Initiatives to Promote Equity & Inclusion and Increase Diversity

The Nari-Kirin Training was created by five young female sales employees. After conducting multiple pilot training sessions, they carried out a trial within the company.

The training’s originality and effectiveness were highly recognized, and since 2019 it has been implemented across the entire Kirin Group.

The Nari-Kirin Training allows participants to experience simulated lifestyles of people balancing various life circumstances, such as parents managing childcare and household tasks, caregivers, and those caring for sick family members. Through the experience, the training aims to:

This training delivers various positive outcomes and can also be used as a rehearsal for real-life situations requiring support.

The Nari-Kirin Training was given to a wide range of employees regardless of gender or employment type, spreading awareness of work-life balance support throughout the entire group.

While participating in the Nari-Kirin Training, participants may receive random calls about once or twice a month from locations related to participant-chosen settings, such as daycare centers or hospitals.

In such cases, participants must immediately hand over their work to the team and leave the office. After leaving, they are free to use the time to broaden their personal interests.

For an employee to balance their work and life, it is essential to have the understanding and cooperation of supervisors and colleagues.

Therefore, during the Nari-Kirin Training, participants need to disclose their participation in training to their colleagues and supervisors, thus the training also promotes support from those around them.

*The photo showing that they are notifying others that they are currently participating in the Nari‑Kirin Training.

The Nari-Kirin Training is effective not only in supporting work-life balance, but also in various aspects such as reviewing work styles, improving teamwork, and promoting motivation and job satisfaction.

A particularly notable feature is that it brings about changes and awareness not only to the participants themselves but also to those around them.

Below, we introduce the effects of the training along with feedback from the participants.

In 2018, in Tottori Prefecture, a program called "Don't Panic with Nursing Care or Childcare! Family Boss Practice Project," based on Nari-Kirin, was launched to create a system that allows employees, colleagues, supervisors, and companies to respond flexibly without panic when employees face work restrictions due to nursing care or childcare.

In 2019, Hiroshima Prefecture and Kirin signed an agreement to promote women's active participation in society. The　two parties collaborated to share know-how on creating adequate working environments where employees can manage childcare or nursing care without stress. The two parties also agreed to share expertise related to the Nari-Kirin Training.

The initiative also shared an overview of the training with various companies, which also began to include training into their efforts.

The Kirin Group embraces CSV (Creating Shared Value) management and aims to become an innovative organization in which every employee adds something new through their work—“Better Today Than Yesterday, Better Tomorrow Than Today.” Achieving this vision requires a strong foundation of harmony between work and life.

We believe it is the company’s responsibility to create a workplace where no one has to give up on opportunities to thrive because of challenges in balancing work and life. We therefore position work-life balance support as a key Equity initiative that removes barriers and enables diverse talent to thrive. Through support systems, training, seminars, and initiatives to improve working practices, we help employees balance their work with childcare, caregiving, medical treatment, and other life events.

The Kirin Group addresses unconscious bias, highlighting the disparities in awareness among people.

Specifically, we provide trainings designed to help participants recognize and understand their own unconscious biases, gain knowledge and insights, and develop good behavioral habits. This prevents such biased stereotypes from hindering co-creation among employees.

The Kirin Group believes that inclusion is a prerequisite for diverse talent to thrive within the organization and a driver of innovation. Based on this belief, we are committed to creating a psychologically safe workplace, which highlights inclusion.

To build a shared understanding of psychological safety throughout the Kirin Group and promote constructive dialogue and healthy debate among team members, we provide training that equips employees with foundational knowledge and helps translate that understanding into actions that foster psychologically safe workplaces.

Since 2025, we have offered role-specific training programs for leaders and team members to cultivate an organizational culture in which diverse perspectives are respected and people can engage in candid, constructive dialogue.

Promoting diversity is not just an issue for the headquarters or diversity promotion departments but a company-wide management challenge.

The management team actively communicates to instill the principles both internally and externally. The company has also established a company-wide system for HR evaluation, talent development and training, and recognition to help drive behavioral and awareness reforms from the management level to general employees.