Murata and People

    Secure and safe workplace and health management

    Table of contents

    Basic approach and policy

    CS and ES are the most important values at Murata, and we believe that these can be achieved on a foundation of employees' wellness and secure and safe workplaces. We are committed to maintaining secure, safe, and healthy workplaces in order to "realize the virtuous cycle model between individuals and the organization," one of our core themes for improving the value of our human capital.
    Based on Vision2030, Murata's long-term management strategy, we have defined what Murata aspires to be regarding secure and safe workplaces with proper health management as: "each employee can work confidently, knowing they are healthy and in a safe workplace."
    All people working in Murata should be healthy with their "mind" and "body" as well as "relationship between people and society," in harmony and they should be naturally acting safely. In the workplace environment, they should be able to concentrate on their work without worries and experience few near-miss incidents.
    In tackling health management, we will contribute toward improving employee engagement, which is one of our midterm management indicators.

    Murata Group EHS Disaster Prevention Policy

    As part of the practice of Murata’s management philosophy, the Shaze (Murata Philosophy), everyone working at the Murata Group will promote environmental (E), health and safety (H/S), and disaster prevention initiatives.

    1. The Group will comply with all laws and regulations as well as matters agreed upon with relevant parties.
    2. The Group will address the following issues through its business activities.
      1. Realizing a sustainable global environment
        • The Group will cocreate products and services that contribute to a sustainable Earth in partnership with various stakeholders and spread them throughout society.
        • The Group will conduct manufacturing that takes into account environmental impacts throughout the life cycle (from procurement and production to distribution, use, and disposal).
        • The Group will work to use energy efficiently and to expand the use of renewable energy.
        • The Group will contribute to the realization of a decarbonized society by controlling greenhouse gas emissions throughout the value chain.
        • The Group will promote the efficient use of natural resources as well as the reduction and recycling of waste.
        • The Group will work to prevent environmental pollution by reducing the use of chemicals and managing them appropriately.
        • The Group will protect local biodiversity through the conservation of water resources and forests as well as greening activities.
      2. Creating safe, secure workplaces and healthy employees
        • The Group will create workplace environments where employees can dedicate themselves to their work with peace of mind.
        • The Group will foster a corporate culture that encourages safe behavior.
        • The Group will strive to enable each individual employee to feel healthy.
    3. The Group will establish an EHS disaster prevention management system and continually work toward its improvement.
    4. The Group will actively provide learning opportunities such as education and training.
      The Group will work to raise awareness of the EHS and disaster prevention fields by encouraging each individual employee to pay broad attention to society through these opportunities.
    5. The Group will announce this policy both internally and publicly.

    Murata Manufacturing Co., Ltd.
    President Norio Nakajima

    Murata Health Declaration

    Murata values the Murata Philosophy, a statement of our corporate principles, and pursues the unique qualities of Murata even under a changing business environment.
    We will endeavor to maintain the physical and emotional well-being of employees, who are the foundation of healthy growth, as well as their families so that all employees around the world who share the Murata Philosophy can create innovations and generate new value.
    All Murata employees work to their full potential and feel a sense of fulfilment while achieving personal growth and maintaining good physical and emotional health, contributing to Murata's future development as an "Innovator in Electronics."

    PresidentNorio Nakajima

    On the following page, we introduce our approach to individual human rights, which serves as a foundation for our diverse workforce to excel.
    Link: Murata Group Human Rights Policy

    Goals

    In order to create an environment in which all Murata employees can work while feeling in a safe, secure, and healthy workplace, we established the FY 2027 targets and the FY 2030 targets as described below to promote health and safety activities.

    FY 2027 targets
    • Serious industrial accidents: 0
    • Serious fires: 0
    • Fire accidents: 4 or less
    • Industrial incident rate per 1,000 employees (Murata's unique standard of also counting incidents that do not require time off from work): Less than 1.09
    • Industrial incident rate per 1,000 employees (requiring four days off or more): Less than 0.44
    • Self-Rated Health: 79%
    FY 2030 targets No Fatal serious incidents, no employee injuries or incidents, and a vibrant workplace.
    • Serious industrial accidents: 0
    • Serious fires: 0
    • Fire accidents: 0
    • Industrial incident rate per 1,000 employees (Murata's unique standard of also counting incidents that do not require time off from work): Less than 1.0
    • Industrial incident rate per 1,000 employees (requiring four days off or more): Less than 0.39
    • Self-Rated Health: 80%

    Promotion system

    Murata appoints the President as the chief manager for the CSR management of the entire Group, and under the President’s leadership, the sustainability department supports and promotes health and safety activities across the business sites.
    Furthermore, the Health and Safety Promotion Committee is established as a subcommittee of the CSR Management Committee, chaired by the President, to discuss and share the following subjects related to health management and health and safety. The Health and Safety Promotion Committee is chaired by the Senior Vice President. The concerns discussed by the Committee are reported to and discussed within the CSR Management Committee and then are overseen by the Board of Directors.

