Since 1995, UT Group has been focusing on the personal growth of its people. The reason behind this is that everyone has a potential regardless of the superficial differences such as age, education, background, and gender and the potential can be expanded by the individual’s “free will”. We believe that everyone is equal in terms of having that “free will,” and we want to help them expand their potential as much as possible.

When I was a high school student, I was on the brink of death for several days due to a traffic accident. I felt strongly that my lifetime was not indefinite but limited and that I should spend it in doing things I wanted to do the most, and possibilities might open up to me. That feeling soon turned into a strong desire to become an entrepreneur, and I started what became the UT Group of today when I was only 24 but with a strong will to do so.

At the time of its founding, the manufacturing dispatching industry was filled with various contradictions, with many unlisted privately-owned companies. In many cases dispatched workers didn’t have a real desire to work, or not even have a guarantee for a stable life in the next three months. The persons who came for an interview at my little company were typically people in their 50s with various backgrounds who had been restructured. When I faced these people, who as a result of their recent circumstances had a willingness to work, I thought that my role as an entrepreneur was to respect their “will” and create an environment that could help expand their potential. At the same time, I felt that resolving social conflicts would indeed be a business opportunity.

A small latecomer like us couldn’t compete with other companies by doing the same thing. At the same time, as we wanted to broaden the potentials of workers, we have naturally become focused on workers among all the topics in devising business plans. For this reason, we emphasized the stability of employment and decided on open-ended (indefinite) employment of dispatched workers, which were considered to be absurd ideas in the industry. Subsequently we considered how we could turn the stable employment of our associates (a term for employees at UT Group) into customer value, and have built a sustainable business model with “reliability, bonding, and growth” as key words.

Our attitude to seriously address these social and industry-based contradictions has resulted in receiving support from a lot of workers and client companies, and I am so pleased that UT Group has been continuing to grow.

We aim to achieve a society in which workers have their “free will” respected and their potential to be broadened and realized, while at the same time to achieve sustainable growth of UT Group. My personal “will” was a trigger to start UT Group but the company is now operated by a large number of associates and their collective “wills” and by using various forms of social capital, including business partners. Moreover, since our business plays a role in the infrastructure aspects of employment, through contributing to the stability of employment and adjustment of human resources supply and demand, we believe that our social responsibility is increasing as the business scale expands.

UT Group is committed to continuously improving its sustainable corporate value by taking an open attitude toward shareholders, associates, clients, and other stakeholders, and by taking into account transparent management.

Yoichi Wakayama
Chairman and Representative Director
UT Group Co., Ltd.