JSR Group has been involved in various social contribution programs with a focus on community activities. In January 2009 we established our "Basic Approach to Social Contribution" as a philosophy aimed at further strengthening our activities. We are currently implementing the initiatives outlined in this philosophy.
Additionally, in 2010 we established "standards for making donations to disasters" in order to stipulate evaluation criteria when making donations to natural disasters. This brought greater clarity to standards and allows contributions to be made promptly and fairly.
JSR Social Contribution Committee plans and executes activities that promote JSR Group's standing as a good corporate citizen.
The following section describes some of our main social and community activities for FY2016.
JSR Group continues to participate in blood donation activities as part of volunteer programs conducted at local offices in Japan and abroad. In FY2016, Emulsion Technology Co., Ltd. received a letter of appreciation from the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare for its many years of cooperation in promoting blood donation activities.
In September 2016, JSR Micro Korea Co., Ltd. joined with companies in the Ochang Scientific Industrial Complex to visit and donate fruit to nearby senior citizens' welfare centers.
In February 2017, JSR Micro Taiwan Co., Ltd. donated books it owned to twelve nearby public institutions to encourage reading.
JSR Group has been conducting a foreign coin collection campaign since 2009 to assist programs that support children around the world through the Japan Committee for UNICEF.
These coins are effectively utilized to protect the life, health, and rights of children in developing countries.
On Disaster Drill Day every September, JSR Group reviews their emergency supplies at offices in Tokyo. Old stored hardtack and water are replaced with new supplies. While some of these supplies are consumed through sample tasting or on other occasions, some are donated by employees and sent to the Second Harvest Japan (2HJ) food bank, a specific non-profit corporation. This helps ensure effective use of the hardtack and water, which has a shelf life of at least one month.
2HJ receives donations of food that would otherwise be disposed of for various reasons from corporations, farmers, and individuals, and sends them to welfare facilities and other organizations in need.
Since October 2010, the Yokkaichi Plant has been participating in aluminum can collection activities for social welfare organizations that help people with disabilities in Yokkaichi City learn to become self-sufficient. These welfare organizations include the "i-project," which targets children, and "Tanpopo," which targets adults. Aluminum cans are useful to multi-functional work environments that incorporate can-crushing activities into their processes. The collection of aluminum cans helps children with disabilities make connections with other people and society, and become more independent. We plan to continue participating in this activity.
Plastic bottle cap and aluminum can collection boxes
(JSR Yokkaichi Plant)
Instead of burning plastic bottle caps as waste, they are collected and sold to recycling companies. The funds earned through this activity are then used to provide vaccinations to children around the world. We have been involved in this program since 2009.
Since February 2010, JSR Group has participated in the Table for Two (TFT) program. The TFT program provides food to children in Africa through the sharing of meals. When a participant purchases TFT-specified food, it will provide both a healthy food alternative and an opportunity to donate 20 yen per meal, which is enough to pay for a single serving in developing countries with school lunch programs. In addition, Cup for Two beverages are also offered through vending machines at JSR Yokkaichi Plant.
We make donations to medical care support programs such as the Japan branch of the Médecins Sans Frontières NGO to provide treatment for HIV/AIDS and infectious diseases such as cholera and malaria.
JSR supports Iga FC Kunoichi, a team in the Nadeshiko League. Iga FC Kunoichi is Mie Prefecture's only professional sports team. We will continue to help promote sports in the local community.
The Human Resources Fostering Program in Chemistry was created by the Japan Chemical Industry Association (JCIA) in October 2010. It is based on a proposal made in a report prepared in April of the same year by the "Kagaku Bijon Kenkyukai" (chemistry vision study group) of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry. The program informs universities of the chemical industry's human resources needs. Then industry supports the university courses that can meet these needs and their students. Its purpose is to develop the young people who will serve as the foundation for stronger international competitiveness and industrial promotion in Japan's chemical industry. We use the program to support courses engaged in outstanding initiatives and their students.