    • (1)

      Policies and what Murata wants to be

    • (2)

      Important issues and goals

    • (3)

      Measures and result reports

    The Health and Safety Promotion Committee comprises the business site EHS managers and safety committee members from each site. At each site, the top supervisor is assigned as a full-time executive officer, and the work-site secretariat supports and promotes health and safety activities under the instruction of the business site EHS manager. In addition, the Safety and Health Committee holds meetings where the company and the labor union can gather and discuss employee safety and health issues in order to facilitate and ensure the implementation of health and safety activities at the business site.
    As for industrial health professionals, we have 19 dedicated industrial physicians and 62 nurses.

    Image of Health and safety promotion system

    Link: Murata’s Corporate Governance System

    Creating safe and secure workplace environments

    Evaluation of safety and health risks for business

    At Murata, we conduct business in Japan and in other countries and regions subject to various public regulations, including business transactions, antitrust laws, intellectual property rights, product liability, various laws and regulations (including environmental, labor, human rights, and taxation), business investment permits and licenses, and export and import regulations. We assign departments responsible for each area subject to these public regulations, and we also conduct comprehensive investigations and examinations of factors such as economic aspects and labor practices (labor conditions, labor safety and health, and stakeholder dialogue) from the perspective of ESG (environmental, social, and governance) for new investments. We conduct preliminary evaluations of risks for new investments under investigation/examination, implement measures to prevent violations from occurring (such as setting internal rules compliant with public regulations), and continue to monitor the situation.

    Murata has also established a "Corporate Ethics Policy and Code of Conduct" to not only ensure compliance with laws, but also as a sense of ethics to be shared by officers and employees and a code of ethics to be observed. In order to ensure compliance with the Murata Group's code of conduct, prevent problems such as legal violations occurring throughout the company, and ensure the effectiveness of compliance, we have established internal and external reporting services for reporting compliance issues.

    Link: Compliance
    Link: Corporate Ethics Policy and Code of Conduct (PDF: 4.10MB)
    Link: Consulting and reporting service for stakeholders

    Management system

    Based on the ISO 45001 requirements, Murata established the Industrial Safety and Health Management System, which operates on a PDCA cycle that is consistent throughout the entire Murata Group, including group companies in Japan and overseas.
    Based on the group-wide EHS disaster prevention policy, this management system promotes continuous improvement with goals set to resolve social issues and meet stakeholders’ requirements.

    We realize that creating networks among those in charge of individual production sites is important in operating and promoting management systems. Production site representative meetings are held periodically and information is exchanged so as to achieve targets and thereby strengthen the promotion framework.

    Image of EHS Management System

    Results (Reflecting on fiscal 2024 in order to achieve fiscal 2025 goal)

    We have promoted safety and health activities, in order to create a workplace environment in which employees can work with a sense of safety and security. The industrial incident rate per 1,000 employees for incidents resulting in four or more days off from work for the Murata Group in fiscal 2024 was below the average for the electrical machinery and equipment manufacturing industry.
    At Murata, we believe that incidents that require time off from work and those that do not require time off have the same root causes, and we manage all incidents including incidents resulting in four or more days off from work and incidents that do not require time off from work as one initiative for reducing the number of industrial accidents.
    We will continue to promote safety and health activities in order to achieve our fiscal 2025 goal.

    Industrial incident rate per 1,000 employees*1

    • *1

      Industrial incident rate per 1,000 employees: The ratio of the number of industrial injuries and deaths per 1,000 employees in one year.

    Refer to ESG data collection / GRI standard comparison table / SASB comparison table for other data.

    < Other data >

    • Lost Time Injury Frequency Rate (LTIFR)
    • Number of serious incidents
    • Industrial incident rate per 1,000 employees
    • ISO45001 certification ratio
    • Number of exclusive industrial physicians

    Serious industrial incidents occurring in fiscal 2024, and response

    There were no fatal incidents or serious industrial incidents that led to after-effects over the seven-year period from FY 2018. (Target: Regular employees, temporary employees, manufacturing contractors, and other permanent contractors)

    We will continue efforts to prevent serious work-related incidents by implementing risk-reduction measures based on risk assessments and ensuring thorough control measures by issuing company-wide notifications and conducting in-house safety patrols.
    In the event of a serious work-related incident, we will respond quickly in accordance with the following procedures to prevent similar incidents.

