Promoting Diversity, Equity & Inclusion
Mizuho has published the "Human Capital Report" to comprehensively explain how we will create value together with our customers, the economy and society through "Enhancing Human Capital" and "Transforming Corporate Culture". For details on our various human capital initiatives.
Further information
Human Capital Report (PDF/11,948KB)
Ensuring diversity in management and decision-making
Becoming an organization that better enables our people to understand and elevate each other as they exercise their individuality
If we are to respond to constantly changing business needs and continue to drive innovation, it is essential that we respect all diversity and promote DEI in our daily business operations and decision-making, in addition to enhancing the capabilities of our individual employees.
Mizuho’s Commitment to Diversity, Equity & Inclusion sets out our three commitments of “Celebrate diversity”, “Promote work-life satisfaction", and “Create an inclusive culture”. These mean that every employee can flourish in their own way and feel satisfaction and pride in working as a member of Mizuho, in turn creating new value for everyone at Mizuho and for society at large.
Mizuho has been undertaking diversity promotion including the promotion of women’s advancement since the establishment of the group in 2002. And since 2023, we have been undertaking DEI promotion, with Equity added to D&I, in order to create new value globally across the group.
Mizuho’s road map for promotion of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Ensuring diversity in management and decision-making
Mizuho is looking to incorporate more diverse perspectives and values into our operations and decision-making. We consider promotion of women, employees hired outside Japan, and mid-career hires to be particularly important strategic themes and ensuring diversity within management decision-making to be a first step.
Establishment of infrastructure to promote women’s advancement
In increasing the percentage of management positions filled by women, we are focusing on assignment of duties and professional networking. Our comprehensive efforts in this area include mentoring by executive officers training for women appointed to general manager and equivalent positions, as well as opportunities for women in other manager and equivalent positions to learn the appeal of management through talk sessions with women employees who are at a further stage in their careers. In addition, the percentage of women in new graduates hired in Japan, which is one of the key indicators for promoting the development and advancement of women employees over the medium to long term, has been growing steadily.
Career development support for female employees
We launched Career Support Program for Female Employees in FY2016 to help them to deal with different issues at each career stage, since attentive consideration according to women-specific issues is required for them to advance in their careers, to reach their full potential and feel fulfilled and proud, while balancing work and private life.
Due to the improved skills and transformed awareness of female employees and management brought by the program, the culture in which women can advance has been developing.
As a result, 17 out of about 90 participants in the FY2023 women leadership development program have been promoted to general manager or equivalent. This approach has been leading to an improved percentage of management positions filled by women, which we had set as a KPI.
Overview of Mizuho’s career support programs for female employees
Descriptions of career support programs for female employees
Development of action plans based on the Act on Promotion of Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace
Mizuho has developed an action plan to provide environments in which all employees can practice diverse and flexible work styles and female employees can advance in different positions, in alignment with the Act on Promotion of Women's Participation and Advancement in the Workplace in Japan, and we have been working to achieve the targets.
Action Plan Based on the Act on Promotion of Female Participation and Career Advancement in the Workplace
| Mizuho Financial Group | Action Plan (PDF/226KB) |
| Mizuho Bank | Action Plan (PDF/226KB) |
| Mizuho Trust & Banking | Action Plan (PDF/227KB) |
| Mizuho Securities | Action Plan (PDF/226KB) |
| Mizuho Research & Technologies | Action Plan (PDF/239KB) |
Promotion of employees hired outside Japan
In order to maintain and increase the percentage of management positions filled by employees hired outside Japan, we are working to improve the global literacy of Head Office personnel who interface with offices outside Japan, and we are formulating a training and succession plan for employees hired outside Japan. Beyond visualizing positions that deal with ex-Japan operations at our Head Office in Tokyo, assigning people with international experience, and providing intensive language training, we have also invited succession candidates hired outside Japan to Head Office to receive management candidate training jointly with candidates from Japan, as well as provided opportunities to discuss management issues.
Initiatives to encourage employees with advanced expertise to advance regardless of their nationalities
The advancement of employees locally hired outside Japan with in-depth knowledge and high levels of expertise is essential to meet the sophisticated needs of Japanese and non-Japanese clients alike.
Mizuho has been hiring a diverse range of human resources in and outside Japan, and continuously striving to develop mechanisms and environments that encourage employees hired outside Japan to grow professionally, and that allow all employees to advance globally.
We have revised our Global Mobility Program*1 for employees hired outside Japan, which provides them with opportunities and support to enhance their career development and advancement across different locations, such as short-term training sessions and Head Office training sessions for senior management candidates. A number of employees have been using the program since 2007.
At the same time, we have been encouraging employees in Japan to develop a sense of global citizenship via cross-cultural communication and language training, and international work experience, and promoting global collaboration with employees hired outside Japan.
*1 Global Mobility Program: a scheme for international transfers intended to provide employees hired outside Japan with career building opportunities and appoint appropriate international resources according to business needs. The program includes transfers from offices outside Japan to offices in countries other than Japan, as well as from offices outside Japan to offices in Japan.
Securing and retaining mid-career hires in Japan
The percentage of mid-career hires in Japan has increased significantly in recent years, and we have focused on attracting personnel in priority areas, particularly digital transformation. As a result, the percentage of management positions filled by mid-career hires has reached 16%, and we will continue to strengthen retention and proactive hiring.
Becoming an organization that better enables our people to understand and elevate each other as they exercise their individuality
To enable our people to flourish, we must ensure diversity at the decision-making level and also create an environment in which every employee can succeed in their own way, while understanding and elevating their colleagues. In aiming to create a workplace where everyone can work comfortably and grow autonomously, we have established a diverse range of channels and opportunities for employees, including Employee Resource Groups (ERG), an internal network that encourages self-driven endeavors through interpersonal connection; Mizuho Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Month, a series of employee-led projects and events to promote DEI; and an “alumni network” bringing together current and former Mizuho employees in Japan.