We support young researchers by sponsoring the TBS TV/CBS TV mini-series "Mirai no Kigen (Origin for the Future)."
JSR Group provides support for next-generation development and education opportunities through our continued efforts to provide education and internship opportunities to students both in Japan and abroad. We also provide private-sector training to teachers as well as career experience opportunities.
In May 2016, JM Energy Corporation was selected by Hokuto City's Izumi Elementary School as a place to visit for its school-wide activity called "Furusato Daikoshin" (great hometown march). Seventeen teams comprised of a total of some 170 first to sixth graders toured the JM Energy plant. They saw actual worksites, watched a JM Energy video that explained work processes, and experienced what it's like to be in a manufacturing plant.
In December 2016, we engaged in instructional activities for three different classes of second graders (97 kids) at the Kamisu Daiichi Junior High School in Kamisu City. Three experiments were performed in these classes, including Synthetic Rubber, Balls that Bounce and Ones that Don't, and Unbreakable Plastic. We have created a mascot known as Mr. Molecule to help explain the relationship between molecules and material characteristics.
Yokkaichi Plant accepted a nearby industrial high school for the program.
As part of our efforts to promote collaboration between industry and academia*, every year, the Chiba Plant holds presentations at the Nihon University College of Industrial Technology. The course, titled "The Properties and Manufacturing Processes of Rubber and Quality Assurance," was held on October 27, 2016 for nearly 100 students.
* Ichihara City's program to strengthen collaboration between industry and academia
Since FY2010, JSR Group has participated in a teacher training program at a private company that is organized by the Keizai Koho Center. In FY2016, we held a two-day training session from August 23 to 24 at the Head Office and Chiba Plant with six teachers to help them learn more about the basic attitudes required to do business, company efforts needed to address environmental problems, and human resources development. The purpose is to have teachers utilize this training experience in children's education and school administration.
We provided JSR-made 3D printer materials to activities by AIESEC, a specified non-profit organization, to help improve the quality of primary education in Southeast Asia.
Japanese university students who are interested in educational issues and technology prepared teaching materials using 3D printers. They then visited areas of Southeast Asia as interns and provided education using their prepared materials. The aim was to expand the free thought, independence, and creativity of local children through education in which they use their hands and heads and thus become human resources for the future. Additionally, JSR employees taught the participating university students 3D printer technology, which resulted in the students' acquiring skills with those technologies.
Since 2014, the Yokkaichi Plant, with cooperation from JSR Group and JSR Labor Union, has participated in the "Memory Book Bag (Randoseru) for Children in Afghanistan" event held by JOICFP, an NGO engaged in international cooperation. Through the event, we donate unused school bags to underprivileged children in Afghanistan to assist their education. The event's aim is to help give children the knowledge and information they need to keep themselves and their families healthy by attending school and learning to read and write. In FY2016, we joined with JSR's business partners to donate 18 book bags as well as pencils, notebooks, and other stationery. We will remain involved with the event, viewing it as a social contribution activity in which individual employees can participate.
Ichihara Art x Mix is an event organized by Ichihara City and held jointly with Chiba Prefecture and neighboring municipalities. Staged in a community woodland of southern Ichihara City, it is held as a local art festival that highlights local resources through modern art. This year's event is the second held thus far, the first being in 2014. JSR assists in public relations for it and contributes to the promotion of local arts.
1. Tsukide Kousya (former Tsukide Elementary School)
2. Tsukizaki Station/Quard's Forest
3. Former Satomi Elementary School
JSR Group continues to help with local clean-up activities of roads, coastlines, and rivers at domestic and overseas offices and plants.
Following last year, we again participated in the International Coastal Cleanup event organized by the Ocean Conservancy NPO based in the US. In 2016, 108 employees and their families helped clean Mae Ram Phueng Beach and Namrin Payung Beach in cooperation with other companies located in the same industrial park, other local businesses, educational institutions, and community volunteers.
