Human Rights & Diversity

The Yamato Group established the "Yamato Group Human Rights Policy" in 2021 based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, with the aim of realizing a enriched society as stated in the Group's Management Philosophy. This commitment indicates the Yamato Group's intention and direction to respect human rights through a resolution of the Board of Directors. Based on this policy, we will strengthen our efforts to respect human rights.

We have established a Basic Policy on Diversity with the aim of creating a workplace environment that respects the diversity of employees, fosters diverse human resources, and enables them to engage in active roles. Based on the Yamato Group's "DNA" and core value of management by full participation (we all represent the company), we promote diversity throughout the Group by creating a workplace environment where diverse human resources can play an active role and fostering diverse human resources.

As part of the human rights due diligence process, the Yamato Group implements human rights impact assessments for all of our business activities and systematically implements regular reviews of risk mapping for latent issues.
In fiscal 2024, we implemented assessments for the negative impact of our business on human rights, identifying human rights issues by conducting interviews and surveys of our companies and supply chains. We assess the human rights risks of issues identified by calculating their severity and possibility of occurrence based on human rights indices announced by international institutions and other bodies, mapping the results, and implementing initiatives for these issues to reduce risks. We also receive and apply support and advice from external experts regarding identifying human rights risks.

* References “Research on Business and Human Rights: How Companies Should Respond to Business and Human Rights Today” published by the Center for Human Rights Education and Training

Human rights risk map

The results of the human rights impact assessment identified six issues with particularly high severity and possibility of occurrence as ones to be prioritized.
・Power harassment
・Right to access remediation
・Occupational health and safety (employee health and workplace safety)
・Discrimination
・Living wage
・Excessive or unfair working hours

We implement the following initiatives to mitigate human rights risks identified through the results of the human rights impacts assessment as issues to be prioritized.

Additionally, we have set issues to be addressed and goals to be achieved under the Yamato Group Medium-Term Management Plan “Sustainability Transformation 2030~1st Stage~” and aim to steadily achieve these goals. For more details, please see Sustainability Strategies, Goals, and Results.

Group sustainability initiatives, including human rights due diligence, are reviewed by the Yamato Group Social Promotion Committee, which is chaired by the President, and reported to the Board of Directors.

We report human rights initiatives to all stakeholders through methods including our corporate website, Integrated Report, and Annual Securities Report.

The Yamato Group distributes mini booklets explaining its Group Corporate Philosophy to all employees, to enlighten them about the Group's stance on human rights and the importance of respecting human rights. We also create a Group-wide harassment handbook, and conduct training for all employees with the objectives of understanding human rights and preventing harassment. In particular, we educate management personnel, using videos, to enable them to respond appropriately when they receive a report or consultation on human rights issues, including bullying or harassment.

The Yamato Group engages with outside experts on human rights risks and considerations in its business activities. At a stakeholder dialogue held in November 2019, Ryusuke Tanaka, Program Officer of the International Labour Organization (ILO) office in Japan, gave opinions on human rights issues across a wide range of topics, such as labor and supply chain. Going forward, we will continue to incorporate valuable opinions from third-party perspectives into the identification of material issues and consideration of strategies, and make use of them in future initiatives.

It is said that many sexual and gender minorities work in the transportation industry because the differences in the appearance of uniforms worn by male and female employees are minor in comparison with other industries. In order to help create a workplace environment where sexual and gender minorities can engage in active roles in the future, we carried out training for all employees with the goals of better understanding of LGBTQ people and sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) harassment prevention. Furthermore, we have established an external consultation point of contact for employees. It deals with workplace issues related to the sexual orientation and gender identity of the person themselves and also questions about consideration and support from managers and coworkers. At the point of contact, external counselors who have knowledge and understanding of LGBTQ people (LGBTQ people themselves and professional counselors) provide consulting services so users can have peace of mind that their privacy will be taken into consideration and details of consultations and personal information will not be shared with the company without their express permission.

The Yamato Group is developing initiatives in collaboration with Group companies to promote the advancement of women employees.
From fiscal 2024, Yamato Transport has been developing a program for women employees aiming to become managers that focuses on supporting their career development. Further, we have newly established a forum (human resource development meeting) for discussing development to support growth as an individual as an organization and provide scheduled one-on-one training. Determining medium- to long-term experience acquisition centered on the candidate’s career aspirations and regularly confirming progress will lead to fostering determination and building their skill set.

The Yamato Group continues to create employment opportunities for people with disabilities based on our Corporate Stance, which states that we will actively support the independence of people with disabilities and other socially vulnerable people. As of March 31, 2025, the Group employs 3,113 people with disabilities, an employment rate of 3.35%.
From fiscal 2025, we will expand the scope of duties for employees in charge of recruiting people with disabilities, who were previously deployed nationwide by Yamato Transport, to include disability welfare activities. They will also be deployed to other Group companies. In addition to sharing issues with promoting recruitment and examples of success through regular meetings for all recruiters, we collaborate with affiliated organizations (Yamato Welfare Foundation, Swan Co., Ltd., and Yamato Jiritsu Center) to expand existing duties and support the establishment of new ones. Furthermore, we implement training for all employees that promotes understanding of reasonable accommodations for with disabilities and encourages changes in their own behavior.

The Yamato Group has established universal design guidelines to design facilities that customers and employees can use more at ease and more comfortably.

Examples of Universal Design Introduction

Communication Board

At Yamato Transport, we aim to realize an environment in which all our customers can use our TA-Q-BIN services with peace of mind and comfort, including customers with hearing difficulties and those who use languages other than Japanese. From fiscal 2025, we have introduced a “communication board” developed by Yamato Transport that enables customers to send packages and other procedures by pointing at illustrations and words or characters to 767 sales offices in the Tokyo and Kansai areas.

• New Communication Board Enables Hearing-Impaired and Non-Japanese Speakers to Send TA-Q-BIN by Pointing to Illustrations[PDF:708KB]

The Yamato Group employs approximately 8,000 non-Japanese employees. We provide multilingual documents and notices about employment and safety and work manuals for non-Japanese employees in English, Chinese, Nepali, and Vietnamese. We also provide multilingual support in our employee awareness survey, investigate opinions on job satisfaction and ease of working for non-Japanese employees, and reflect our findings in efforts to improve the workplace environment.
To develop a working environment that enables non-Japanese employees to demonstrate their skills with peace of mind and ensure they are not isolated and left behind, we set up a multilingual consultation center (available in English, Nepali, and Vietnamese) from October 2023.

* Scope: consolidated companies in Japan and Swan Co., Ltd.

We organize the Yamato Life Plan Seminar, which provides employees approaching retirement about pension plans, how to work after retirement, and financial planning after retirement. Employees can participate in the seminar with their spouses, and receive assistance for them and their families to transition smoothly to their second life after retirement.