Tokyo — June 23, 2022 — Asteria Corporation (Japan listed, Security Code: 3853) announced today that it has created the Chief Well-being* Officer (CWO) post and appointed Yuka Shimada to assume this role with her stint starting on July 1.
The aim of the creation of the CWO post and appointment for the role
Asteria’s first CWO Yuka Shimada
Since before the COVID-19 pandemic, Asteria has been pursing to create a more comfortable and productive working environment. As the society is transitioning towards the new normal due to the pandemic, Asteria has established the new CWO (Chief Well-being Officer) post, based on the belief that employee wellbeing (healthy and sound mind and body) is one of the key factors that lead to corporate growth.
The first CWO will be Yuka Shimada, who has long pursued wellbeing at companies through organizations such as Unilever Japan, YeeY Inc. and dialogue, a general incorporated association. By proposing a variety of work styles, such as the promotion of workcations and team building using positive psychology, she will work to improve the wellbeing of Asteria’s employees and their families, and will also study and widely spread information on what approach a company can take to wellbeing.
Name
New post (effective on July 1)
Yuka Shimada
Chief Well-being Officer (CWO)
[Profile of Yuka Shimada]
After graduating from Keio University, Shimada worked for Pasona Inc. and obtained an MA in organizational psychology from Columbia University Graduate School. After working as a human resources manager at a Japan unit of General Electric, she joined Unilever Japan in 2008 and was appointed the head of human resources and general affairs as well as a member of the board in 2014. Focusing on human motivation, she implemented a number of unique HR initiatives such as “WAA” and the company won the Forbes WOMEN AWARD for the third year in a row. In 2017, she co-founded YeeY Inc. and became its CEO. She has contributed to improving the wellbeing literacy of Japanese companies and society by holding conferences which invited the world’s leading authorities on wellbeing research. Through corporate management support, HR consulting and support for building organizational culture, she is working to help Japanese companies realize wellbeing management. She is also passionate about revitalizing local economies, spending almost half of the year at a workation destination; she provides organizational consulting to local governments, supports the development of content such as workcations, and creates mechanisms to enhance the wellbeing of local residents.
She was awarded the top prize in the individual part of the corporate HR category of the HR Award 2016. She is also the winner of the “International Women’s Day｜HAPPY WOMAN AWARD 2019 for SDGs”; chairperson of Team WAA!; representative/chief coach consultant of Delivering Happiness Japan; representative of Japan Positive Psychology Institute.
[Message from Yuka Shimada]
I am very grateful for the valuable opportunity to be the first CWO. My purpose in life is to create a society where everyone can live a fulfilling life in their own way with a smile on their face. Well-being” is clearly the keyword for future management and way of life, and I define it in my own way as “whether or not I’m in good shape and feeling good”. Various research results have already shown the benefits of wellbeing at work and in the workplace, where we spend most of our time in a day. From Asteria, which is striving to improve Japan through technology and a work style with the aim of realizing its purpose, I would like to further enhance wellbeing in Japan.
* : Wellbeing is a state of being completely happy and satisfied physically, mentally and socially.
For the press enquiries, please contact Masumi Koizumi of Asteria’s PR and IR department.
TEL: +81-3-5718-1297 / Mobile: +81-80-7716-9841 (Koizumi) / E-mail: press@asteria.com
