Policy

Our policy on human resource development

Tokai Carbon’s corporate philosophy is “Ties of Reliability” and our five Code of Conduct principles are “Integrity” “Innovation” “Challenge” “Co-creation” and “Agility”. Tokai Carbon Group will welcome the people who get into alignment with our corporate philosophy and guidelines. With those and external partners, that have diverse values and backgrounds, we will actively collaborate together to pursue innovation in an accelerated manner in this fast moving volatile era. We believe that human resources who can contribute to the realization of a sustainable society will be developed through this process.

Our policy on organizing our in-house environment

The Tokai Carbon Group will create an organization and culture that is free, and open-minded, so that employees of diverse values and backgrounds can refine and develop themselves towards reaching our long-term vision “Contribute to a sustainable society through advanced material and solutions”. We will promote work-style reform and set a proper personnel system with competitive treatment that can attract diverse human resources. Tokai Carbon shall provide various training programs based on the employee’s development stage, character, and requests to support the development of each employee. The human rights of the employee shall be respected as much as possible and harassment shall not be tolerated. The management shall make efforts to place importance on the health of the employees and their family members, based on the Tokai Carbon Health Management Declaration, and shall provide asset-building support for our employees through pension programs and employee stock ownership plans.

Basic ideas

Basic ideas on hiring and employment

Tokai Carbon guarantees fair employment opportunities for all individuals and considers only aptitudes and strengths in making hiring decisions. We make no distinctions based on race, geographic origin, nationality, age, gender, sexual orientation, or disability.
In hiring recent college graduates, we seek goal-oriented, self-directed individuals who welcome challenges, are problem solvers, and will cooperate with others. When it comes to mid-career hires, we look for people who have skills that respond to our overseas business development, technical development, and other business needs.

Initiatives

Initiatives for Human resource development

【Certification and ranking system】

Tokai Carbon operates a certification and ranking system that differs depending on career development track, as defined by responsibilities, department assignment, and rotation. This system allows career development tracks to be changed based on Company needs or employee preferences and opens the door to rapid promotion of outstanding individuals.

【Evaluation system】

We employ a goal management system that outlines performance goals and topics to clarify goals for each employee. The annual policy for each workplace, which reflects the management policies of the medium-term management plan, etc., will be used to establish the individual goals. Twice every year, each employee will participate in a meeting with their superiors, during which they will set specific goals and be given progress evaluations to increase individual motivation, promote personnel development, and ensure performance management.
To promote understanding of the personnel evaluation system and goal management system, and to eliminate inconsistency in evaluations, we provide training for employees who have become a new evaluators to ensure the effective implementation of the system.
In addition, based on the belief that personnel evaluations are an important element that contributes to human resource development and improved communication between superiors and subordinates, we are working to improve employee engagement by informing on-site supervisors and other managerial employees about appropriate interview and feedback methods and putting them into practice.
Furthermore, through an interview conducted every year for every employee with not more than 10 years of working history with their superior, as well as with the Human Resources Department managerial member, to confirm their future career path, we understand their work progress, the degree to which they are reaching their potential, and any concerns they may have about their future careers, which helps in the placement of the right people in the right positions.

【Improving employee engagement】

Improving employee engagement not only increases corporate productivity, improves customer satisfaction, and reduces turnover, but also enriches the lives of each employee through improved job satisfaction and work-life balance.
Tokai Carbon has been conducting an employee engagement survey targeting all employees since 2023. The survey is conducted annually, with ongoing monitoring and post-survey improvement actions being undertaken by each organization.
For the 2024 survey, 94% of employees responded, and while "supportive behavior (from superiors)" was found to be an area of strength, the areas of "facility environment" and "system and treatment" were found to be areas of challenge, as in the previous year's survey. We are working to improve the environment so that employees can thrive, including by investing in equipment to improve the working environment in response to requests from each business site and introducing a system to review the treatment of re-employed contract employees (implemented in 2024).
As improvement actions following the investigations in each organization, plans are formulated and implemented at the division, headquarters, business division, and each business sites (plants and laboratories) level, including strengthening communication within the workplace. Additionally, best practices for improvement activities in each organization are shared on the in-house portal site.

【Self-assessment】

Tokai Carbon has a system under which employees — mainly general career-track employees whose professional education includes position rotations — annually assess the volume and quality of their work and express desires for current and future positions and locations. This information is communicated to the Human Resources Department by employees in personal interviews. It is used by the department as basic input for making career development and training decisions, and for assessing individual positions and workplace environments.

【Education and training】

1. Specialized training

   Specialized training programs launched in 2017 include study abroad language training, next-generation leader training, and executive management training on a selective basis to secure future executive candidates. In 2024, we held the next-generation leader training for about nine months targeting for four employees selected from within the company, and a study abroad language training program (online) for two young and mid-career employees.