This event is held on the third Saturday in September all around the world to clean beaches, lakes, seas, and rivers in various countries. The participation of nearly 500,000 people in 91 different countries makes this one of the largest marine conservation project in the world.
We participate in coastal cleanup activities on Toshijima, an island in Toba City, Mie Prefecture.
These activities began in FY2012 and have continued each year since.
Companies and local governments that are members of the Mie Prefecture Industrial Waste Solutions Promotion Committee participate. JSR Yokkaichi Plant serves as an executive member company of the committee.
In November 2016, we participated in the Mie Leading Industry Exhibition 2016, an event sponsored by Mie Prefecture. This year marked the 14th time the exhibition has been held. A total of 188 companies and organizations participated, including some from Aichi and Gifu Prefectures. They presented their products and technical capabilities through exhibits organized into ten zones, among them "Manufacturing," "Environment and Energy," and "Industry-Academia-Government Collaboration." JSR's booth was visited by some 100 people who included officials from prefectural and municipal offices, companies (including fellow exhibitors), students, former JSR employees, and ordinary citizens.
The Japan Chemical Industry Association (JCIA) RC committee holds regional dialogue meetings all over Japan as part of its RC initiatives. Participants include local residents, educators, civil servants, and members from various other organizations. They are becoming important events that provide an opportunity to introduce participating companies, to explain their everyday safety and environmental measures to local residents to bolster understanding and peace of mind, and to respond to residents' concerns and questions.
In FY2016, discussions were held in Yokkaichi and Kashima. In Kashima's case, we contributed to the discussion's management by serving as the chair company. The event proved successful in building mutual understanding between us and the local community.
Participation in regional discussions
JSR Harmony Festa is held every year to bring JSR Group and their families together with residents in the local area. Over 1,900 people attended the event, which has become a local custom, in FY2016. The event offered many fun and interesting activities such as various sports and games, soccer lessons, and workshops. The stage was home to a performance by the juggling club of a high school in Mie Prefecture and band performances by student bands from daycare facilities and junior high schools in Yokkaichi City.
The Otsukado Performing Arts Preservation Society in Joso City, Ibaraki Prefecture is committed to preserving the old tradition of Tsunabi, which dates back to the Edo Period. Tsunabi is a traditional play that combines puppets and fireworks. The play is enacted with wooden dolls wrapped in fireworks that hang from a string. This play is performed for the public every year at the Grand Festival at Hitokotonushi Shrine in Otsukado. Elastimix donates to this preservation society to help keep this tradition alive.
In the wake of the 2016 Kumamoto earthquakes and an earthquake that struck central Italy, we made donations to provide relief for the victims and help in restoration of the afflicted areas. We offer our sincerest wishes for a quick return to normalcy for everyone who was affected.
On February 23, 2017, we held a "Tohoku reconstruction support market and wine sale with JSR Trading" at JSR's Head Office.
Held as a joint CSR program by JSR and JSR Trading Co., Ltd., a member of JSR Group, this collaborative undertaking featured sales of specialty products from three Tohoku prefecture that were stricken by the Great East Japan Earthquake (Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima) and tasting and sales of wines imported by JSR Trading. Ten businesses from the three Tohoku prefectures set up sales stands.
Several hundred people from both inside and outside the company visited and enjoyed purchasing products while talking to the stand operators. Sales were brisk, with some products selling out almost immediately.
Six years after the Great East Japan Earthquakes, the affected areas continue to move from the reconstruction phase to the business promotion phase. Nonetheless, more than 120,000 people* continue to live as evacuees, and thus the road to recover has only just begun. In addition to making a contribution to society through our business activities, we will continue to actively meet society's requirements and resolve social issues as a responsible member of society.
*The number of evacuees is as of January 16, 2017 (announced by the Reconstruction Agency on January 31, 2017).
Cooperation: Office for disaster victim support coordination, Reconstruction Agency, FY2016, and Mitsubishi Research Institute, Inc.