Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Ltd.

Recruiting and Employment

Basic Approach and Policy

The Group’s business activities would not be possible without its employees.

A target of ensuring that 20% or more of newly graduated recruits are women has been defined, to promote the advancement of women. Current social circumstances will also be taken into consideration to raise starting salaries, with further improvements to be applied in a flexible manner.

In addition, we recognize that more active career recruitment is required to improve the performance of the individual and the organization by maximizing the personal attributes and capability of all members of our diverse workforce. Therefore, we have set the ratio of career recruitment as a new KPI for Material Issues (non-consolidated, targeting career-track recruits). We will aim for 30% in fiscal 2024, 40% in fiscal 2026, and 50% in fiscal 2030.

These initiatives are being reported to the Sustainability Promotion Committee, which monitors, reviews, and makes changes to recruitment practices.

Number of Group Employees and Executive Officers

Numbers of Employees in Japan and Overseas (as of March 31, 2024)

(Unit: Persons)
Directors Executive Officer Employees Temporary employees*1 Total
Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Ltd. 9 14 1,633 195 1,851
Subsidiaries in Japan 28 - 1,441 295 1,764
Overseas subsidiaries 32 - 4,819 337 5,188
Total 69 14 7,893 827 8,803
  • *The number of Corporate Officers is shown as the number of Directors, including Part-time Directors.
  • * The numbers of Directors of subsidiaries in Japan and overseas include Directors sent from Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Ltd. This figure represents the number of standing corporate officers not serving concurrently in other positions.
  • *1 Temporary employees: part-time and casual workers

Breakdown of Employees by Region, Age, and Gender (as of March 31, 2024)

(Unit: Persons)
Male
Region Age 29 or younger Age 30 to 49 Age 50 or older Subtotal
Japan 250 1,134 1,139 2,523
East Asia 105 649 95 849
Southeast Asia 151 523 136 810
North America 66 195 254 515
Europe 28 153 135 316
Total 600 2,654 1,759 5,013
(Unit: Persons)
Female
Region Age 29 or younger Age 30 to 49 Age 50 or older Subtotal
Japan 119 240 192 551
East Asia 66 441 41 548
Southeast Asia 340 848 290 1,478
North America 27 108 117 252
Europe 4 28 19 51
Total 556 1,665 659 2,880
(Unit: Persons)
Male　Female　Total Total
Region Age 29 or younger Age 30 to 49 Age 50 or older
Japan 369 1,374 1,331 3,074
East Asia 171 1,090 136 1,397
Southeast Asia 491 1,371 426 2,288
North America 93 303 371 767
Europe 32 181 154 367
Total 1,156 4,319 2,418 7,893
  • * Numbers for Japan are the total for Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Ltd. and its domestic subsidiaries.

Breakdown of the Number of Temporary Employees by Gender and by Region (as of March 31, 2024)

(Unit: Persons)
Male Female Total
Number of temporary employees 366 461 827
(Unit: Persons)
Japan East Asia Southeast Asia North America Europe Total
Number of temporary employees 490 171 138 21 7 827
  • * Numbers for Japan are the total for Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Ltd. and its domestic subsidiaries.

Breakdown of Employee Turnover Number in Fiscal 2023 by Gender, Age, and Region

(Unit: Persons)
Male Female Total Age 29 or younger Age 30 to 49 Age 50 or older Total
Number of persons 441 393 834 387 395 52 834
Ratio of employees as of March 31, 2024 9% 14% 11% 33% 9% 2% 11%
(Unit: Persons)
Japan East Asia Southeast Asia North America Europe Total
Number of persons 99 419 106 176 34 834
Ratio of employees as of March 31, 2024 3% 30% 5% 23% 9% 11%
  • * Numbers for Japan are the total for Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Ltd. and its domestic subsidiaries.

Breakdown of Employee Turnover Number in Fiscal 2023 by Gender, Age, and Region

(Unit: Persons)
Male Female Total Age 29 or younger Age 30 to 49 Age 50 or older Total
Number of persons 504 375 879 245 413 221 879
Ratio of employees as of March 31, 2024 10% 13% 11% 21% 10% 9% 11%
(Unit: Persons)
Japan East Asia Southeast Asia North America Europe Total
Number of persons 152 340 156 192 39 879
Ratio of employees as of March 31, 2024 5% 24% 7% 25% 11% 11%
  • * Numbers for Japan are the total for Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Ltd. and its domestic subsidiaries.

