President and CEO Seiji Nakata was appointed chairperson of the Diversity and Inclusion Promotion Committee, which meets every quarter. Under stronger leadership, the Committee promotes women's activities and works on dramatically improving productivity. Staff from various positions and departments, from executives and managers to young employees, participate as advisors to discuss and verify the status of various measures, including efforts to achieve goals for the promotion of women's activities, support for balancing work with childcare and nursing care, leaving work before 19:00, planned annual leave taking, and male employees taking childcare leave.

The Group introduced a "System Usage Calendar" that allows all employees in the department to share their plans for using annual leave, continuous leave, and the systems for balancing work with child care (short working hours system, etc.). It is extremely effective in promoting annual leave for all employees, and has become a system that allows each workplace to use the leave systems smoothly.

To support the career design of each and every employee, the Group posts “Career Design Books” on the internal portal site, making them available to all employees. These books compile information on a variety of career paths and positions, various personnel systems and education/training programs, and welfare and other systems.

The Group has established guidelines for balancing work and child care for all employees and department managers so that employees can take child care leave and return to work smoothly. These guidelines encourage appropriate consideration to make it easy for employees to use the system according to their physical condition and individual circumstances. They also promote understanding among other employees, and describe how to distribute work according to the situation and how to provide training as a role model. They go on to describe how to give fair and impartial evaluations and feedback to employees with various circumstances, such as those who will use the system and those who have returned to work. Through training and other measures managers can remain informed and educated.
In addition, the Group has distributed a list of the various work-life balance systems to managers as "Work-life balance systems for balancing work and child care/nursing care that managers need to know about."

Top management continually communicates about the Group's diversity & inclusion efforts including women's advancement and their purpose at meetings where all executives and all department managers gather, and the Group is promoting training for managers including all line section managers. By deepening their understanding of the initiatives for promoting the careers of women, their purpose, and the work-life balance support systems, managers themselves are working to create an "environment in which all employees can continue to work actively."
Furthermore, for the purpose of improving management ability and the productivity of the entire Group, subordinate employees evaluate the work and behavior of managers in their daily work, and the results are fed back to the individual. In this way, a "360-degree evaluation" is conducted for all management including executives, department managers, and section managers. As part of these evaluations, the status of diversity efforts is also evaluated, and the results are incorporated into the manager's evaluation.

The Group has implemented a "self-reporting system" as an opportunity for managers to think about their future goals and career development. Managers share their hopes and goals with their superiors and interviews are held to support their career advancement as managers.

In 2021, we introduced ANSWERS, an internal online social network through which employees can consult with each other, help each other with difficulties, and build networks. It presents them with opportunities to meet role models, broadening their perspectives regarding future career advancement, as well as to communicate with the management.

The Group is helping employees balance their work and nursing care in various ways. To further improve the environment in which employees with abundant experience and a high degree of specialization can continue to work actively without feeling anxious about future nursing care, the Group established a nursing care leave system that exceeds the legal requirements (up to 1095 days, can be acquired in four periods) and introduced a work-from-home system for all departments including sales departments. Further, following consultations with employees who are providing nursing care and their families, the Group introduced a Nursing Care Concierge Service that can provide various solutions. Moreover, in conjunction with "Nursing Care Day" on November 11th, the Group held study sessions at all branches entitled "Responding to an Aging Society and Balancing Work and Family Care," to raise employee awareness and foster a corporate culture that makes it easy to use the systems.

Taking advantage of the fact that we distributed two-in-one terminals to all employees, we expanded our teleworking system, which we introduced in March 2020 and which includes working from home. This has made it possible to work outside the office in an environment equivalent to the office environment, producing a diversity of work styles that are aligned with the life stages of employees and helping improve the business continuity and productivity of the company as a whole.

Since 2007, led by our policy of creating an environment in which employees can work efficiently within time constraints, the Group has encouraged employees to leave the office before 7 p.m. and has set the goal of achieving a 100% implementation rate in all divisions. Furthermore, the Group has developed guidelines for work and meetings where multiple departments collaborate. The Human Resources Division regularly confirms if employees are leaving the company by 7:00 p.m., and the Diversity and Inclusion Promotion Committee has established a system for verifying the implementation status of this initiative.
Since 2015, the Group has been expanding investment in human resource development by capitalizing on the results of productivity improvements. In addition, in 2017 and 2018, the Group provided a "special allowance for work-life balance and work style reform," and in 2019 provided a "special allowance for productivity improvement." Lump sum payments, funded by the results of productivity improvement, were paid to employees separately from their bonuses.
Further, the Group operates an "hourly leave system" that allows employees to take annual leave in units of one hour, which enables flexible work styles. The Group has also set up the "flextime system" according to the business situation of each department.

The Group promotes "taking planned annual leave" for the purpose of improving productivity and work efficiency by refreshing the mind and body and bringing out new vitality. As part of its efforts, the Group introduced a System Usage Calendar and various initiatives, such as Kids' Ceremony Leave, Family Day Leave, Parents' Longevity Celebration Leave, Long Service Gratitude Leave, Expecting Mother Escort Leave, Volunteer Leave, and Marriage Preparations Leave. Employees are made aware of the objectives and importance of the different kinds of leave through training, in-house broadcast, and the like.

Since 2008, the Group been carrying out "Family Workplace Visits" in which we thank the families who support our employees every day and invite them to the workplace.
Held at head offices nationwide, these events are popular with employees and their families. In 2020, these visits were held online for the first time, and roughly 5,800 families participated.

A work-life balance promotion site exclusively for employees, which introduces the child care and nursing care systems and features content on the subjects of self-improvement and health. It can be viewed from home while on leave, and the bulletin board is used as a communication tool for employees.

• *WLB: the abbreviation for Work-Life Balance

To protect and preserve each employee's rights, the Group regularly monitors the status of compliance with the Minimum Wage Act, the Labor Standards Act "36 Agreement", and other relevant laws and regulations.

In 2021, we created "Daiwakko," the Daiwa child care club, to provide both work and child care support to expecting mothers and mothers taking care of children, assisting them to improve their skills and shape their careers so that they can feel secure and motivated as they continue to work while expecting children and providing child care. It is hosted on a dedicated site within Daiwa WLB Station and offers ways for colleagues to connect and introduces various ways of using Daiwa's systems.

The Group regularly administers questionnaires to all employees concerning work-life balance and balancing work and child care/nursing care. In 2020, we received responses from over 7,000 employees. We assess system usage conditions and collect requests concerning systems, and we use employee feedback when revising the designs and operation of these systems.

In every issue of the bi-monthly Group newsletter, there is a regular feature on "Turn diversity into power! Diversity & Inclusion Lab," which introduces the Group's initiatives and systems for diversity & inclusion, and role models that are active in various careers. In addition, the Group facilitates the sharing of best practices in each department via Group satellite broadcasting.

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. has been selected as a "Nadeshiko Brand" by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Tokyo Stock Exchange for eight consecutive years from fiscal 2014 as a listed company that excels in promoting women's advancement.
The Group was commended for setting clear goals regarding the promotion of women's advancement and work-life balance and promoting an environment where personnel with diverse values can maximize their abilities.

The Group is continuously working to create a workplace environment that makes it easy to use the work-life balance support systems so that employees can continue to work while balancing work and nursing care.
The Group received the symbol mark (known as "Tomonin") from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare for promoting the development of a "work environment that ensures a balance of work and nursing care"