Initiatives to support the balance between work and childcare
Based on our recognition that supporting a balance between work and child/family care is key to a good work environment, we are continuously improving systems for flexible work styles that are not restricted by time or location, as well as implementing training programs to facilitate understanding of these systems. With regard to childcare, we are also focused on furthering understanding among colleagues through measures such as training for managers, talks by general managers who have taken childcare leave, and seminars on balancing work and childcare, at which spouses are welcome.
About 1,000 employees take their first childcare leave every year, and it is now usual to balance work and childcare. After elimination of the employee classifications based on the conventional structure, from FY2021, our approach towards the initiatives supporting work/childcare balance changed from “work/childcare balance to continue to work using childcare support programs” to “work/childcare balance to design medium-term careers and develop themselves professionally via work”. We reviewed our training programs and revised support programs from this perspective.
Overview of support programs for childbirth and childcare
Initiatives for encouraging male employees to become involved in childcare, resulting in workplaces where all employees can work comfortably
Mizuho has set a KPI in Japan of “100% of male employees taking childcare leave”, to be achieved and maintained. We have been undertaking transformation in awareness and behavior of all executive officers and employees. For example, five days of paid leave childcare leave has been made available; and employees in management positions inform male employees whose partners have just had a baby of the childcare support programs available and check whether intend to use the programs. Since July 2019, the presidents of the five core group companies have been supporting the “Declaration Encouraging 100% of Eligible Employees to Take Paternity Leave” promulgated by Work-Life Balance Co., Ltd.
We established a new policy encouraging male employees to take childcare leave according to the revision of the Act on Childcare Leave/Caregiver Leave in FY2022, and announced the policy to all employees. We have been implementing a variety of initiatives to encourage males employees’ active involvement in childcare, such as providing e-learning programs for all employees, holding seminars with external professionals for employees who have just had babies or who desire to take childcare leave, and for employees in management positions to learn the significance of men taking childcare leave. We have also been sending emails congratulating the parents of new-born babies and their managers. We have also being working to reduce anxiety about taking childcare leave, which can hinder employees from taking the leave, by providing information such as positive role model examples.
Since July 2024, we have been recommending male employees take one month or more of leave, using annual leave based on a general rule that they must take ten days or more of leave/leave of absence for childcare, in order to further promote male employees’ active involvement in childcare. We will continue to aim for work environments in which everyone has the opportunity to achieve their career ambitions by encouraging male employees’ active involvement in childcare, as well as by making work style reforms and transforming the corporate culture along with employee awareness and behavior, and improving work efficiency.
Corporate day care services
Employees are eligible for child places at more than 750 child daycare centers in Japan. We support our employees’ smooth return to work by providing them with more options for daycare centers located near their home or on the way to work, to let them select one that suits their individual work/life circumstances.
Support for work/family care balance
No employees quitting the company due to family care responsibilities”. The programs include family care leave exceeding legal requirements, reduced/flexible working hours for family care and seminars and manuals designed to relieve worry and anxiety.
Overview of support programs for family care
A workplace where employees with diverse values can play an active role
In order for everyone to succeed, it is necessary to be proactively inclusive of different types of diversity. Mizuho’s initiatives in Japan for inclusion of employees with disabilities and LGBT+ employees offer two examples. For employees with disabilities, we have been building a work environment in which these employees can demonstrate their skills and individuality. We have been doing this not only by providing support, but also by cultivating greater understanding among colleagues.
For LGBT+ employees, Mizuho has received the PRIDE Index gold rating for eight consecutive years due to our ongoing efforts to improve the workplace environment and further acceptance. We foster a culture in which the organization and employees work together to promote understanding. At the same time, we are still in the process of eliminating unconscious bias in the workplace, and we will continue to raise awareness to ensure that our organization is one in which each employee’s sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) is respected.
Initiatives to raise awareness about unconscious bias
Decision making and business operations without bias are essential to ensure fair opportunities and encourage employees to stay true to themselves. Mizuho has been promoting greater awareness about inequality resulting from unconscious bias, by providing employees with educational content and information.
For example, we offer unconscious bias training which encourages all employees to recognize their own prejudices and stereotypes, consider measures for improvement and to put into practice, as well as training and manuals for eliminating bias against LGBT+ and people with disabilities.
In addition, we place emphasis on raising awareness of employees in management positions who are responsible for managing a diverse range of employees in their everyday work, so we held mandatory unconscious bias training for all employees in management positions across the five core group companies in FY2021. Some group companies hold training which includes unconscious bias issues for employees in management positions who have been newly appointed and voluntary participants annually. The sessions have led to a transformation in employee awareness, with some participants saying that the training has made them recognize their own unconscious bias, and others saying that they think they can use what they learned in the training not only for work but everyday social circumstances as well”.
Expanding networking beyond the boundaries of the organization: Alumni
We are continuing to expand our Japan network of former Mizuho employees (“alumni”) who are now flourishing in diverse fields outside Mizuho. In addition, since fiscal 2023, we have been trialing business collaborations that aim to create new businesses and contribute to society by connecting current employees with alumni. Alongside this, we are proactively lowering the barriers to former employees rejoining Mizuho, including through a dedicated contact point that was set up in fiscal 2021. In recognition of these efforts, we received the grand prize at the Japan Alumni Awards 2023 for the second year in a row.
Further information
Human Capital Report: List of data (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) (PDF/11,948KB)