    • (1)

      Immediately after the occurrence of an incident, the office where the incident occurred will contact the head office and provide the latest report on the incident.

    • (2)

      Immediately after receiving the report, the head office will issue the latest report on the incident to management and the entire company. Depending on the nature of the incident, it may be reported to customers.

    • (3)

      Within two weeks after the incident, the office where the incident occurred will inform the head office of the cause of the incident and details of measures to prevent recurrence.

    • (4)

      Immediately after receiving the report, head office will communicate the cause of the incident and details of the measures to prevent recurrence to management and the entire company. Depending on the nature of the incident, management and the company will discuss measures to prevent recurrence of the incident and spread them horizontally throughout the company.

    • (5)

      After the implementation of the recurrence measures is completed, the incident site and head office will hold a company-wide committee meeting attended by management to discuss the final report.

    Employee health and safety

    Training and awareness-raising

    Murata conducts safety and health training by role and by level. We analyzed past industrial incidents and found that the majority of them were caused by new employees or otherwise unexperienced employees with insufficient skill or knowledge. We therefore also conduct risk experience training focused on enhancing employees' sensitivity to risks. We use this risk experience training to provide employees with a safe way to actually experience danger and enhance safety awareness, in order to help prevent incidents from occurring at work. Although risk experience training is mostly conducted at domestic production sites, we are also expanding this to our overseas sites. We will continue to promote this training as we make use of our sustainability investment promotion system, which is a business management system supporting initiatives for achieving our social value goals.

    Fukui Murata Manufacturing Murata Safety (MS) Center: Experience-based danger prevention training

    Creating a culture of safety

    Murata is involved in various initiatives to create a culture of safety. We aim to establish a virtuous cycle of social value and economic value. It is for this reason that we have established a Presidential award called the "Social Value Contribution Award," which is awarded for activities recognized as having a remarkable contribution toward improving our social value or promoting ESG activity. In fiscal 2022, Murata Electronics Philippines Inc. was given this award for completely eliminating industrial incidents. In addition to reviewing our risk assessment system and introducing new risk assessments that cover more types of risks primarily in domestic sites, we have been training required personnel and engaging in safety activities on-site (such as holding the Greater China Safety Gathering) at overseas sites, in order to create a culture of safety.

    Murata Electronics Philippines Inc. MS Center, unsafe situation experience training

    Future measures

    Goal indicator Results Fiscal year goals
    FY 2024 FY 2025 FY 2026 FY 2027
    Fatal serious incidents 0 0 0 0
    Industrial incident rate per 1,000 employees (Murata's unique standard of also counting incidents that do not require time off from work) 1.26 Less than 1.15 Less than 1.12 Less than 1.09
    Industrial incident rate per 1,000 employees
    (requiring four days off or more)     		0.51 Less than 0.46 Less than 0.45 Less than 0.44
    Future measures
    • Increase safety awareness so that employees will take action on their own
    • Continue conducting new risk assessments, and build a training system that suits work sites
    • Create workplace environments where older employees can continue to work
    • Strengthen safety management required of contractors

    At Murata, we are building a system that enables each of our business sites to carry out autonomous risk assessment activities tailored to their specific workplace. As part of such efforts, the Safety and Health Department at the headquarters provides labor safety and health instructor training to cultivate personnel specializing in safety and health at each of our business sites who can handle education, implementation, and operational management of risk assessments.
    By establishing this framework, instructors serve as catalysts to increase employees’ opportunities to learn Murata’s risk assessment, and we aim to broaden risk assessment activities across business sites.
    Continuing from fiscal 2024, we will continue to train instructors and implement risk assessments appropriate for each site including overseas business sites, in order to achieve the above goals at all of our domestic business sites in fiscal 2025.

    Training course trainees
    FY 2023 FY 2024
    Labor safety and health instructor training 12 15

    The Murata Group continues to engage in safety activities and shows a decreasing trend year over year in the number of industrial accidents that occur. Even so, we will continue our efforts to reduce risk.
    Conducting detailed analyses of industrial accidents has revealed that falling accidents resulting from unsafe employee behavior remain as high as ever, and we recognize that this is a common issue throughout the Murata Group. With this in mind, we will focus on industrial accidents caused by unsafe behavior, train employees to be more safety conscious, and promote initiatives throughout the entire Murata Group so that employees will take action on their own.
    Through all of these initiatives, we aim to further increase the safety literacy of each employee and create a culture that commends health, safety, and security, supported by "the obligation to consider safety" assumed by management and "the obligation to maintain one's health" assumed by individual employees.

