NKSJ Signed the Women’s Empowerment Principles

Tokyo, Japan, August 05, 2012 --(PR.com)-- NKSJ Holdings, Inc. (President: Kengo Sakurada) announced that it supports the purport of and has signed the Women’s Empowerment Principles - Equality Means Business (hereinafter, the Principles”).

The Principles are international principles represented in the form of seven steps for companies and other members of the private sector to follow in order to advance women in the workplace and empower women (promote their self-reliance and support actions for achieving their goals). Jointly developed by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women)*１and United Nations Global Compact*２, the Principles were introduced on International Women’s Day*3 on March 8, 2010.

With the goal of achieving sustainable growth as a company, the NKSJ Group promotes diversity aimed at realizing quality working environments in which employees can feel motivated and has hereby expressed its support for the Women’s Empowerment Principles.

The NKSJ Group will continue to exert efforts to create open and vibrant working environments, and to promote women’s participation in business, as well as draw the attention of the broader society to the importance of diversity.

*1 UN Women (former United Nations Development Fund for Women): United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women was established to accelerate progress on empowerment of women and equality of gender worldwide.

*2 United Nations Global Compact: Proposed by United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan at the World Economic Forum in January 1999 and officially launched at the United Nations Headquarters in New York in July 2000. It is a partnership initiative between the United Nations and companies to promote the latter to take voluntary initiatives for human rights, labor standards, environmental stewardship, the fight against corruption, and other issues, and to become even better corporate citizens.

*3 International Women’s Day: A day the United Nations set in 1975 to make contributions toward the equal participation of women, including social development and the elimination of discrimination, and an improved environment for women.

Women’s Empowerment Principles
1. Establish high-level corporate leadership for gender equality.
2. Treat all women and men fairly at work – respect and support human rights and nondiscrimination.
3. Ensure the health, safety and well-being of all women and men workers.
4. Promote education, training and professional development for women.
5. Implement enterprise development, supply chain and marketing practices that empower women.
6. Promote equality through community initiatives and advocacy.
7. Measure and publicly report on progress to achieve gender equality.