People & CultureEmbedding Our “KABEGOE Principles” in the Workplace—Four Examples in Practice

In addition to positioning Story for Vision 2030 as a strategic narrative for realizing Vision 2030, the Kyowa Kirin Group is putting great effort into creating a team—people, organization, and culture—capable of powerfully executing that strategy. To that end, we have established the KABEGOE Principles to describe the specific actions that shape the teams we aspire to become, and share them globally as a guide for employees’ daily decisions and actions.

Since the global launch of the KABEGOE Principles in 2025, we have pursued initiatives to embed them across our organization, led by employees who volunteered from multiple regions and functions. The goal is not only for employees to understand the 11 Principles, but also to connect them with their own work and demonstrate them naturally in their day-to-day actions.

The following examples highlight how the KABEGOE Principles are being brought to life in the workplace and contributing to tangible outcomes, as shared by employees on the front lines.
As a result of these initiatives, we have heard from employees on the front lines about how the KABEGOE Principles have taken root in the workplace as guiding behaviors and are leading to tangible outcomes.

Daisuke Shimmi / Core Research Laboratories, Research Division

The Healthcare Café is an initiative to understand the true needs of patients and their families by engaging in dialogue, and to harness this knowledge in drug discovery. It is implemented jointly by three pharmaceutical companies, and the 10th Healthcare Café, held in December 2025, was hosted by Kyowa Kirin with transfusion therapy as the theme.

I rarely have the opportunity to hear directly from patients as I am usually engaged in research, principally in antibody purification and quality assessment. It was for this very reason that I volunteered to be part of the team running the Healthcare Café.

I strongly believe that, in addition to being a company that delivers medicines, we should be an entity that stays close to patients’ lives while creating new value. Each patient has a deeply personal journey, filled with conflict and anxiety that arise around treatment, as well as hopes and wishes. My aim is to share this understanding with as many of our employees as possible.

Yuko Abe / Bio Process Research and Development Laboratories, Manufacturing Division

In recent years, biopharmaceuticals have shifted toward more complex molecular constructs, such as bispecific antibodies, increasing the difficulty of development. Against this backdrop, our Manufacturing Division and Quality Division research teams are leveraging their collective expertise as they take on the challenge of accelerating development—even for complex molecules.

Our accelerated cell line development technology has already been applied to multiple programs as one of the original strategies which accelerate early-stage development of biopharmaceuticals, and tangible results are beginning to emerge in the form of shortened development timelines. Our goal is to reduce initial development timelines by up to two years.
Every day, we keep in mind a phrase from the Commitment to Life: “Be driven. Think of those fighting for their lives every day.” Guided by this belief, our team will continue to work as one to move forward.

Kaito Nihira, Ph.D. / Director, Global Operational & Digital Transformation, Kyowa Kirin International Plc
Chi Li BSc. MSc. MRSC. / Global Supply Chain Transformation Head, Kyowa Kirin International Plc

We are responsible for a core initiative driving Kyowa Kirin’s supply chain transformation. Under a shared vision of pursuing end-to-end excellence in the supply chain, experts from supply chain management, sales and marketing, quality, finance, IT, manufacturing, and project management have come together across regions and worked as one team.

Guided by a common ambition to simplify, standardize and digitize the supply chain, the super team has moved beyond siloed ways of working to deliver integrated solutions across planning, manufacturing and distribution. Our shared vision has allowed us to create faster decision-making, clearer ownership and a stronger collaboration across global and regional teams. This has been recognized as a representative project demonstrating the power of a Super Team united by a shared vision. Looking ahead, we will continue to share this vision as one team and advance our efforts not only to transform processes and systems, but also to build a resilient supply chain that enables both sustainable business growth and the delivery of value to patients.

Hi Jung Park / Director of Legal & Compliance for the APAC Cluster

“Compliance” can often feel like “rules on a page,” but “Do the Right Thing” is truly something we practice every day in our work. For this reason, team members from South Korea, Taiwan, and Australia came together to form a project team and planned and held Ethics Week 2025 to strengthen a shared compliance culture across the APAC region.

During Ethics Week 2025, we carried out initiatives under the theme “One APAC, One Ethics Journey.” Compliance sticks when people experience it, not when it’s just explained. For this reason, we conducted localized, scenario-based training tailored to the actual conditions of each country based on local regulations. In addition, to promote the habit of “Pause & Think”—taking a moment before making decisions—we distributed socks designed to remind employees of this concept and conducted the Socks Challenge, encouraging employees to recall “Pause & Think” each time they looked at their feet. These fun and creative initiatives proved highly effective in helping compliance take root as a culture.

Furthermore, by organizing this not as country-specific compliance events but as a region-wide initiative across the APAC operations of the Kyowa Kirin Group, we were able to foster a sense of unity across countries and regions while also providing opportunities for learning tailored to each local context. Going forward, we’ll continue localized compliance training as regulations change, and keep up cross-region knowledge sharing and ongoing communications.

Regarding the initiatives introduced here, Chief People Officer Shoko Itagaki commented as follows: “Internal surveys also indicate steady progress from a change management standpoint. I am delighted to see that these Principles created at the behest of our management team appear to resonate so deeply with each and every employee, serving as a blueprint for us to achieve further growth by forging ahead as a Super Team. By sharing our vision, engaging in dialogue, and taking on challenges in a manner that transcends departments, regions, and job roles, we are forming a sense of unity as One Kyowa Kirin and shaping a KABEGOE Culture—one that delivers life-changing value and brings smiles to the faces of people facing illness”

The Kyowa Kirin Group will continue to promote the practice of the KABEGOE Principles around the world.