    Health management

    Murata’s management approach pertaining to the health management plan

    To sincerely support our employees' health, Murata formulated the "Murata Health Management Plan" as a three-year medium-term direction to promote health. This is established through spirited discussions held by personnel from various organizations including Murata Group industrial physicians, health nurses and nurses, health promotion administrative staff, staff of safety functions, and members of the Health Insurance Society.
    The process for establishing this began with clarifying the significance of Murata's commitment to health management and our vision of what we aim to achieve. Then, we analyzed the actual conditions and needs of employees on the basis of issues that initiatives had already revealed, quantitative data (the results of medical examinations or stress checks and data on industrial accidents) and qualitative information (employees' actual conditions understood through health management work such as interviews and inspections). Finally, we identified issues and measures to address them. We then established three plans (described below) under the concept of "practical health management," and promoted initiatives to achieve goals.
    As our major measure, we are providing employees with support from various angles, such as maintaining and improving the health of employees aged 50 and over, improving the quality of sleep of employees supporting manufacturing at Murata, and enhancing stress management to help alleviate the negative impact that the rapid expansion of the company and introduction of new working practices can cause on new employees and employees recruited as experienced personnel alike. Through these initiatives, we will continue to create environments in which employees develop and feel a strong sense of purpose.

    Details of health management plans
    Plan1 Creation of systems and environments to promote health management
    Plan2 Implementation of health policies conforming to data and the actual conditions of employees
    Plan3 Enhancement of stress management

    Murata's health management strategy map

    We are creating a health management strategy map to achieve specific measures, by identifying management issues to solve through health management and then setting goals to solve these issues.

    Murata's health management strategy map

    See large image Open in New Window

    Health management promotion based on the Health Management Plan

    The Health Management Plan is not a unilateral order from headquarters management, but is instead voluntarily promoted by each business site based on actual conditions. To increase effectiveness, we conduct "Health Management Plan Dialog Meetings" (held four times a year) and cycle through PDCA. These dialog meetings are attended by industrial physicians, health nurses, and nurses from 28 business sites, health promotion function clerical staff, safety function staff, human resource function staff, and members of the Health Insurance Society. During each meeting, participants review company-wide topics and share and discuss cases from each business site. In the "PLAN" phase, participants confirm what Murata wants to be as well as the objectives of each plan and determine important company-wide topics for the coming year as well as initiatives to be taken by each business site. Furthermore, these dialog meetings serve as an opportunity for getting inspiration for better measures (DO), reflecting on topics, and reviewing results (CHECK). On the basis of the knowledge obtained, each business site examines "ACTION" to make further improvement. Furthermore, officers in charge periodically take part in "Industrial Physicians Meetings," in which all industrial physicians in our company participate, and in "Health Staff Meetings," in which health nurses and nurses participate. The officers in charge discuss how to promote the health management at Murata with other participants. In this way, we practically apply "autonomous and distributed organizational operation" specified in Vision 2030 to the promotion of health management.

    Link: Vision 2030 (long-term direction)

    Image of health management
    Health management promotion based on the Health Management Plan

    Benefits of health management

    The management challenge we intend to meet through health management is "realizing the virtuous cycle model between individuals and the organization."
    We use the following indicators to determine whether employees are able to feel healthy while working in safe workplaces, as a means of verifying the effectiveness of health management.

    1. Outcome indicators

    (1) Self-Rated Health

    At Murata, we define "health" not as being healthy and strong, but as a state where the body, mind, and relationship between people and society are in harmony. We therefore believe that this goes beyond whether someone is medically healthy. The employees themselves must also feel healthy. The "Self-Rated Health" indicator is not a numerical result from a medical examination, but is instead subjectively evaluates an individual's own state of health. We use a stress check question ("Regardless of any illnesses you might or might not have, do you feel healthy?") to score this.

    (2) Presenteeism/absenteeism

    "Enhancement of stress management" is listed as a key initiative in the Health Management Plan. We can create and provide value to customers (CS) by ensuring that our employees feel healthy and work at peak performance. Our goal is for employees themselves to feel meaningfulness and development (ES) through this process. At Murata, we believe that this will create "engagement." We believe that our employees are at the foundation of our company. At the same time, the environment around Murata continues to change drastically, including changes to our business environment and working practices. We will continue to promote efforts to keep employees healthy and working at peak performance. We have set presenteeism and absenteeism as indicators for these initiatives.

