Social Contribution Activities

Natural Conservation Activities

The Stages of TaKaRa Natural Conservation Activities

TaKaRa's support for natural conservation activities began with the 1979 "Come Back Salmon" campaign, in conjunction with the Citizen Movement to Call Back Salmon to the Toyohira River in Hokkaido. The Campaign went beyond monetary contributions, becoming a comprehensive campaign through activities such as newspaper advertisements and promotion of the campaign through product packaging. This movement spread to other rivers in Japan, and as far as the Fraser River in Canada. After this, TaKaRa's natural conservation activities continued to connect with natural conservation movements, and in 1985 led to the establishment of the TaKaRa Harmonist Fund public trust, and the establishment of our corporate philosophy of "Harmony with Nature, Humans and Society". Social contribution activities will continue under this corporate philosophy.

Support for Citizens' Activities through the TaKaRa Harmonist Fund in FY 1999

The TaKaRa Harmonist Fund, a public trust established in 1985, supports activities and research by organizations and individuals for the protection of water and greenery, the sources of brewing and distillation. Since the first contributions in 1986, a total of 79.75 million yen has been donated to 164 organizations and individuals.

14th Annual Contribution Recipients for FY 1999

Donations from the sales of the Yujiro Memorial Box to Coastal Environmental Conservation Activities Yujiro Ishihara was the celebrity representative for TaKaRa's seishu product "Shochikubai" for many years. The much-anticipated "Yujiro Ishihara Memorial Box" marked the 13th anniversary of his death; orders commenced from September of last year. A portion of the sales was donated to the Japan Coastal Leisure and Safety Promotional Association for coastal environment protection activities in honor of Mr. Ishihara's love of the ocean. (Contributions from the sales of this product also went to the Marine Rescue Japan.)

Environmental Education Activities

Our three new themes for activity are Environmental Education, Activities to Foster Recycling, and Exchange with Regional Residents.
We believe that corporations and the public need to overcome barriers and together tackle urgent environmental problems. Each person throughout society must put aside apathy, start caring about environmental issues and take action. In particular, TaKaRa places its hopes in the children who will inherit the future, and is strengthening environmental education activities to increase understanding of the importance and difficulty of environmental issues.
One of our main focuses, the container and packaging recycle problem, requires the cooperation and understanding of the public as well as efforts by the corporations. As this problem can be solved only by working with the public, we're emphasizing our Activities to Foster Recycling and Exchange with Regional Residents initiatives.

10th Anniversary of TaKaRa Clean CAN Walking This year marks the 10th year of the TaKaRa Clean CAN Walking program that brings together local residents and Takara Shuzo employees to clean up the coasts of Enoshima every summer. We held the event on August 26 in cooperation with the Nippon Environment Club, featuring new initiatives such as panels and picture books to teach children about the process of recycling cans. This year saw participation of 1,149 residents, including 121 children and 112 Takara Shuzo employees.

* The picture book we distributed to children during Clean CAN Walking, The Forest Recycle Workshop (not for sale; produced by Nippon Environment Club, published by Takara Shuzo), is available to interested parties. Please contact the Eco Challenge Office listed in the back of this pamphlet.

Recycle Workshop at the Factory Open Event The Matsudo factory in Chiba, Fushimi factory in Kyoto, and Kusu factory in Mie all sponsor annual events that invite the public into the facilities. In addition to a Recycling Corner display and gifts in exchange for cans, this year saw the return of the Recycle Workshop environmental booth, begun last year with the cooperation of the environmental NGO Nippon Environment Club. Children became familiar with natural materials and learned about recycling through making flower vases and candleholders out of used cans and bottles, and dolls out of natural materials such as pine cones and acorns.

Participation in the National Natural Research Activity 'Our River' Continuing last year's mountain research theme, we supported this year's "National Natural Research Activity 'Our River' ", sponsored by the Natural Conservation Society of Japan, and encouraged employees and their families to participate. We hope that children will gain a sense of the importance of disappearing nature through observation of nearby rivers.

Clean Earth Strategy In honor of the September 15th founding of Takara Shuzo, the Takara Shuzo Labor Union sponsored regional beautification events at all of our offices throughout the country for the ninth year. Last year, 1,572 employees and 465 family members participated.

Participation in Earth Day 2000 Tokyo TaKaRa presented an environmental display booth at the Earth Day 2000 Tokyo event held in Hibiya Park in Tokyo on April 22nd and 23rd of this year. In addition to displaying our environmentally considerate products such as the bulk sales tank and Eco PETE, we were able to communicate with the public and gather valuable opinions.