Health, safety, and well-being of employees

We believe that our employees have the right to be protected from work-related injuries and illnesses. We are therefore responsible for providing a safe working environment and promoting a culture which prioritizes health and safety.

We focus on creating safe workplaces, building safety competence, and developing our safety culture. We align our health and safety standards with international requirements and always meet - and usually exceed - legal requirements. Their scope extends beyond our employees to cover contractors and visitors to our operations.

We have processes to identify and minimize risks, prevent incidents, respond to emergency situations and continuously improve safety. We work to control occupational health hazards such as exposure to noise, dust, hazardous chemicals, and ergonomic risks. We ensure that health and safety standards are respected when designing work processes and machinery. We provide safe working environment by setting up specific microclimates and monitoring them. This typically includes air quality, temperature, humidity, and proper lighting, based on the tasks to be carried out.

We also promote health and safety awareness through dedicated training and communication campaigns. In addition, we run programs to help protect the health of our employees while at work and while traveling for business. We also have several initiatives to support their well-being.

Aspirational goal

We will be the employer of choice by investing in people.

Target

In line with our vision of zero workplace injuries, we will reduce injury rates by 25% by 2023 and 50% by 2030. (Baseline year: 2015).

Progress

Health and safety performance in our tobacco business

Recordable injury rate* declined 46.9% from 0.72 in 2015 to 0.38 in 2022.

		2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
Recordable injury rate (per 200,000 working hours)	Employees	0.72	0.64	0.67	0.50	0.49	0.29	0.33	0.38

* Recordable injury rate = recordable injuries/200,000 hours worked. Due to the consolidation of global operations of the tobacco business since January 1, 2022, data of certain business sites are not included as it will take up to 18 months to integrate occupational health and safety standards.

Read more about our latest progress on the JT Group's tobacco business sustainability strategy.

Our health and safety performance as a Group

Recordable injury rate* 46.9% from 0.72 in 2015 to 0.38 in 2022.

		2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020	2021	2022
Number of fatalities	Employees	1	2	0	1	1	3	0	2
Number of fatalities	Contractors	1	1 (JTI)	2	0	0	0	1	0
Lost-time injury rate (per 200,000 working hours)	Employees	0.34	0.39	0.38	0.24	0.24	0.20	0.22	0.23
Lost-time injury rate (per 200,000 working hours)	Supervised workers		0.16	0.30	0.23	0.15	0.07	0.11	0.12
Occupational illness rate*1 (per million working hours)	Employees	0	0	0.08	0.02	0.01	0.37	2.06	2.43
Other important KPIs
% of cigarette and tobacco-related factories certified to ISO 45001 (OHSAS 18001)*2		78.9%	77.8%	74.4%	76.9%	79.5%	70.0%	71.8%	60.5%
Number of vehicle accidents*3		1122	1151	66	85	71	64	65	42
Vehicle accident frequency rate*3 (excludes property damage, accidents per million kilometers)		4.84	3.87	0.23	0.21	0.16	0.19	0.20	0.08

We no longer report the number of lost-time incidents or the lost-time incident rate, as this data is now covered by the recordable injury rate and lost-time injury rate.

We regret that two employees died as a result of a work accident in 2022. We try to learn from every accident and remain committed to achieving zero fatalities.

*1 Data scope: 2015: only JT. 2016 and 2017: JT and Japanese domestic Group companies. From 2018: the entire JT Group. 2020: the increase from 0.01 in 2019 to 0.37 in 2020 is due to COVID-19 work related cases. Read more about our data scopes and external verification.
*2 Data scope: 2020 only JTI
*3 The number of vehicle accidents and the vehicle accident frequency rate in 2015 and 2016 include damage to property, because the data is not available in our international tobacco business. The data in 2015 covers only our international tobacco business. From 2016, it covers JT and JTI.

Read more about the way we define, calculate, and consolidate data in the the Basis of reporting.

Our Guiding Principles

The following guiding principles drive our Health and Safety Policy:

People come first
The health, safety, and well-being of our employees, their families, and the communities in which we operate are at the heart of everything we do.
Safety is everyone’s responsibility
Everyone shares the responsibility for a safe and healthy workplace, and we each have a role to play in making it happen.
Nothing we do is worth an injury
We aim to create an injury- and illness-free workplace where everyone goes home safe and healthy after each day’s work and where business results shall never conflict with safety performance.
We do the right thing
All our offices, sales operations and factories should always comply with all national and local laws and regulations. However, where the local legislation and regulatory framework do not provide adequate controls, we will adopt our standards to protect the health and safety of our employees, contractors and visitors.

Our commitment to health and safety

We have a publicly available Health & Safety Policy that establishes our overall intentions and direction for maintaining health, safety, and well-being in the work environment. It provides a framework for action and for setting our Health and Safety objectives and targets.

In our international tobacco business, all locations must have their own Health and Safety Policy.

These Policies must:

Reflect (Endorse) the Corporate Health and Safety Policy and Principles
Include commitments to the prevention of injuries and illnesses, compliance with local legal and our corporate requirements, workers’ (and unions) consultation and participation on safety matters, and continuous improvement
Address the key health and safety risks to be managed and prioritize the action plans for identified areas of improvement
Be regularly (yearly) reviewed and revised as necessary, endorsed, and signed by senior management, communicated to all staff and contractors, and made available to any other interested parties.

As well as delivering the corporate strategic programs addressing the highest health and safety-related business risks, every location should:

record incidents and include local specificities and risks in their three-year plans
establish emergency response plans specific to each site*
set and communicate local Health & Safety objectives and targets

To achieve their goals, local organizations must implement a health and safety management system consistent with local legal and ISO 45001 international standards.