    ●1. Presenteeism
    We began using presenteeism for monitoring purposes, in order to determine the level of performance of employees. We first determine the current situation, and then we convert the passing of years into a number and consider whether the level of performance is suitable for Murata.

    ●2. Absenteeism (ratio of employees taking leave of at least one month)
    Instead of aiming for no employees taking sick leave, we focus on establishing environments where employees suffering from significantly reduced performance can easily ask for advice if they feel down either physically or mentally. By discovering these issues early on and handling them (or having employees take sick leave as soon as possible), we aim to get employees back into working shape, as quickly as possible. By discovering these issues before they become long-term problems, we continue to monitor our employees to ensure that there are no significant fluctuations in absenteeism.

    (3) Indicator of sleep improvement (whether sleep makes you feel refreshed [stress check])

    Quality of sleep has a significant effect on both body and mind, and we are focused on improving the quality of sleep of our employees.
    We visualize trends based on negative responses to a stress check item ("I do not sleep well"), for use as an initiative result indicator.

    (4) Ratio of high-risk employees

    At Murata, we monitor the ratio of high-risk employees, as an indicator to objectively evaluate the results of our health management initiatives. We have extracted information from regular medical examinations (both examinations and responses) and stress checks, and have set 12 items covering four biological risks (blood pressure, blood fat, obesity, and blood glucose), four lifestyle risks (smoking, drinking, exercise, and sleep refreshment), and four psychological risks (stress, life satisfaction, job satisfaction, and subjective health view). Depending on the number of risks an employee has, we evaluate their health risk level (low, medium, or high) and monitor numbers over time.

    Item FY 2020 FY 2021 FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
    Self-Rated Health indicator: Rate of respondents answering "I am healthy (stress check)" (consolidated [Japan]) 78% 77% 77% 77% 78%
    Presenteeism: Average of responses to "Please rate your past four weeks of work on a scale of 0 to 10, with 10 being the work performance you can demonstrate without illness or injury" (consolidated [Japan]) 7.1 7.1 7.1 7.1 7.1
    Absenteeism: Ratio of employees taking at least one straight month of leave (consolidated [Japan]) 0.8% 0.9% 1.0% 1.0% 1.1%
    Improvement of sleep indicator: Ratio of negative responses to "I do not sleep well (stress check)" (consolidated [Japan]) 79% 79% 78% 78% 79%
    Ratio of high-risk employees: Ratio of employees for whom five or more risk assessment items apply (consolidated [Japan]) 19% 19% 18% 18% 17%
    • Data current as of March 31, 2025

    Health management initiatives for meeting Murata's management challenge of "realizing the virtuous cycle model between individuals and the organization"

    Here, we introduce Murata's initiatives in detail. We will continue to promote initiatives to establish environments in which each and every employee can work while feeling healthy.

    Initiatives for maintaining and improving the health of employees aged 50 and over

    As an Innovator in Electronics, Murata must continue to increase the value of the human capital that serves as our source of innovation, in order to continue to create value for society. We introduced the "retirement at 65 system" in fiscal 2024 as one initiative in this area.
    The goal of the new system is to provide experienced employees aged 50 and over with environments to continue to work safely until 65, so that they can (1) leverage their experience in demonstrating their ability and knowledge to the maximum and continue to work and contribute, (2) obtain and demonstrate further knowledge and ability with a willingness to adapt to change and take on challenges in new areas and duties, and (3) consider their careers with an eye on their lives after retirement in order to choose how they will work after 60. Of course, as people age, they begin to suffer from reduced physical functionality. In order to become what Murata wants to be, we must implement initiatives to help reduce the health impediments that come with age.
    Instead of tackling all physical functions that decrease with age, Murata is promoting initiatives focused on those impediments that most affect the ability of employees aged 50 and over to continue to work. Based on insight from the fields of medicine and gerontology, and the actual conditions of employees aged 50 and older at Murata, we are focusing particularly on the risk of heart disease due to the weakening of the circulatory system, and the risk of industrial incidents involving falling due to reduced muscle strength and physical strength. First, in fiscal 2024 we began conducting physical strength checks for employees aged 50 and older, as a means of determining the actual conditions of employees.
    In order for employees aged 50 and over to stay healthy and continue to work and contribute, we will provide health support to increase employee engagement.

