The English edition of SoftBank Corp.’s (TOKYO: 9434) Integrated Report for 2025, published on October 31, 2025, provides a comprehensive overview that includes a look back at the fiscal year ended March 31, 2025 (FY2024), management’s perspectives on medium- to long-term growth strategies centered on AI, financial strategies, and shareholder returns. It also introduces SoftBank’s strategies aimed at realizing “Next-generation Social Infrastructure,” as well as its initiatives related to ESG and risk management.
SoftBank believes that “human resources are the drivers of business growth,” and has positioned human resource strategy as the core of its management strategy. In the report, Yasuyuki Genda, Executive Vice President, Head of Corporate Unit, was asked about specific human resource measures being taken to realize SoftBank’s Long-term Vision. Below is an excerpt.
SoftBank Integrated Report 2025
Every year, SoftBank publishes an Integrated Report, a comprehensive document that includes information on its vision, medium- to long-term growth strategies, value creation processes, materiality, and financial and non-financial information.
Interview with Executive in charge of Human Resources
What role does the human resource strategy play in achieving the Long-term Vision?
Our human resource strategy plays the role of building an optimal HR portfolio, maximizing the potential of our employees, and driving the Company's sustainable growth in line with our Long-term Vision of “providing Next-generation Social Infrastructure essential for the development of a digital society.”
Building this optimal HR portfolio means using generative AI to boost productivity and efficiently manage existing business domains, while strategically reallocating human resources to new domains such as generative AI and domestic cloud businesses. By combining the recruitment of specialized talent like AI and security engineers with the reallocation and reskilling of existing employees, we have shifted approximately 1,000 employees to new domains over the past two years, while keeping the number of employees at SoftBank on a standalone basis nearly unchanged.
This optimal HR portfolio is supported by a corporate culture that enables each employee to proactively exercise their capabilities, and by HR systems that promote this culture. We have valued our employees' willingness to chart their own career paths and to take on challenges with a forward-looking attitude. As a result of more than a decade of recruiting and developing such talent, this mindset has become firmly embedded within our organization, as evidenced by the large number of applications we receive whenever we post openings for transfers to new businesses. Behind this lies not so much the system itself, but rather a strong sense of ownership in which employees approach their work as their own responsibility. We believe that as this mindset continues to spread, it will foster the next generation of leaders and drive SoftBank's sustainable growth.
How do DE&I and well-being connect with the Company's growth strategy and corporate value?
For the human resources department, our most important customers are the “employees.” Therefore, we are focusing on creating a foundation where employees can work with peace of mind over the long term and perform at their best, with DE&I and well-being at the core.
First, we are reviewing our compensation system to balance the financial stability of our employees with their motivation to take on challenges. To address inflation, we implemented base salary increases for three consecutive years from FY2023, thereby supporting stability in employees' livelihoods. Concurrently, we are firmly securing rewards for performance by placing a greater emphasis on performance-linked bonuses. This has helped boost employee engagement, especially among younger employees.
In promoting DE&I, we are addressing the promotion of women in the workforce as a critical management issue. Previously, although there were no gender gaps in performance evaluations, there was a nearly two-fold disparity between men and women in the promotion rates to director and manager positions. This revealed that despite advocating “meritocracy,” we were not fully placing the right people in the right roles. While various factors such as unconscious bias and differences in self-esteem may have contributed to these gaps, we reported this situation to management and reaffirmed the understanding that “an organization that embraces diversity is essential for sustainable global growth.”
We view these DE&I initiatives as contributing factors to corporate value enhancement by serving as a crucial foundation for sustainable growth, even if their direct contribution to short-term profits is not always apparent.
The entire interview can be found here.
(Posted on November 18, 2025)
by SoftBank News Editors
