Japan's Mizuho bank to allow employees to take side jobs by next March

Mizuho Financial Group Inc. plans to change its personnel policy to allow employees to hold side jobs by the end of next March, the first such move by a mega-bank. By helping employees seek new challenges and opportunities, Mizuho hopes they will use the experience and ideas they acquire outside of the group to create new financial services at Mizuho, President Tatsufumi Sakai said in a recent interview. "I want everyone to refine their skills through a diverse range of challenges so that they can all be specialists in their fields," he said. The 59-year-old chief executive hopes new job opportunities will encourage employees to make use of their experiences in startups, manufacturing companies and other industries to create new business ideas for Mizuho. The initiative is expected to be introduced in the second half of fiscal 2019, after rules on labor and information management are worked out.