DE&I talk session –Mr.Ogawa x Sputniko!

Thank you very much. The pleasure is mine.

What we have always considered is the raison d'être of the company. One is to contribute to society by providing valuable products and services. The other is the happiness of our employees. These are closely connected: employees feel happiness through contributing to society, and being happy increases their motivation to contribute further. The foundation is how diverse employees can play an active role. Expanding from there, diverse people with diverse opinions can contribute even more to society. So for me, the starting point is a very simple idea: want employees who want to play an active role to be able to do so even more. That will eventually lead to social contribution.

I have always felt uncomfortable with discrimination and separating people. For example, as a child, boys and girls were separated in many ways. I thought they would mix later in university and society. But when I joined the company, I was first struck by the sight in the employee cafeteria: men and women sat separately. I felt a strong discomfort. Also, there was the distinction between general and regular employees, and in manufacturing, we often used the term 'female employees.' Women's work was mostly assembly or support roles. The male-centered atmosphere always felt off to me. There are so many capable women in Japan, but they can't fully utilize their abilities due to gender or background. That is a loss for the company and for society.

My mother is British and my father is Japanese. I was born and grew up in Japan, but I was lucky to know the situation in the UK and USA from childhood. If I had been in Japan all the time, I would have seen a male-centered society with few female role models. But going to the UK and USA, I saw female leaders increasing, even prime ministers, and society was functioning well with productivity and innovation. That made me think, how can Japan change? I am from a science background and love engineering and math, but as a woman, there are hurdles in Japanese society. Japan's gender gap is near the bottom, so seeing examples where diversity leads to innovation was very positive for me.

I joined the company in 1988 and entered the R&D division, working on image sensors. There wasn't much freedom. Then I moved to the projector business and as an engineer I could do many things. It was very free; my ideas could become products and be competitive. I wanted to create that kind of atmosphere in the company. When I became division head, I noticed the issue of long working hours. Long hours were considered good, but I realized it's not healthy and society was also moving against them. We set a rule to stop at 10 PM, then gradually shortened to 9, then 8. I thought productivity might drop, but actually it improved because people planned better. So we kept reducing.

When my third child was born, my wife was hospitalized for a month. I had to take care of the children while working. It was actually fun, and I did my work a bit carelessly. But that experience was valuable.

Yes, there was. People said we should first create measures to make work efficient before shortening hours. But I said shorten time first, then think about what you can do in that time. If you make it efficient, the freed time will just be filled with more work. So by setting a fixed time limit, you naturally prioritize. So we started from that approach.

We have always had dialogue meetings in small groups where we encourage free talk. I often say, start with complaints, because complaints always contain issues. I listen to everything, even extreme gossip. In particular, before I became president, I was in charge of the inkjet development division and talked to female engineers. They were highly motivated, but the company's rules were very restrictive, especially for women with children. For example, there was a promotion exam that required a thesis written outside work hours, which was harder for women. So we worked to change that system.

The promotion system required a written thesis and a written exam. The thesis had to be done in personal time, not work time. That was a big burden, especially for women who had less free time. So we changed the system to be fair for everyone, regardless of gender.

We are still in the middle of the road. Not everyone is fully committed to diversity. There are conflicts, especially in manufacturing. The traditional Japanese management style where a leader pulls everyone in a straight line may have worked when technology evolved quickly, but that model is reaching its limits. Now it's more important to utilize diverse opinions, so management style must change to maximize the power of people on the ground. But many still think leaders should be a certain way, macho, which makes some people think they can't become managers. That's a big problem.

That's right. We need to create rules that support equity, not just say equality. It's important to understand the difference between equity and equality. Without that, awareness won't change and work styles won't improve.

Globally, Japan is far behind, especially in women's participation. I recently went to Singapore, and at Epson's sales and manufacturing companies there, most managers are women. Singapore has good infrastructure for childcare, making it very workable. Seeing that, I feel we are still lagging. We are focusing on women's advancement in Japan first, then expanding to disabled, age, LGBTQ, and foreigners. But since becoming president, I haven't been able to travel much.

The key is to continue saying that D&I is crucial. It ties to social contribution and employee happiness. Those two sides are inseparable. We have to keep saying it and never give up. This is a never-ending journey.

Thank you very much for listening to my story.