According to a survey by OPRI, an exhaustive review of the annual securities reports of all 2,140 companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Standard and Growth markets found that only 34 companies, or 1.6% of the total, were able to describe the connection between their business strategies and human resources. Of these, 27 companies showed the D-type linkage in current form, while 7 announced plans to introduce it.
To assess alignment between business strategy and human resources, the Organization and Human Resources Research Institute (OPRI) reviewed the annual securities reports of all 2,140 listed companies as of August 2026 and classified the depth of the connection between strategy and human resources into 5 types. As companies have been required to disclose their human resources strategies following the introduction of mandatory disclosure requirements, the survey highlighted that only a small number of companies are able to clearly demonstrate the link between strategy and human resources.
The main finding was that 34 companies, or 1.6% of the total, were able to describe the connection between their business strategies and human resources. Of these, 27 companies indicated that the connection was currently in operation, while 7 announced plans to introduce it. The survey found that only approximately one-quarter of the total demonstrated the connection.
In the distribution by type, A-type standalone descriptions accounted for 38.6% and C-type initiative linkages for 38.3%, forming near-equal shares. By contrast, only 34 companies were classified as D-type system linkages, while no companies were classified as F-type external references. The results show that very few companies have progressed as far as establishing specific human resources systems linked to their strategies. At the same time, most listed companies do contain descriptions related to their human resources.
From the perspective of management risk, the findings indicated that whether a company describes a link between strategy and human resources is important for its ability to explain itself to investors and job seekers. Representative Director Nakakita Junya (中北順也) said that the 1.6% figure indicates that these companies have reached the stage at which they can describe the connection. The methodology involved evaluating each company’s most recent annual securities report using AI and human review, with companies falling near the classification boundary assessed multiple times and finalized by majority vote.