* These must include, but are not limited to, safety injuries, medical emergencies, fires, epidemics, hazardous materials/chemicals incidents, floods, power outages, and for some locations, earthquakes and typhoons or hurricanes

Reducing the risk of traffic accidents

The level of risk varies from location to location. Still, the highest risks across our international tobacco business are posed by driving vehicles, riding motorcycles, working with machinery, and slips, trips, and falls.

We conduct risk assessments throughout the supply chain to mitigate these risks and prevent injuries. This helps us identify hazards, implement appropriate measures, and ensure that our approach helps protect our employees. We also focus on raising awareness among employees and thoroughly embedding our safety culture in our day-to-day work.

In 2019, we rolled out a new driver safety policy and implementation guidelines across our organization. Considering the growing number of female employees, the policy also includes maternity protection for female drivers, e.g., special safety belts and additional rest time.

Focusing on driver behavior, the new guidelines require local offices to conduct a risk assessment to identify high-risk drivers. They must also send periodic progress reports and action plans to Corporate Health and Safety.

In 2020, we completed a global driver safety compliance assessment. The results showed that our markets and leaf origins complied 80% on average with our global guidelines. In 2021, this increased to 85%. These assessments also allow us to identify best practices that are then integrated into a new "On the Road Safety Standard" as part of a continuous improvement process. The new standard will be published Q2 2023.

In 2022, we trained 2,194 employees. Due to the pandemic, some driver risk assessments and training were conducted remotely, but we also organized ‘on the road’ training for high-risk drivers where possible. We plan to train a further 4,300 drivers in 2023.

In the sales division of our Japanese operations, we have set ‘prevention of vehicle accidents during sales activities’ as a priority issue within our Occupational Health and Safety Plan.

Ensuring consistency of standards around the world

As part of our drive to expand the business geographically, we have made acquisitions in new markets. Most of the acquired businesses operate in developing countries, with a raft of societal and economical challenges. We recognize this and feel responsible for improving the working environment. We, therefore, introduce our policies firmly and immediately after each acquisition. We visit the sites and support local managers to ensure that our policies are endorsed and embedded across all locations of the company.

Health and safety issues in developing countries pose a serious risk to local communities, our employees, contractors, and our business continuity. For this reason, we take a systematic and risk-based approach to acquired businesses from the outset.

The Health and Safety team at our headquarter conducts a risk assessment for potential new countries to check whether their standards meet ours. Following an acquisition, we support local offices in identifying key risks, developing, and implementing 18-month action plans, and aligning policies with our standards.

Special attention is given to integrating Health and Safety criteria in business processes, such as the procurement of vehicles and offices’ leasing, and to providing adequate Safety training to all employees through our Health and Safety Academy.

To improve driver safety in Bangladesh, for example, where road conditions and driver behavior are particularly challenging issues, we are moving all staff from motorbikes to cars.

Employee well-being in focus

Employee well-being is essential to us to develop and retain motivated employees and enable them to fulfill their potentials. We run a variety of well-being programs across the company, such as ergonomic assessments and ensuring general occupational hygiene.

To design these programs, we gather well-being data from our local offices. In 2018, we expanded our data scope by introducing new rules requiring all local offices to report their occupational health cases to our headquarters. This will allow us to understand our global risks and develop a consistent approach to occupational health, while strengthening our existing protection measures.

Local managers are responsible for investigating reported issues and identifying the causes. If the issues are attributed to the work or workplace, we take appropriate measures immediately to protect employees’ well-being and prevent recurrences.

Since the onset of COVID-19, we have continued to offer employees one-to-one interviews with health staff via video call. We have also continued to run online programs focusing on sleep, diet, and exercise.

Supporting employees’ mental health

In our Japanese operations, we recognize the importance of mental health in the workplace and are working to prevent mental illness. We have set up an in-house consultation desk, where employees can speak to specialists and counselors. We also provide telephone and interview counseling through external specialized institutions, as well as mental health training for supervisors and self-care seminars. As a result of these efforts, the incidence of mental health problems remains at a low level.

These programs have had a positive impact on employee productivity and the absenteeism rate in Japan, which has recently been below 1%.

We are pleased to announce that JT was named as a “White 500” company for the seventh year running in 2023. This award is presented by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade, and Industry. It recognizes large enterprises that are making outstanding progress towards better well-being among their employees.

In our international tobacco business, use a confidential employee assistance program and well-being solution. It provides information on mental, physical, social and financial well-being, as well as 24/7 access to phone consultations for work–life strategies and referrals to counselling.

We have also trained mental health first aiders across our business to offer support to employees who wish to discuss any matter of concern.

Case study

Boosting employee well-being while supporting a good cause

In Japan, we have been participating in the TABLE FOR TWO program since 2010. In 2020 we set up a company-wide walking challenge program. It’s a sponsored walk run in collaboration with the global non-profit organization TABLE FOR TWO, and using the health management portal site Pep Up. This initiative has created a range of opportunities to promote health, contribute to society, and revitalize our company organization.

We’ve run this event in each of the three years since its inception - and twice in 2022: in May and October. 6,009 of our employees nationwide took part. For every 8,000 steps one of our employees completes in a day, we donate one meal to a developing country. In the 2022 financial year, we raised 1,858,860 yen for TABLE FOR TWO.

Feedback from employees on the walking challenge program

79% reported that they were satisfied with this program.
71% said it helped them reduce stress, improve their fitness, and improve communication with others.
82% reported that they continue walking after this program.

Read more about our community investment initiatives.