We are working to provide opportunities for and an environment in which people with disabilities can demonstrate their abilities to work and thrive.
At Head Office departments and nationwide bases, we have created a suitable environment for people with disabilities to work on their own and rolled out the hiring of persons with disabilities in a teamwork-based structure. Extending to the Head Office, Chiba Complex, Advanced Technology Research Laboratories, and Tokuyama Complex, teamwork in this context refers to a workstyle where multiple people with disabilities work as a team to help enhance the productivity of the entire company by taking on tasks from various internal departments. This can be broken down into three specific categories. The first is cleaning and office support tasks at the Advanced Technology Research Laboratories as well as the cultivation of flowering plants using the greenhouse facilities of our laboratories (Idemitsu Yume Farm). The second is performed under the “Team ☆彡 Kirara” initiative at the Tokuyama Complex and entails managing uniforms and company-owned vehicles, running the strawberry farm using waste heat from the complex, and providing the resulting produce to employees. The third is performed by “Team Artemis” at the Otemachi Head Office, running the mail center, cleaning, and digitizing paper documents as part of our Company-wide paperless initiative.
Going forward, we will create places for people with disabilities to thrive and grow, engrain teamwork, and work to achieve our target of realizing diversity and inclusion in terms of hiring people with disabilities.
Tokuyama Complex opened a strawberry farm to create jobs for people with disabilities and make them feel challenged at work. The farm, which consists of an approximately 150-square-meter vinyl plastic house, utilizes the complex’s utilities such as industrial water, steam, and electricity. Working together with Yamaguchi Prefectural Technology Center for Agricultural and Forestry, the farm aims at harvesting its first strawberries in February. Strawberry cultivation began on November 6, and six personnel manage it under work-sharing system. All strawberries harvested will be served at the employee cafeteria.
The six personnel are engaged in the work of removing unnecessary leaves and cutting flowers that have not been successfully pollinated while receiving technical guidance from the Technology Center. They are cultivating strawberries carefully waiting with eager anticipation for the day when they can provide delicious strawberries to the employees of the complex. Both the tutors from Technology Center and the personnel put their best effort for this project.
The strawberry farm has created convivial society by receiving trainees from neighboring institutions such as special needs schools and offices that support the employment of persons with disabilities.