Human Rights Awareness Promotion and Activities
Mizuho's Human Rights Education Committee
Mizuho's Human Rights Education Committee was established as part of our strong commitment to raising executive officers and employee awareness about human rights. The committee seeks to cultivate a corporate culture that embodies respect for human rights and discusses matters including human rights issues related to the Group, internal systems for human rights awareness, and the themes and content of training programs for employees.
The committee carries out its duties under the following structure: Group Chief Human Resources Officer of the Mizuho Financial Group (a member of the Board of Directors) serves as committee chairperson; general managers of all departments, offices, and branches, with the support of deputy general managers, form the framework of promotion and take responsibility for human rights education in their offices. This structure enables us to productively engage in tailored human rights promotion and training.
Human Rights Education: Organizational Structure
Human Rights Education for Executive Officers and Employees
In April 2018, Mizuho established a Human Rights Policy in line with the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, clarifying our stance on preventing or mitigating adverse human rights impacts which could result directly or indirectly from our business activities. We subsequently held a seminar for all employees aimed at enhancing understanding and awareness of the background and reasons for establishing this policy as well as its content.
At Mizuho, all group employees participate in annual human rights awareness training in the workplace. Each session is an opportunity for employees to learn about and reflect on human rights. Among a variety of initiatives, we hold training sessions and workshops for different target audiences, ranging from executive officers to department and branch general managers, deputy general managers responsible for assisting general managers in human rights education, employees newly appointed to management positions, and other employees and supervisors.
Group companies can choose from several principal training topics in light of the prevailing social landscape, including discrimination on the basis of gender, disability, nationality or social origin, and various forms of harassment, among others.
To address workplace harassment, we distribute informational pamphlets on our company intranet and conduct regular training, using e–learning, and video materials, on the definition of and how to respond to workplace harassment. We also conduct training aimed at raising awareness among all managers, which includes how to handle reports of harassment.
In addition, Mizuho periodically participates in fieldwork and workshops held by the Industrial Federation for Human Rights, Tokyo, to identify trends in human rights issues and learn about practical matters related to such issues in Japanese companies, and then apply these to our human rights initiatives.
| Site | Type of training | Scope of participation | No. of participants |
| Japan | Workplace training | All full– and part–time staff | 54,566 people1 |
| Training for executive officers and department/branch general managers | All directors as well as department and branch general managers | 701 people | |
| Training for deputy general managers responsible for assisting general managers in human rights education | Deputy general managers responsible for assisting general managers in human rights education | 954 people | |
| Training for employees newly appointed to management positions | All employees newly appointed to management positions (separate training for each level) | 207 people2 | |
| Newly hired employees | All newly hired employees | 666 people3 | |
| Outside Japan | Compliance training for locations outside Japan | Employees working at locations outside Japan | 7,333 people4 |
1: Mizuho Financial Group, Mizuho Bank, Mizuho Trust & Banking, Mizuho Securities and their subsidiaries, Asset Management One, and Mizuho Research & Technologies.
2: Attendance from Mizuho Financial Group. Mizuho Bank, and Mizuho Trust & Banking.
3: Attendance from Mizuho Financial Group, Mizuho Bank, Mizuho Trust & Banking, Mizuho Securities
4: Attendance from Mizuho Financial Group and Mizuho Bank.
Mizuho posts a human rights newsletter in Japanese, Jinken no Tobira, on our company intranet for the benefit of all group employees. This newsletter is intended to enhance employee awareness of a variety of human rights issues. In addition, our internal group communication magazine, Mizuho, includes a feature on human rights which profiles specific human rights activities and other pertinent information. Mizuho's online learning system for employees also offers materials on human rights which employees can access from their own homes and use to develop their knowledge through individual study.
Our annual human rights catchphrase contest attracts over 30,000 entries yearly, from employees in all group companies. Awards are presented to excellent entries from throughout the group, and the most outstanding entry is submitted for consideration to external organizations, including the Japanese Bankers Association.
Winners of the Best Slogan for Human Rights award from the Japanese Bankers Association
FY2021 winning slogan
“Don’t be afraid to speak up, be afraid to keep quiet”
FY2020 winning slogan
"Discrimination is an infection of the mind for which everyone should get the vaccine"