At NTT Communications, we pride ourselves on discovering and appointing talented people with a thirst for challenge and a keen desire to promote the success of the Company’s operations. With the aim of creating abundant opportunities for employees to develop their own unique strengths and put them to the best use, NTT Communications introduced an internal job posting. This empowers our employees to apply themselves in new and exciting fields and plays a vital role in the advancement of their careers.

Our employees are unique individuals and our strongest asset. That is why at NTT Communications, we make sure they receive the resources they deserve to develop and expand their professional skills.

In our personnel-training scheme, we clearly identify the personnel profiles we seek to deploy in each field of operations, providing employees with clear targets for advancing their careers and polishing their skills. Choosing from a rich menu of assignments and study options, employees can pursue their dreams of excelling as professionals in their chosen vocations. Study options include intensive training and off-site learning directly related to ongoing Company operations, as well as opportunities to study foreign languages and acquire outside qualifications. By offering such a varied range of study and training options, NTT Communications affords its employees every possible means to boost their career trajectories.

	Minister’s Award of Excellence from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare.

NTT Communications is taking positive steps to ensure that men and women participate on an equal footing in our operations. In March 2002, we launched the NTT Com Women’s Training and Advancement Plan. This plan calls for the implementation of a range of activities based on specific strategies and hard targets for the employment, training, and advancement of women.

As part of its proactive stance on the advancement of women, NTT Communications is aggressively expanding opportunities for distance learning. The purpose of this effort is to enable the smooth reinstatement of women who have taken maternity leave or leaves of absence to care for small children or elderly relatives.

Our dedication to equal opportunity in the workplace has drawn wide acclaim. In June 2004, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare presented its commendation for commitment to gender equality in the private sector, the Minister's Award of Excellence, to NTT Communications, stating “NTT Communications’ efforts to assist women in developing their professional skills are an example for others to follow, and their results are clearly recognized.”

In July 2003, the government promulgated the Law to Promote Measures for the Support of Next-Generation Training Initiatives. Based on the provisions of this law, the Company devised an action plan to support a suitable balance between work and home life. To ensure that employees fully understand the range of childcare-leave and similar programs available to them, and to foster an environment in which employees can feel comfortable in accessing those programs, NTT Communications is undertaking a broad range of measures to raise awareness of these provisions. One example of this effort is our website on workhome balance initiatives.

	The NTT Group's website on childcare/eldercare support programs

NTT Communications has instituted a robust system of support for employees’ childcare and eldercare duties, empowering its people to strike a balance between the demands of home and work. To support childcare, employees may take leaves of absence for up to three years from the date of the birth of a child, and may take reduced work hours until the child is six. For the care of elders and other relatives, employees may take up to 18 months’ eldercare leave, and up to three years’ reduced work hours (including the eldercare-leave period).

We also make special efforts to foster an environment in which employees feel encouraged to use these childcare and eldercare support systems. The NTT Group has created a website on its childcare/eldercare support programs, acquainting employees with the details of these programs as well as childcare, eldercare and other social-service programs available from the public and private sectors. Coupled with a host of measures to facilitate the smooth reinstatement of employees returning from leave, this swath of programs makes NTT Communications a clear leader in developing new ways for employees to work and live.

NTT Communications has long been at the forefront of expanding employment opportunities for the disabled, assiduously pursuing the targets mandated by Japanese law on the hiring of disabled people. Since the Company was founded in 1999, NTT Communications has constantly expanded the percentage of disabled on the Company’s payroll had risen to 1.34%, with the legally mandated target of 1.8% well within its sights. Each year, NTT Communications formulates employment plans for boosting this figure, and we continue to expend every effort to bring the disabled into the workplace.

Many NTT Communications employees capable of working independently need to work from home, whether due to disability or to care for children or elders. To support these valued employees, NTT Communications introduced the eWork program on a trial basis in 2002. This work-from-home program enabled personnel to balance their home and work lives and expanded the work opportunities available to them. Originally introduced to test Safety Pass, an innovative IP-based business model from NTT Communications, this eWork program is now being fine-tuned for better convenience and performance.

NTT Communications is deeply committed to the formation of supportive and highly motivated workplace environments and to assisting employees in balancing their work and family lives. To that end, in 2003 the Company created the Work-Life Committee, which launched a flurry of other measures. To disseminate information widely and raise awareness, the committee issues a message on the topic of work and life balance from senior management at regular intervals, and has established a website on the subject.

At NTT Communications, worker safety is the most important priority. With solid emphasis on prevention, we continually review our work environments and work manuals, using concrete examples to raise awareness of safety issues and conducting frequent safety inspections.

In the event that an accident does occur, we immediately share all information related to the accident, notifying and warning all employees. The aim of these measures is to prevent the recurrence of accidents and instill a strong safe-work ethic in employees.

From the time an employee joins NTT Communications to the time that employee retires, he or she enjoys an impressive selection of employee benefits. Our cafeteria plans allow employees to choose options they need. We support our employees to manage their lives through Life Design Support Program that includes training and counseling. We also offer a complete palette of health-management programs, including mental-health support.