Message from the CEO

The Evolution of Naigai

Naigai’s purpose is “to maximize human performance through gloves”.
We have been making gloves for nearly 70 years since our establishment in 1954. When it comes to work, gloves are useful items that serve a dual purpose: they protect our hands from injuries and enhance our performance by providing a better grip and comfort when we use or work with various tools.
Even winter gloves do more than keep your hands warm; they help you walk with good posture. When you shove your hands into your pockets to protect them from the cold, you tend to hunch over and walk with poor posture. Yet, when you wear gloves, you can walk with your back straight. Your hands are protected from the cold and your walking performance has improved.

On this basis, we believe that maximizing performance through gloves for all mankind is the raison d’etre of Naigai.
To fully realize this, we have three core values:
(1) Embrace Change
(2) Create Difference
(3) Never Give Up: Challenge is a start, Failure is a Process

(1) Embrace Change

All things are impermanent, which means that all phenomena in this world are constantly changing. Change is inevitable for everything and everyone. I think the best way to cope with change is to not only to be open to it, but to embrace it with a positive mindset.
Looking back over the 70 years since our founding, we have seen a torrent of change, and each time we have endured, and even painfully, overcome those changes. We have been doing business in the global market since the 1970s, and now, half a century later, globalization has become a matter of course for Naigai.
From these experiences, we believe that it is important to anticipate the changes that will come, and to be willing to adapt to them.
To paraphrase Charles Darwin:
“It is not the strongest who survive, nor the wisest who survive. Only those who can change will survive.”

(2) Create Difference

When we think about the value of a company as a manufacturer, previously a company’s value depended on its ability to produce as many identical products of high quality, as possible.
But that is no longer the case.
We live in a world that is Volatile, Uncertain, Complex, and Ambiguous, and our needs are fragmented.
In this world, we believe that the key is how to create “difference”.
However, in order to create difference, we have to be different.
To this end, Naigai has been promoting diversity and inclusion. Our aim is to bring as many diverse perspectives into the decision-making process as we can; everyone works together as a team regardless of nationality, race, or gender. In fact, Naigai employees are 60% female, 38% of our managers are female, and 21% of our staff are foreign nationals. “Diversity” isn’t just a keyword of our corporate culture: it’s one of our key strengths.

(3) Never give up: Challenge is a start, failure is a process

The word “challenge”, naturally, includes the risk of failure. Hence, it takes courage to overcome the fear of failure. We need words to inspire us, so we use inspiring words like “challenge”.
However, we believe that to face a challenge is only the beginning.
There is a high possibility that you will fail along the way, but if you turn those failures into lessons, they will help you achieve success.
As long as you don’t give up.
We believe that the attitude of not giving up until you reach your goal is paramount, and that success follows as a result.
We, the Naigai Group, share these values with our 2,500+ employees: everyone from our designers in Japan to our workers in the factories overseas, are all working to “maximize the performance of mankind through gloves”. We will continue to evolve as a global glove company, backed by the glove production, technology, and experience we have cultivated over our 70-year history.

President and CEO
Koichi Tanaka