For Furukawa Electric’s greetings, we say "Go-Kenko-Ni!" (stay healthy) along with the manufacturing industry’s beloved greetings, "Go-Anzen-Ni!" (stay safe) among employees to raise each employee’s awareness of health.
In “Five-Year Medium-term Plan for Occupational Health ” toward 2025, the Company promotes health promotion activities based on the five pillars of improving employees’ health literacy, physical function, mental health, metabolic syndrome, and smoking cessation, aiming to realize “a company where everyone works vigorously, keeps growing and is proud.“
In order to visualize the relationship between the issues we wish to solve through health management and various measures, including the five pillars, we have created a health management strategy map to enhance the effectiveness of our efforts.
In order to evaluate and analyze business performance, we use the Work Functioning Impairment Scale (WFun) as a presenteeism indicator to calculate the percentage of employees with 21 or more points (moderate or higher). The percentage, which was 24.5% in FY2020, is decreasing to 23.3% in FY 2021, 21.0% in FY 2022, and 19.6% in FY2023. The absenteeism indicator is calculated based on the number of days of absence from work due to long-term illness per employee, which was 5.73, 5.13, 4.81 and 5.68 days during the same four-year period. The work engagement assessment, where the three items of the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale were measured, is shifting 3.09, 2.99, 3.03 and 3.04 points respectively during the same four-year period.
The Company started a " Short Message of Health Declaration" by all executives and employees to promote health and improve health literacy in 2018. Every employee considers what they will carry out to improve their own health and gives a message at their workplace.
In accordance with the Guidelines issued by the Labor Standards Bureau, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, entitled “Measures to be taken by employers to prevent health impairment due to overwork”, we strive to manage the health of employees who work long hours by implementing strict limitations on working hours based on the health checkup results and by arranging consultations for such workers with occupational physicians.
Mental health measures started at the Company in FY 2002. We have introduced a counseling system based on an external employee assistance program (EAP) and company-wide mental health education programs, including line-care and self-care training, and have rolled out various mental health education company-wide. We introduced a stress check system in FY2016 in accordance with the revised law. We also provide the opportunity for employees to consult with a doctor.
<Rate of employees undergoing stress check>
| FY2019 | FY2020 | FY2021 | FY2022 | FY2023 |
| 97.7% | 97.3% | 97.0% | 96.1% | 96.2% |
The company has been fully implementing measures for smoking prevention including prevention of passive smoking and promotion of smoking cessation since FY 2003. We have achieved the company-wide goals of “no smoking during working hours (FY2017)” and “no smoking on the premises (FY2020).” The percentage of employees who smoke continued a downward trend from 48.2% in FY 2003, reaching 20.3% in FY 2021, 19.7% in FY 2022, and 19.2% in FY 2023 showing that our initiatives have had a positive impact on the lifestyles and habits of the employees. Going forward, we will continue to provide employees with education and consultations by occupational physicians on smoking cessation guidance to help smokers quit smoking.
The falling accident increases with age. There is a risk of an increasing number of falling accidents as the members of the Company are aging; We have introduced education to prevent falling accidents and exercises (workout) since FY 2016.
We hold seminars, etc. to help employees have quality sleep, introducing a portable kit for the early detection of sleep apnea syndrome.
For overseas business trips and assignments, in accordance with the "Guidebook to Health Management for Overseas Workers" established by Furukawa Electric Group, the Group conducts medical checkups (before and after the business trip, periodical checkups during the assignment), provides vaccinations (hepatitis A, hepatitis B, tetanus, Japanese encephalitis, rabies, measles and rubella, typhoid, polio, etc.), and publishes a Health Management Handbook for expatriates. The Guidebook is made by the supervising occupational physicians and occupational health nurses, collecting and analyzing various information from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the World Health Organization (WHO), etc. The contents are revised as necessary. We respond to a variety of health risks including infectious diseases associated with overseas business trips and assignments by continuously implementing these in-house measures.
The world has been facing global health challenges caused by the three major infectious diseases: HIV (AIDS), tuberculosis, and malaria since before Covid-19 started spreading. The increase in the number of infected people and deaths is leading to a decline in the labor force, economic stagnation, increased poverty and orphans. It also leads to social problems such as human rights issues of the infected people. The Group plans and implements various training programs to ensure that employees have the appropriate knowledge of these issues, and will proactively respond to these global health issues.