Well-Being Management Co-Creating Happiness for People and Society

Management's Commitment

To contribute to the happiness of all stakeholders, we hope to realize work styles that enable employees to continue growing while tackling new challenges that are meaningful for society and future generations as well as for themselves.

MARUI GROUP began practicing healthcare management after the establishment of the Company's health insurance union in 1962. In the 57 years that followed, we have continued our passionate approach to healthcare management. One particularly noteworthy milestone on this path was the establishment of the Marui Health Insurance Union Building in 1970. Neighboring MARUI GROUP's head office, this building features the latest health examination equipment and checkup functions. I was in elementary school when this building was completed, and I remember being surprised at how impressive it was in comparison to the head office. Looking back, it is apparent that our founder was incredibly passionate about the health of employees from that time.

After joining MARUI GROUP, I often witnessed my predecessor advising employees, at morning assemblies and other occasions, to undergo intensive health examinations through the health insurance union should any concern arise. I was baffled by the fact that he always ended assemblies on the topic of healthcare. When I think about it now, this natural, ongoing emphasis on healthcare by senior management was probably what led to the close coordination between MARUI GROUP and the health insurance union seen today along with our high rates of health examination.

Our founder viewed employees as family members, sparking his commitment to healthcare, and my predecessor was a staunch advocate of intensive health examinations. These two individuals fostered healthcare management as an element of MARUI GROUP's corporate culture. Thanks to their contributions, the foundations for a healthcare management approach aimed at addressing metabolic syndrome and other lifestyle diseases were already practically complete when I took up the mantle of president.

With these foundations in place, we made the decision to take the next step based on the definition of health put forth by the World Health Organization. This definition of health is "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity." If the first step of healthcare management was ensuring "the absence of disease or infirmity," the next step would be promoting "a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being." Recognizing our new goal, I was committed to rising to the challenge.

To propel us forward on this journey, we established the Healthcare Management Project Team in 2016 and promptly kicked off initiatives with assistance from the Health Management Division (currently Wellbeing Promotion Department) set up in 2014. Our healthcare management initiatives are supported by the project team, which is composed of enthusiastic employee volunteers. These members decide on activity policies and implement initiatives that they planned at their respective workplaces. These activities are supported by the Health Management Division (currently Wellbeing Promotion Department) and the chief health officer. We were also lucky to have gained the services of Dr. Reiko Kojima, a passionate company physician. The passion for healthcare management and leadership of Dr. Kojima are proving to be a massive driving force behind our initiatives. Thanks to her guidance, MARUI GROUP has been selected for inclusion in the Health & Productivity Stock Selection for five consecutive years, from 2018.

Even having received this recognition and come this far, we still strive to go further. Our end goal is to create happiness through our business. This will, of course, require that our employees be in good physical health and that we implement work style reforms. Most important of all, however, will be for us to change our mind-set with regard to our jobs and work in general. This is especially important given the fact that the capitalist system that has exercised hegemony since the industrial revolution is beginning to reach its limits, and we are now in an era urging transformation to more sustainable societies and economies. Accordingly, there has been a significant change in how we are expected to work and the output anticipated.

Up until now, the primary goals of work have been to improve productivity or beat the competition in order to increase profits or scale of business. These goals were prefaced on economic growth. Going forward, however, businesses will need to help resolve the various issues impeding the realization of a sustainable society and environment in order to contribute to the happiness of all stakeholders. What these businesses will need is creativity. It is creativity that will find resolutions to various social issues that could not be reached by developing a business through prior approaches, and it is creativity that will generate the innovation needed to implement these resolutions.

The natural question is thus: How can businesses exercise greater creativity? To find the answer to this question, we decided it was necessary to stop and reexamine what our job is and what is the meaning of our work. The answer we found begins with reassessing the prior view separating work and life and the thinking that caused people to compartmentalize and separate themselves from their work. We must then link our work to undertakings that are meaningful for our lives and for our children and society in order to ensure that our work is motivating. This approach will no doubt give us strength and become a source of creativity. This is our answer to this seemingly unanswerable question.

The process of engaging in work that is meaningful for ourselves and for our children and society and continuing to grow through this work will contribute to the happiness of all our stakeholders. Realizing such work styles through our business is the approach of the wellness management we look to advance into the future.