    Initiatives to help enhancement of stress management

    "Enhancement of stress management" is an initiative listed in our Health Management Plan, and is taken from a viewpoint of how employees can overcome significant changes in working practices incorporating remote work. In order to achieve this, we believe that it is important for individuals to "trust, cooperate, and harmonize with each other." However, we have found that new employees joining our organization are experiencing the most difficulty accomplishing this. To begin with, it is stressful for new employees to become accustomed to the new environment and develop relationships with co-workers. Accordingly, we have decided to take measures that focus on "new employees," "employees recruited as experienced personnel," "employees dispatched from overseas (employees dispatched from overseas sites to Japan)," and "employees dispatched to overseas sites (employees dispatched from Japan to overseas sites)." We conduct stress management, in order for these employees to exercise their abilities and cooperate with many people.

    1. Support for new employees and employees recruited as experienced personnel

    As working practices incorporating remote work diversified, this had the effect of dramatically changing how we communicate. Although the use of online tools has streamlined work and made working practices more diverse, working online has also revealed several issues. For example, it can take time to develop relationships at the workplace, and it can be difficult to precisely monitor employees' mental health and determine whether they are truly feeling well. In order to address these issues, we are working on initiatives to enhance stress management, targeting those employees most easily affected: new employees and employees recruited as experienced personnel.
    One specific initiative is training conducted to help new employees understand the importance of learning how to cope with stress and become comfortable with consulting with others when feeling anxious. We use this to provide opportunities to learn self-care methods and other measures, through group work. Since we confirmed the effects through questionnaires concerning the training program and follow-up interviews, we are now providing stress management training to employees recruited as experienced personnel who are in similar environments.

    Excerpt from the document of stress management training for employees recruited as experienced personnel

    2. Support for employees dispatched from overseas (employees dispatched from overseas sites to Japan) and employees dispatched to overseas sites (employees dispatched from Japan to overseas sites)

    As a globally active company, Murata's employees have diverse experiences and opinions. We aim to provide our employees with a global sense of unity, so that they can work together at peak performance. Murata has many employees dispatched from overseas and many employees dispatched to overseas sites. However, factors such as significant changes in the living environment that accompany working in an unfamiliar country or site and the time it can take to build human networks in new workplaces have put transferred employees under severe stress. It is for this reason that we held self-care training sessions conducted by industrial physicians for employees dispatched from overseas. We prepared the training in both English and Japanese and those employees participated in the training given in either one of the two languages that they can easily understand. (During fiscal 2024, training was conducted two times, with 57 of 65 employees newly dispatched from overseas participating.)
    Since fiscal 2020, we have been enhancing our health follow-up system so that employees dispatched to overseas sites can lead safe, secure, and healthy lives. Before they move overseas, industrial physicians check their health conditions and, as necessary, have interviews with them. Information is distributed by publishing the "First-time guide for overseas business trips," which includes precautions concerning overseas business trips, on the in-house intranet. The Global Human Resources Department and the Health Management Office work together to conduct seminars covering risk management, health management, and mental health for dispatched employees and their families. Participants have stated that they were able to further understand life overseas and that these seminars helped them get rid of anxiety. After they move abroad, they receive regular medical examinations once a year, and are provided with follow-up support based on the examination results. These initiatives help to support the "activity of a diverse workforce," which is a company-wide management target.

    Extract from the document of stress management training for employees dispatched from overseas
    Stress management training for employees dispatched from overseas
    Improvement of sleep: Initiatives to improve shift workers' ES (employee satisfaction)

    In order to improve the ES (employee satisfaction = meaningfulness and development) of shift workers who support Murata's manufacturing sites, we are focusing on improvement of their sleep. We noted that shift workers were seeking advice on sleep problems from the Health Management Office. Conventionally, industrial health professionals provided education on appropriate sleep and gave advice to shift workers. However, such education and advice were no more than general information and advice about sleep and effective countermeasures were not in place. Therefore, since September 2021, having invited Mr. Kazuhiro Yagita, who is a professor at the Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine and a specialist of circadian rhythms and internal body clocks, as an advisor on measures for improvement of sleep, we have been taking various measures to suit conditions at each site. In introducing measures, we share information and hold discussions with the labor union that represents employees.

    Link: Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine Prof. Yagita, Biological Clock Expert, Appointed as “Sleep Improvement Policy Advisor”.

    1. Introducing a "Sleep Questionnaire" and a "Sleep Diary" in response to employees asking for advice on their sleep conditions

    For industrial health professionals to improve their ability to respond, which is required when they are asked by employees for advice about their sleep conditions, we have introduced a "Sleep Questionnaire" for visualizing sleep quality and a "Sleep Diary" for determining lifestyle rhythms. These tools can help to understand the actual conditions and causes of lack of sleep. Information obtained from these tools is utilized along with knowledge about circadian rhythms and internal body clocks, in order to provide employees with more effective advice on their sleep conditions.