   For 2025, we will provide executive management training for approximately seven months to two selected senior managers from within the company, and we will also provide abroad language training program, with one person studying in Chicago and two others online. The outcome will be reported to the management by the training participants after completion of the training programs.

2. Stratified training

   In terms of stratified training, training for general managers, managers, management leaders, and senior staff is conducted as training courses for managerial staff, while leadership training, cafeteria style training (where the participants freely select a program for skills that are useful for their work), global training, career design training, step-up training, second-year training, and new hire training are conducted for the younger generation. Training for managerial staff accepts trainees from group companies if so requested.

   New hire training has been enhanced from 2019, with on-site training at plants, in addition to head office introductory training for approximately three months, in order to provide new hires with basic knowledge regarding safety and production management, etc. required of employees of a manufacturing company.

   In 2021, stratified training has been further enhanced and opportunities to learn career designs, creation of a global mindset, basic knowledge of MBA, etc., will be provided annually to the younger generation with one to seven years of work experience and for each job class for the managerial staff.

   In 2024, the average number of hours of training per employee for specialized training and stratified training was 16 hours per year.

   In addition, we have established a correspondence education system and a public qualification incentive system for the purpose of self-improvement of individuals. As part of this growing culture of encouraging self-improvement, we have implemented a new public qualification incentive system from April 2019, including increased lump-sum incentives for public qualifications.

Work-life balance

Tokai Carbon allows employees to take childcare leave for up to two years following the birth of a child, and nursing care leave for a total of 93 days per family. Employees may also work shortened hours up to the time their children complete the third grade of elementary school.　These benefits exceed statutory standards and give employees a relatively high level of flexibility in meeting family needs.
Regarding annual paid leave, our policies offer even greater flexibility with not only planned leave of at least five days but also systems for taking half days and accumulating expired leave.
In 2021, we received certification from the Minister of Health, Labor and Welfare as a company that supports child-rearing, under the Ministry’s Kurumin recognition program.

Promoting diversity

【Continuous employment system】

We have established a program for re-employment as non-regular employees, allowing motivated and capable senior human resources to continue working after retirement. In 2024, we continued the employment of all 13 people who requested to stay on. In addition, to analyze future human resource structures, maintain and improve the motivation of senior employees, and create the expectation that they will perform as well as during their working years, we revised our personnel treatment system and introduced a revised program for re-employment as non-regular employees in 2024 that will allow senior employees to receive roughly the same treatment as when they were still working, in accordance with their performance, which will begin operating in 2025.
Furthermore, succession planning has also become an issue with the aging of the workforce, and starting in 2024, the Human Resources Department began interviewing each department general manager, division general manager, and other person in charge about plans for successors to those in managerial positions and those due to retire in each department, as well as development plans for young and mid-career employees.
In this way, we will broaden the scope of our activities beyond just ensuring continued employment for senior employees, to also addressing the need to develop successors in conjunction with the aging of the workforce, thereby promoting the ensuring of stable workforce, revitalization of our systems, and other measures linked to the future.

【Opportunities for women】

In the General Employer Action Plan based on the Act on Promotion of Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace, which was formulated in 2025, we have set targets for the five-year period starting from April 2025, including increasing the ratio of female managers to 7.0% by the end of 2029, and reducing the average monthly overtime hours of all full-time employees to 25 hours or less in each fiscal year of the plan period. To achieve this targets, we will work to increase the proportion of women among new graduate hires for career-track positions to 30% or more, and to establish a supportive working environment that is easy to work in for employees who need to raise children or provide nursing care for family members. The percentage of females to the total number of new graduates taken on for career-track positions hired in 2025 reached 25%. We will continue with efforts to create an even better workplace environment.

【Expanding hiring of people with disabilities】

As of June 1, 2024, our employment rate of persons with disabilities is 2.14%, which is below the statutory employment rate. In order to achieve the statutory employment rate, Tokai Carbon will strive to create a comfortable working environment and actively hire persons with disabilities.

＜Employing person with disabilities in TOKAI farm＞
We began working to cultivate vegetables with special needs individual using a corporate farm.Two farm managers and six staff members are engaged in a hydroponics facility in an indoor farm.We can harvest leafy vegetables, such as pine and vegetables, in about one month after sowing. The harvested vegetables are distributed to employees.
These initiatives are one of our means to ensure employment for person with disabilities and contribute to the realization of a symbiotic society.

Seeding scene

Employees of TOKAI firms

Performance

【HR-related data(Non-consolidated)】Excluding fixed-term workers

【Consolidated employment figures by region】

【Training conducted】

【Work-life balance data】