Recruiting and Developing Diverse Talent

Developing and Advancing Women

At Morgan Stanley, we are committed to narrowing the Gender Pay Gap in Japan and hold ourselves accountable to growing the representation of women at all levels, including leadership. We continue to drive progress through our firmwide five-point action plan:

Our Commitment to Developing and Advancing Women in Japan

1. Senior Leadership Commitment

The senior management in Japan has set goals to grow women officers for Japan and has implemented action plans locally. Within Morgan Stanley’s group companies in Japan, we are proud to have women in senior positions such as officers, divisional heads, directors, and management committee members.

2. Focus on Recruitment

Continue to attract and hire more women in Japan through our campus and mid-career recruiting efforts to support the pipeline of future female leaders.  Actions include:

  • Aspirational goal of 50% women in campus recruiting
  • For mid-career hiring, manage the hiring process to include at least one female candidate for every open position and include at least one female interviewer

3. Path to Leadership and Robust Talent Management

Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities’ Management Committee is 28% women, and 33% of officers at the Firm are women as of June 2025. We seek to continue to consider women for senior leadership opportunities through:

  • A robust divisional and firmwide review process to evaluate and track each division's efforts, commitments and actions.
  • Regularly review data of female representation, hiring, promotion and attrition to identify gaps, shape strategy and goals, and evaluate progress.
  • Focus on providing diverse talent development programs with individualized career support and sponsorship

4. Focus on Benefits  

We have a genuine interest in our employee’s professional development and wellbeing. Our greatest asset is our people and we take pride in investing in them.

  • Support the physical, mental and financial wellbeing of our employees and their families
  • Support working parents and caregivers through enhanced family-friendly benefit programs and policies

Please see Morgan Stanley Offerings for more information.

5. Manager Education  

We continually equip our managers with the skills and tools they need to be effective and inclusive, eliminating bias from performance processes and build capability around key skills to drive optimal performance management, productivity, and engagement in teams.

For more on the firm’s commitment to diversity, please see 2023 ESG Report.


Historical Hiring Ratio by Gender

 

Average Length of Service*2

 

 

*1  Fixed Term Employees includes Campus interns, and Senior Advisors
*2  Average length of service of full time employees at Morgan Stanley entities in Japan as of January 1, 2025

 

Gender Pay Difference

At Morgan Stanley, we hold ourselves collectively accountable for ensuring that women of all backgrounds have equal opportunity to develop and progress in their careers.

Fairness in our pay practices remains a core part of our compensation strategy. Our results reflect that women and men are being paid equally for the same or similar role, or for work of equal value.

The Firm is committed to ensuring compensation and reward decisions are fair, equitable and consistent, and are made based on an individual’s role, regardless of gender, race, ethnicity or other demographics.

When we compare the average compensation between female employees and male employees in Morgan Stanley Japan, the pay difference is largely driven by having a greater proportion of male employees than female employees in senior positions, and in businesses where market rates of pay are higher. We remain committed to our ongoing efforts listed in the Our Commitment to Developing and Advancing Women in Japan that aim to support reducing the gender pay difference.

Commitment to Equitable Pay Practices

Our compensation programs are competitive within our industry and help ensure equitable rewards for all employees through:

  • Robust practices that support fair and consistent compensation, and help ensure reward decisions are based on merit
  • Ongoing review of compensation decisions, including at the points of hire, promotion and mobility
  • Regular assessment of our rewards structure to help ensure equity for all employees

The Gender Pay Difference Explained:
Gender pay difference is a measure of the average pay difference between women and men across an organization regardless of role or level. This is different from gender pay equity, which measures whether women and men are paid equally for the same or similar roles, or for work of equal value.

Pay Difference *1

All female employees’ average compensation as a percentage of all male employees’ compensation

 

*1  Compensation paid out between April 2024 and March 2025 at Morgan Stanley MUFG Securities Co. Ltd.
*2  Headcount of Fixed Term Employees as a percentage of all employees is 0.4%. They include Senior Advisors.


Action Plan 

Action Plan for the Act on Promotion of Women’s Career Progression

To complement our global focus on diversity and to further our commitment to support the advancement of women in Japan, we have developed an action plan as part of the Japanese government’s Act on Promotion of Women’s Career Progression.

 

Plan Period

April 1, 2021 through March 31, 2026

 

Our Goal

1. Morgan Stanley plans to attract and hire more women through our campus and mid-career recruiting efforts in order to increase our female talent and pipeline of future female leaders. 

a) We aim to recruit 50% or more women in  campus recruiting.

b) For mid-career hiring, we manage the hiring process to include at least one female candidate for every open position and include at least one female interviewer.

2. To further strengthen the work environment for female employees, we conduct an annual survey on Firm’s culture and employee engagement, including the analysis of the usage of flexible working arrangements such as telecommuting and reduced working hours, to address issues and implement improvement measures on an annual cycle.

 

Actions

1.  Reevaluate and review hiring criteria and process (from April 2021)

2.  Proactively promote Morgan Stanley to job-seekers as a workplace where women can succeed (from April 2021)

3.  Conduct regular employee awareness surveys and implement improvement measures (from April 2021)

4.  Encourage flexible working styles to existing employees (from April 2021)

Action Plan for the Act for Measures to Support the Development of the Next Generation

 

Plan Period

April 1, 2025 through March 31, 2030

 

Our Goal

1. Offer and promote programs that support expectant employees with parental responsibilities including the establishment of a work environment where employees can take pregnancy loss leave when their spouse or partner experience miscarriage or stillbirth

2. Encourage male employees to take paternity leave and childcare leave programs and set a minimum annual target increase to 3%

3. Encourage usage of Annual Vacation Program to ensure employees “rest and recharge” and maintain good health and set a minimum annual target increase to 3%

 

Male Employees' Childcare Leave Statistics

Usage rate of male employees who took childcare and/or parental leave for at least 2 weeks increment up to 16 weeks during below period at Morgan Stanley Japan Group Co., Ltd : 95%

 

Disclosure date: April 1, 2025

Fiscal year of this disclosure: January 1 through December 31, 2025

Period of this data: January 1 through December 31, 2024

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