    2. Creating sleep education content that incorporates insight into circadian rhythms and internal body clocks

    One major factor behind sleep disorders among shift workers is when waking hours are inconsistent with the worker's internal body clock. This is why we distribute sleep education content for employees and partner company employees incorporating information on circadian rhythms and internal body clocks. For example, in order to keep internal body clocks and lifestyle rhythms more consistent, we prepare "recommended lifestyle rhythm tables" that provide advice based on shift patterns, including the timing in which they are exposed to light, the timing of meals, what they should eat, and how to spend holidays. We also conduct information sessions on sleep, and provide shift workers with opportunities to obtain information required in order to control their own internal body clocks.
    We will continue to investigate how best to reduce the physical stress of shift work, and aim to create environments in which shift workers can continue to work and stay healthy.

    Extract from the document of sleep education contents
    Recommended lifestyle rhythm table
    Recommended lifestyle rhythm table

    3. Arranging light environments to support sleep with better quality

    Being exposed to the optimal type of light for the optimal amount of time is crucial in controlling one's internal body clock. This is why Murata continues to improve light environments. After considering the properties of internal body clocks which are susceptible to light, we installed high-illumination phototherapy equipment capable of emitting light similar to natural light in some manufacturing sites.
    We continue to create environments in which shift workers can more easily control their internal body clocks.

    4. Other initiatives

    We began using the "Fatigue Stress Detector MF100" made by Murata Manufacturing as a means of verifying the results of sleep improvements. This product accurately measures heart rate variabilities based on vital data such as the heart rate and pulse, and visualizes the degree of "fatigue and stress" which could not easily be evaluated objectively. The results of sleep improvements are measured through presenting objective data on the physical and mental conditions of employees.

    Fatigue Stress Detector MF100

    Through these initiatives for improving employees' sleep quality, we support "the health of employees" that is the basis of ES (employee satisfaction = meaningfulness and development), aiming at creating conditions in which each employee can actively work while feeling they are healthy. We are also working to prevent lifestyle diseases by promoting quality sleep.

    Promotion of women's participation in the workplace

    In promoting women's participation in the workplace, Murata aims to establish workplaces that allow anyone regardless of gender to develop their skills through experience, and to engage in dialog and apply themselves diligently. In order to accomplish this, we need to create workplaces with an understanding of women's health. In fiscal 2022, we began holding "Women's health @Murata," an annual seminar on women's health conducted by industrial physicians, for all employees regardless of gender.
    The topic for fiscal 2024 was "mental and physical changes during pregnancy and childbirth." Over 450 individuals participated, and more than 99% of respondents indicated they were "satisfied" with the event on a questionnaire conducted after the seminar. Some examples of comments from women are "I feel less stressed about having a baby" and "I'd like to review the seminar with my husband." Some examples of comments from men are "I didn't realize how much female hormones change from pregnancy until recovering from having a baby" and "This has given me some good advice on supporting my partner." Overall, the seminar was very well-received. Information from the seminar can also be shared with the families of employees and partner company employees. After the seminar, a round-table talk was held on the topic of communicating about women's health in the workplace, with around 20 people participating. The round-table talk was well-received by men and women alike, including members of management.
    We also provide support for women to receive gynecological exams (with a portion of exam fees paid by the Health Insurance Society) to help discover and treat gynecological cancer quickly, in order to further promote women's participation in the workplace and keep women healthy. Gynecological exams are held within the company at the same time as regular medical examinations, in an effort to increase the percentage of women receiving such exams.
    We will continue these initiatives and more as we support women's health in promoting women's participation in the workplace.

    【Topics by fiscal year】
    FY 2022: Seminar on women's health (working women and health)
    FY 2022: Health seminar on menopause

    Balanced support system for both cancer treatment and work

    Today, cancer is a disease that enables patients to work while they receive treatment at hospitals. However, if going through chemotherapy, patients are required to secure time to receive periodic treatment and it is difficult to continue treatment while working at the same pace prior to receiving treatment. As a measure for these time constraints, we have introduced a support system that balances treatment and work for employees who regularly go to the hospital for cancer treatment while they work.We also issue guidebooks so that employees can learn about and make better use of our systems. This initiative helped increase inquiries to the Health Management Office from employees who wish to take sick leave, which will lead to support that is friendly to employees. As shown below, Murata has split various related internal systems into three categories: "early detection and treatment," "recuperation and leave," and "return to work and continued treatment."
    More details on Murata's initiatives can be found on the website of the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

