Interview with management "Arai Green Corporation"

Arai Green Co., Ltd., which has been engaged in the construction of gardens, public landscaping, greening, civil engineering, and park construction management for private homes since its establishment in 1963. Currently, we are mainly engaged in park construction, planting management work, and park designated management work in Yokohama City. There are a total of 16 employees, of which 7 are female employees. This time, we talked to Senior Managing Director Ryusuke Arai about his efforts to create a place where women can play an active role in the landscaping industry.

Previously, female employees were employed as administrative staff based on the idea that "males work outside and women protect their homes." However, no matter how many times we recruited new hires in the last few years, we didn't gather. One thing I noticed was that there are many ambitious women who are highly educated and have versatile abilities who are willing to work in landscaping. Therefore, we stepped into aggressive employment. In recent years, the landscape of landscaping has been required not only to finish construction, but also comprehensive ways to proceed with comprehensive work, including ensuring safety at the site, consideration for the area around the site and the area, cleaning up and cleaning of the site, etc. I feel that the number of scenes that make use of the care and consideration of women has increased. Currently, we are working on designated parks, and are actively expanding opportunities for women to demonstrate their abilities. In particular, the planning, operation, and publicity of events to be held in the park is left to young female employees, deepening exchanges with local people, and now we are going to become the face of park management.

In the landscaping industry, there was a low awareness of overtime work and breaks, so we first worked to ensure that employees could understand and utilize the improved work rules of work. This is because any good rules cannot achieve a true role without the understanding and consent of the company and its employees. To that end, we are focusing on creating an atmosphere that is easy to talk to within the company. If you have to take a break in a hurry due to sudden illness or injury of your child or parents, as well as the employees themselves, it is meaningless to set up a system if there is no atmosphere that can be told to the company. The rules are designed to create a work environment in which the company, all employees, and their families can help each other so that they can live rich and happy lives. In addition, discussions with female employees, setting up women-only changing rooms and renovating women's toilets. Changes in the design of uniforms and company vehicles. We also actively worked to create a workplace that is friendly to women, such as the introduction of the Nokura Track.

With nearly half of our employees becoming women, the entire company has become brighter. Communication among employees has increased not only in the office but also in the workplace, and each employee's behavior and behavior has become clearly conscious of attentiveness and manners for the surrounding people. These changes will result in a positive impression on our customers. This alone can be said to have a significant effect, but even more joyfully, the participation of female employees has encouraged a change in the awareness of existing employees. In the first place, strengthening the recruitment of women is one of the key measures to expand our operations, but the high expectations of our management team for female employees and the power of women who respond to them have stimulated the existing staff. This in-house revitalization may be the biggest benefit of female employees.

In the landscaping industry, I would be glad if you could publicize more places of work where women can play an active role more than before. Of course, self support's efforts are necessary, but I think it's difficult to dispel the image of "the world of craftsmen" and "male society" that has been created in the world. If you are misunderstood, you won't be counted as a place of employment, and women don't look at it. In fact, we have been conducting internships for several years. Until now, we have invited students from prefectural agricultural high schools and universities to conduct on-site training at Hinochuuo Park and in-house training. If you come to an internship, you can tell us that it's a rewarding job. Of course, the eligibility for an internship is not limited to students. I would like you to use it for industry research and corporate research when you change jobs. It would be great if we could create such opportunities together with Yokohama City. For example, I would like you to introduce a number of female employees working at zoos such as ZOORASIA, and if possible, accept internships.

Previously, I was in charge of animal breeding at Alpaca ranch in Yokohama. It was President Arai who came to the ranch with his grandson from time to time. It was decided that the ranch was closed, and I was asked by the president to call me. Originally, I liked interacting with animals and plants, so I thought, "I had a relationship," so I decided to take care of it. After joining the company, I learned a lot of work, from field work to office work. Currently, I am in charge of designated management of parks in the city. In parks with rental farms, we are focusing on creating parks that are friendly to users, such as conducting “cultivation guidance workshops” and holding workshops on “Kadomatsu making” at the end of the year. It's been a year and a half since I changed jobs to this company, but I've never felt it hard because I'm a woman. It is a comfortable workplace where employees are all friendly and can consult anything. The Senior Managing Director seems to be aiming to increase the number of female employees and become a new style of landscaping civil engineering company where women can play an active role. If you are interested, please come and visit us.

Arai Green Co., Ltd.
4-3-5, Hinominami, Kounan-ku, Yokohama-shi
http://www.araigreen.com/ (external site)
Industry: Landscaping construction management, green space maintenance, landscaping greening work, etc.
Number of employees: 16 people
Women's Support System: Maternity leave system, shorter working hours for childcare, childcare leave, and nursing leave system