Company Employee Recruitment (numbers of newly graduated/career recruits)

(Unit: Persons)
Recruitment upon graduation Fiscal 2019 Fiscal 2020 Fiscal 2021 Fiscal 2022 Fiscal 2023 Fiscal 2024
Number of Company employees recruited 37 38 43 55 45 60
Ratio of newly graduated recruits*1 90.2% 84.4% 75.4% 83.3% 72.6%
Male 31 34 33 45 34 ―
Female 6 4 10 10 11 ―
(Unit: Persons)
Career recruitment Fiscal 2019 Fiscal 2020 Fiscal 2021 Fiscal 2022 Fiscal 2023 Fiscal 2024
(Planned)
Number of Company employees recruited 4 7 14 11 17 20
Ratio of career employee recruitment*2 9.8% 15.6% 24.6% 16.7% 27.4%
Male 2 7 12 10 16 ―
Female 2 0 2 1 1 ―
  • * Figure for Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Ltd. (non-consolidated basis).
  • *1, 2 The ratios of newly graduated recruits and career recruits are given as percentages of the total recruit count for the relevant fiscal year (the sum of newly graduated recruits and career employee recruits).
  • *2 The ratio of career employee recruitment pertains to disclosure of mid-career recruitment under the Act on Comprehensive Promotion of Labor Measures.
  • * Does not include persons forwarded from other companies or employees reassigned from subsidiaries or affiliates in Japan.
  • * Includes temporary employees who are not post-retirement hires.
  • * Since employee recruitment is gender-neutral, the gender composition of the planned intake of new employees for fiscal 2024 is unknown, and is not covered by third-party assurance.

Breakdown of the Number of Newly Recruited Employees in Fiscal 2023 (by gender and age)

(Unit: Persons)
Age 29 or younger Age 30 to 49 Age 50 or older
Number of Newly Recruited Employees in Fiscal 2023 47 14 1
Male 36 13 1
Female 11 1 0
  • * Figure for Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Ltd. (non-consolidated basis).
  • * Counted based on the person’s age when they were hired.

Retention of Newly Graduated Recruits (within three years of being hired)

(Unit: Persons)
Fiscal 2019 Fiscal 2020 Fiscal 2021
Number of men hired 24 26 25
Number of women hired 6 4 6
Number of men retained 22 24 25
Number of women retained 5 2 6
Retention rate 3 years after joining company (Male) 91.7% 92.3% 100.0%
Retention rate 3 years after joining company (Female) 83.3% 50.0% 100.0%
Retention rate 3 years after joining company (Total) 90.0% 86.7% 100.0%
  • * The numbers in the table represent the rate among newly graduated recruits with at least a bachelor’s degree.
  • * Figure for Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Ltd. (non-consolidated basis).
  • * For fiscal 2021, this indicates the percentage of employees hired on April 1, 2021, who were still employed with the company on April 1, 2024.

Employee Turnover and Turnover Rate in Fiscal 2023 (by gender and age)

(Unit: Persons)
Male Female Total Age 29 or younger Age 30 to 49 Age 50 or older Total
Number of persons 80 10 90 6 20 64 90
Number of employees as of March 31, 2024 1,411 222 1,633 216 692 725 1,633
Ratio of employees as of March 31, 2024 5.7% 4.5% 5.5% 2.8% 2.9% 8.8% 5.5%
  • * Figure for Sumitomo Bakelite Co., Ltd. (non-consolidated basis).
  • Counted based on the person’s age when they left the company.

Difference in Average Continued Years of Service (Average Years of Employment) between Males and Menand Women in the Company

(Unit: years)
Fiscal 2021 Fiscal 2022 Fiscal 2023
Male 22.3 23.1 23.4
Female 21.5 21.3 22.1
  • *Average continued years of service of full-time employees (including contract employees) of Sumitomo Bakelite as of the end of the fiscal year.

Regarding Retirement Benefit Obligations

Regarding retirement benefit systems, the Company employs a defined-benefit system in Japan. Overseas, some consolidated subsidiaries concurrently use defined-contribution and defined benefit systems.　The consolidated retirement benefit obligations for fiscal 2023 totaled ¥36.9 billion, and ¥45.9 billion for pension funds.