    References
    Link: Measures implemented by MurataOpen in New Window

    Image of measures implemented by Murata

    See large image Open in New Window

    Initiatives related to global health issues

    As a global company, Murata works with industrial physicians to gather and understand information on infectious diseases in countries where Murata employees work or travel for business.
    For employees dispatched to overseas sites (employees dispatched from Japan to overseas sites), we conduct medical examinations in accordance with laws for individuals and their accompanying family members. We also hold seminars conducted by industrial physicians and outside lecturers on overseas risk management and health management for employees prior to traveling overseas, provide important information on living overseas and information on infectious diseases (such as tuberculosis and malaria) prevalent in the destination country, and recommend measures such as vaccines. After arriving overseas, employees are required to receive an annual medical examination, just like employees working in Japan. We strive to keep employees healthy and either prevent or quickly detect infectious diseases. We also share information with local employees working at sites in regions where infectious diseases are spreading.
    For employees dispatched from overseas (employees dispatched from overseas sites to Japan), we conduct medical examinations when they arrive; conduct antibody testing to check for infectious diseases such as measles, rubella, and chickenpox; and recommend vaccines.

    Measures to prevent infection

    Murata is doing everything possible to perform daily health management and prevent infection, in order to protect the physical and mental health of each employee, meet customers' expectations, and fulfill our social responsibilities as a parts manufacturer supporting social infrastructures. Based on information we obtained during the COVID-19 pandemic, we prepared the "Basic Plan for Responding to New Infectious Diseases," a manual on ensuring that employees stay healthy in preparation for new infectious diseases that may appear in the future. It contains actions broken down into phases, and establishes systems that would allow us to respond promptly to incidents. We aim to prioritize a respect for human life while continuing to supply products and fulfill our social responsibilities, even if a new infectious disease with a significant impact on business appears.
    During the COVID-19 pandemic, we managed site hygiene by preparing alcohol-based sanitizers, recommended remote work and flexible/staggered shifts, instructed sick employees to stay home (with leave compensation exceeding that designated by law), provided personnel system support to provide special paid leave when schools were closed, and held workplace vaccinations at seven sites (including headquarters) for employees and partner company employees.
    In addition to implementing measures to prevent infection, we provided employees with opportunities to discuss health concerns with industrial health professionals, and held online information sessions on COVID-19 conducted by industrial physicians. We also shared materials with employees, partner company employees, and their family members, in order to help keep them healthy and safe. We also provide information on flus and encourage them to receive vaccinations each year.

    Initiatives to stop smoking

    As a health management initiative, we have been promoting countermeasures for smoking since 2018. Through collaborations with the Health Insurance Society, we are expanding the smoking cessation program and are creating an environment to prevent people from breathing in second-hand smoke. In the last few years, we have been taking initiatives such as stopping selling cigarettes in our concession stands and vending machines, hosting health events, implementing counseling for all smokers, posting no smoking posters, and abolishing indoor smoking areas, mainly focusing on "creating an internal environment in which employees do not smoke." On the other hand, we have thought that the essence of the theme lies in "increasing the number of employees who do not smoke," and have changed our approach to measures against smoking since fiscal 2021. With an attitude of "assisting smokers, who want to stop smoking, in stopping it," we provide encouragement by utilizing the nudge theory, cooperate with the Health Insurance Society, and introduce non-smoking programs which utilize ICT.

    Promotion poster which utilizes the nudge theory
    Initiatives based on law

    At Murata, we are working to establish workplaces where employees and partner company employees alike are healthy in mind and body, through such measures as conducting regular medical examinations and making use of organizational examinations and workplace feedback based on the stress checks. We continue our efforts to ensure that all employees receive regular medical examinations. For fiscal 2023, 98% of employees received stress checks (10,806 out of 10,995 eligible [single-organization data]).

    Indicators related to health management initiatives FY 2020 FY 2021 FY 2022 FY 2023 FY 2024
    Rate of employees receiving regular medical examinations (single-organization data) 100% 100% 100% 100% 100%
    Rate of employees receiving stress checks (single-organization data) 98% 99% 98% 98% 98%
    Rate of participants reporting high levels of stress on stress checks (single-organization data) 7.2% 7.6% 7.7% 7.4% 7.5%
    • Data current as of March 31, 2025
    Chosen as a "Health and Productivity Management Organization (Large Company Division) (White 500)"

    Due to our management philosophy, organizations, and initiatives for "health management," Murata has been selected for nine continuous years (from 2017 to 2025) as a "Health and Productivity Management Organization (Large Company Division) (White 500)" by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and Nippon Kenko Kaigi.

    Company with Excellent Health Management (White 500)

    Related Links

    Please find our latest information and activities on our social media sites

    • linkedin
    • facebook
    • YouTubeIcon