March 3, 2021
Nippon Paint Holdings Co., Ltd.
Contact Person: Yukiko Yamamoto
General Manager of Public Relations
Email: nphd-kouho@nipponpaint.jp

Nippon Paint Holdings Selected as a Constituent of the MSCI Japan Empowering Women Index (WIN)

Nippon Paint Holdings Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Chuo-ku, Tokyo, Chairman of the Board, Representative Executive Officer, President & CEO: Masaaki Tanaka) was selected as a constituent of the MSCI Japan Empowering Women Index (WIN) ^※1, an ESG index that selects leading companies promoting gender diversity, in December 2020.

The MSCI Japan Empowering Women Index (WIN) was one of the indexes developed by MSCI Inc., a major US financial services company. The WIN Index selects Japanese companies from among the top 700 companies in terms of market capitalization that are committed to gender diversity, based on evaluations by industry using unique evaluation criteria. The WIN index is used by Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) as a benchmark for ESG-focused investments. This is the second time Nippon Paint Holdings has been selected as a constituent of the MSCI WIN Index following the first selection in June 2020.

Nippon Paint Holdings has identified Diversity & Inclusion, which entails accepting diverse values and respecting everyone involved in business operations, as a material issue of ESG-driven management. We are promoting diversity in the workplace in order to benefit fully from differences involving gender, nationality and other characteristics.

To encourage the participation of women in the workplace in Japan, Nippon Paint Holdings has taken many actions since 2016 to establish a framework suited to needs of women. Examples include paid leave that can be taken by the hour, a remote work system and the extension of parental leave to three years. In addition, we are working on increasing the number of female managers. We started female leader training programs in 2015 to give women the skills to become managers. A total of about 70 female employees have participated in this program.

MSCI selected Nippon Paint Holdings as a constituent of the MSCI WIN Index based on its recognition of our initiatives since 2020 for promoting women to managerial positions, including directors and corporate officers. Currently, the percentage of female officers is 15% and the percentage of female managers is 11% (Nippon Paint Holdings, as of January 2021). Our goal is to further increase the number of women in management positions.

The Nippon Paint Group places SDGs and ESG at the core of management and pursues Maximization of Shareholder Value by creating wealth through solving social issues. We launched a cross-functional ESG Promotion Team in the Nippon Paint Group, including our overseas partner companies^※2. We have created a framework for ESG-driven management in our group around the world. We will steadily accelerate ESG-driven management across the Nippon Paint Group and create corporate value by using initiatives that include the promotion of Diversity & Inclusion.

^※1 For more information about the MSCI Japan Empowering Women Index, please visit the following URL:https://www.msci.com/msci-japan-empowering-women-index-jp

^※2 Nippon Paint Group companies are called partner companies.