Diversity SubcommitteeJoy of Diversity—A Future Built by Sharing This Joy with Various Teammates

Changes Brought About by Initiatives Since 2013

Tsuda: I feel that attitudes toward diversity have changed greatly over the past three and a half years. I have been involved in promoting diversity since the establishment of the 2030 Committee, the predecessor of the Diversity Subcommittee. The 2030 Committee started out with only five members, all female managers. Our initiatives have since expanded, eventually giving rise to the Diversity Project Team, which is membered by employee volunteers and now consists of 50 or 60 people. Members of the project team represent their workplaces and then share the activities of the Groupwide project team with the project teams at their own workplaces, advancing initiatives therein with the support of their supervisors. When this framework was established, it gave rise to a rapid increase in the number of people thinking about diversity and taking part in its promotion. However, when MARUI GROUP launched its diversity initiatives in 2013, understanding with regard to this concept was sorely lacking. Mr. Yazawa, how have you viewed this spread of diversity awareness?

Yazawa: I think our perspectives might differ a little due to our positions. However, I agree with you in that it seems as though, over these three and a half years, people have become more able to see how diversity relates to them. I joined the Diversity Subcommittee in October 2016. I was at first surprised by the optimistic outlook of the project team's members. MARUI GROUP continues to provide forums in which people can explore diversity through ongoing discussion, and everyone is surrounded by teammates they can be frank with. My initial impression was that this environment was what facilitated the swift progress of diversity promotion initiatives.

Tsuda: MARUI GROUP's diversity promotion initiatives are advanced through both top-down and bottom-up approaches. This enables these initiatives to incorporate employees from all ranks and thus encourages participation by everyone. It might have been this aspect of our initiatives that brought us this far. The organic connections formed between people always create an unimaginably strong driving force.

Diversity Promotion Month Representing Success in Bottom-Up Initiatives

Tsuda: It was the February 2016 Diversity Promotion Month that brought our bottom-up initiatives to the first stage of creating results. During this month, numerous initiatives were implemented simultaneously with the aim of giving all employees the opportunity to engage with the concept of diversity. Although it seemed as though the members of the Diversity Project Team might be crushed under the weight of the task at hand, they came through, planning the events, making necessary negotiations and adjustments, and overseeing the event sites by themselves. I was overjoyed by their accomplishment. The members realized that it is first necessary to change yourself if you want to change those around you, and they were able to overcome the challenges this implies to succeed. I have no doubt that this experience contributed to the growth of all of the team's members.

Yazawa: Diversity Promotion Month took place prior to my joining the Diversity Subcommittee. I therefore want to ask, what role did the members of this subcommittee play in this event?

Tsuda: The Diversity Subcommittee was positioned as an organization for supporting the members of the project team as they move ahead with autonomously driven activities. From the sidelines, I posed deliberate questions to the members and otherwise worked to spur them forward.

Yazawa: I think the role of the Diversity Subcommittee is to support the project team members in accomplishing what they truly desire. The same could be said of our daily work. In the past, I have felt a need to control situations as a strong leader. However, I now understand that everyone has different ways of thinking and working, and I therefore focus on how I can bring out employees' individual strengths. Through my involvement in promoting diversity, I came to be aware of the fact that listening to others is also an incredibly important part of management, and this concept now permeates my approach.