4. Diversity and Inclusion

Diversity and Inclusion

As a comprehensive entertainment company offering enjoyment, emotion, knowledge, and more without barriers through culture, the KADOKAWA Group believes that it should help to realize a society where no one is discriminated against.

We respect diversity, including race, religion, creed, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, disability, nationality, culture, values, and more, and we do not tolerate discrimination or prejudice. This attitude is fundamental to all of our Group business activities, from the treatment of employees in employment, training, evaluation, promotions, and more to creating and offering content and services and in our interactions with users, creators, business partners, shareholders, locals, and all other stakeholders.

We also respect freedom of expression in content and services, but as an exception to this rule, we do not tolerate expressions that idly encourage discrimination and prejudice or that wrongfully infringe upon the rights of others.

The KADOKAWA Group works to create an environment and corporate culture that values human individuality and diversity based on these ideas.

Promoting Opportunities for Women

At the KADOKAWA Group, female employees account for 43.2% of the total employees. 22.7% of our managerial and executive positions are women, with 205 female section chiefs and other middle management, 81 female department heads and other senior management, and 15 female officers (as of March 31, 2023). Many women play a central role in our business. Combining KADOKAWA and its domestic consolidated subsidiaries, women accounted for 19.3% of managerial-level employees as of March 31, 2023. Our target is to raise the figure to 30% by FY2030.

At KADOKAWA, we have introduced a variety of leave systems and allowances to support the diverse working styles of all our employees. We have achieved a 100% rate of both return and retention for women who have taken childcare leave (as of March 31, 2023). We have established general action plans based on the Act on the Promotion of Female Participation and Career Advancement in the Workplace and the Act on Advancement of Measures to Support Raising Next-Generation Children. We are working to create the foundation for female participation by setting up a pleasant environment for work. In September 2017, KADOKAWA attained Eruboshi Level 3 certification, which means the company is deemed to satisfy all five criteria. Granted by the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare, "Eruboshi" certification is aimed at recognizing companies that are excellently committed to women’s empowerment in workplaces. As these achievements show, we are highly regarded publicly in terms of women's empowerment.  

Number of Managers and Officers (as of March 31, 2023)

  Male Female Total
Employees Percentage Employees Percentage Employees
KADOKAWA
(parent company only)		 Middle management *1 246 76.2％ 77 23.8％ 323
Senior management *2 152 83.5％ 30 16.5％ 182
Management total 398 78.8％ 107 21.2％ 505
Officers *3 20 87.0％ 3 13.0％ 23
Total managers and officers 418 79.2％ 110 20.8％ 528
Entire KADOKAWA Group Middle management *1 565 73.4％ 205 26.6％ 770
Senior management *2 303 78.9％ 81 21.1％ 384
Management total 868 75.2％ 286 24.8％ 1,154
Officers *4 *5 155 91.2％ 15 8.8％ 170
Total managers and officers 1,023 77.3％ 301 22.7％ 1,324

*1 Middle management: section chiefs
*2 Senior management: department heads
*3 Board Members and Corporate Officers
*4 Total number of officers. Board Members and Corporate Officers
*5 Seven internally promoted female officers
Note: Percentages are rounded to the second decimal place and are shown to the first decimal place.

Employment of Persons with Disabilities

The KADOKAWA Group is working to create an environment where employees can work while freely demonstrating their unique abilities, regardless of disability or degree of disability. We established KADOKAWA CRAFT INC. in 2019 to develop businesses focused on the roasting and selling of coffee and business support, including editing, back-office operations, and more, as a special subsidiary company to employ persons with disabilities. As of March 2023, a total of 67 employees with disabilities, including 24 profoundly disabled persons, work for special subsidiary companies of the Group (KADOKAWA, KADOKAWA CRAFT, DWANGO Co., Ltd., KADOKAWA UPLINK INC. and KADOKAWA Connected Inc.). They include 31 employees at KADOKAWA CRAFT, fourteen of whom are profoundly disabled. BOOK WALKER Co., Ltd also joined the special subsidiary companies in April 2023.

  • Photo : Yuzuri Onoue

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Global Human Resources

A total of 783 non-Japanese employees work for the companies of the KADOKAWA Group and accounted for 10.6% of the entire workforce as of March 31, 2023. They are active in the Group’s businesses in Japan and overseas.
In October 2021, "Global Human Resources Development Center" was established with the aim of recruiting, developing and supporting the human resources that will powerfully lead Global Media Mix, the Group’s basic policy. The Center mainly implements the following measures and supports globally active human resources and businesses.

  • A wide range of recruiting activities by providing career recruitment site multilingual support and adding global content. We increase the rate of acceptance of internships for multinational human resources.
  • Skill surveys for employees of KADOKAWA Group companies in Japan and overseas and seminars for motivating employees to participate in global business.
  • Various measures, such as personnel exchange and option for employees to serve in concurrent roles (remote-based), to develop hybrid human resources that possess both KADOKAWA-style expertise and global business skills.
  • Enhancement of various reward systems such as an incentive when employees of overseas subsidiaries pass the Japanese Language Proficiency Test and acquire the qualification that corresponds with the test level.

LGBTQ+ Initiatives

KADOKAWA provides congratulation or condolence leave and wedding gift money even on such occasions as common-law marriage or marriage of a LGBTQ+ couple. Respecting diversity, we will consider expanding the scope of applicability of other rules and regulations as well.

ESG-Related Information