Astellas Awarded Diversity Management Selection 100

TOKYO, March 17, 2014 - Astellas Pharma Inc. ("Astellas"; Tokyo: 4503; President and CEO: Yoshihiko Hatanaka) announced that it was awarded the "Diversity Management Selection 100" for its initiatives to actively promote diversity among its employees by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry ("METI").
The METI implements the "Diversity Management Selection 100" project to recognize enterprises that have played an important role in improving corporate value through diversity management. The Ministry will honor approximately 100 companies over several years from 2012, and Astellas is the first pharmaceutical company to be recognized for this award.
Astellas is conscious of responding to changes in the pharmaceutical market. Astellas as a whole group engages in diversity management as a core initiative, with the aim of growing as a truly
global company where all employees can actively participate, regardless of race, nationality, gender, or age. Astellas launched its diverse human resource initiatives by first considering the active roles
of women in the workforce, focusing on the Women's Innovative Network for Diversity (WIND) project, established in 2007, which promotes the hiring and advancement of women. In addition to programs such as forums and mentoring aimed at improving awareness of women's careers, we are introducing and improving systems for enabling employees to continue their careers after life events.
The Diversity Management Selection 100 award recognizes the results of our diversity programs. These include improving workflows to respond to different work styles, developing systems and a corporate culture that allow women who are raising children to continue working, and steady increasing the number of women in the workplace.
Astellas is pursuing lasting improvement to our corporate value under our management philosophy (our raison d'etre) that it contributes toward improving the health of people around the world through the provision of innovative and reliable pharmaceutical products. Astellas will continue to actively promote diversity and strive to be an organization that is chosen by customers, shareholders, employees, society, and other stakeholders, and one where our employees are proud to work.

< Related URL>
Astellas' initiatives for diversity:
http://www.astellas.com/en/csr/employee/memberdata_big_02.html
Diversity Management Selection 100 homepage:

http://www.diversity100sen.go.jp/index.html

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For inquiries or additional information
Astellas Pharma Inc. Corporate Communications
TEL: +81-3-3244-3201, FAX:+81-3-5201-7473
http://www.astellas.com/en
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