecture by a speaker with a related personal experience on the importance of gynecological checkups and reconciliation of her work life with health maintenance
FY2021 Seminar on gynecological checkups Learn about diseases specific to women 85 persons 96.4%
FY2022 Health seminar for men and women Learn about mental and physical changes brought about by hormonal changes and self-care that both men and women need to know 106 persons 78.0%
  • * The level of satisfaction is based on the percentage of those who answered 3 or higher on a 5-point scale in the questionnaire after the seminar.

4. Enhancement of communication

In FY2020, we introduced an app with a praise function and established a mechanism for facilitating active communication between employees with the aim of creating a corporate climate of mutual respect.
A collective analysis of stress check results revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic had made many employees feel concerned about their

In FY2020, we introduced an app with a praise function and established a mechanism for facilitating active communication between employees with the aim of creating a corporate climate of mutual respect.
A collective analysis of stress check results revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic had made many employees feel concerned about their future and that telework had led to a lack of communication between employees.
Since July 2021, we have held one-on-one meetings throughout the company to facilitate active communication between superiors and their subordinates.

Examples of tokens presented on the praise app

future and that telework had led to a lack of communication between employees.
Since July 2021, we have held one-on-one meetings throughout the company to facilitate active communication between superiors and their subordinates.

6. Others

Various seminars to improve employees’ health literacy

No health and productivity management measure is likely to change the behavior of employees unless they get involved personally in the measure. Therefore, we are committed to improving employees’ health literacy by offering them a variety of seminars and information to encourage them to get into the habit of improving their own lifestyles.

FY2022 Theme Number of participants Level of satisfaction
Health literacy
improvement seminar
Heatstroke measures 123 persons 99.0%
Sleep 150 persons 100.0%
Improvement of drinking habits 76 persons 88.2%
Cancer prevention 237 persons 95.1%
Improvement of dietary habits 110 persons 96.4%
  • * The level of satisfaction is based on the percentage of those who answered 3 or higher on a 5-point scale in the questionnaire after the seminar.

Measures against diseases

We encourage employees whose medical checkup results include abnormalities to undergo follow-up checkups. At business locations where industrial physicians are stationed, the physicians interview those employees in person to strongly recommend follow-up checkups after periodical checkups. The health insurance association provides financial support to cover the cost of thorough medical examinations with no age limit, which are recommended as an alternative to follow-up checkups.
The follow-up checkup rate in FY2022 was 66.4%, which was the same level as the previous fiscal year, and we have begun a company-wide initiative to further increase the checkup rate.

Appreciation by External Parties

Health and productivity ― White 500 ―

Nippon Shinyaku has been certified as one of the 2024 “White 500” Enterprises Outstanding in Health & Productivity Management jointly by the Japanese Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Nippon Kenko Kaigi. The Company has obtained this certification for the fourth consecutive year (for the 5th time), after FY2021.

Smart Meal

Nippon Shinyaku has been consecutively certified as a Smart Meal provider for employees by the Consortium for Healthy Meals and Dietary Environments since 2019.

Sports Yell Company

Nippon Shinyaku has been certified as a Sports Yell Company 2023 by the Japan Sports Agency, just as it was in 2022.

Health and productivity ― White 500 ― logo
Smart Meal logo
Sports Yell Company logo