Sustainability History
Fostering Good Habits through Good Business
Lion’s origins lie in laundry soap and toothpaste. Since our founding, we have promoted a culture of cleanliness and oral hygiene by providing useful products and helping to foster good habits.
Building on these strengths, the Lion Group has been focusing on the areas of oral hygiene, cleanliness and environmental friendliness, which represent important social issues.
Lion's History
Lion's Founding
- 1891
The birth of Lion - Tomijiro Kobayashi established T. Kobayashi & Co. to trade in soap and the raw materials of matches.
- 1900
Lion's first social contribution initiative - Began a social contribution program using charity coupons printed on packets of Lion Toothpowder
- 1913
Japan's first toothpaste for children - Held first oral hygiene lecture
Launched Kodomo Toothpowder (today Kodomo Toothpaste) for schoolchildren
Growth of Core Businesses
- 1920
Japan's first plant-derived laundry soap - Launched plant-derived Lion Laundry Soap
- 1921
Japan's first dental clinic for children - Opened a dental clinic for children (renamed the Lion Dental Clinic for Children in 1938)
- 1933
Spreading better laundry washing methods - Opened the Family Laundry Information Service Center (renamed the Lion Laundry Science Laboratories in 1936 and the Household Science Laboratories in 1957)
- 1956
- Launched Lipon F, the world's first kitchen detergent for washing fruit, vegetables and tableware
- 1959
- Launched dental hygiene activities for mothers and their children (later named the Tanpopo (“Dandelion”) Initiative
Beginning to Address Environmental Issues
- 1967
- Launched the laundry detergent Dash, formulated with highly biodegradable alpha-olefin sulfonate (AOS)
- 1971
- Established the Environmental Problems Countermeasures Committee
- 1973
Created phosphate-free detergent, ahead of the industry - Moved ahead of the times to develop an early phospate-free detergent and released it as Seseragi
- 1980
- Launched Murin Top (Enzyme Power Top), Lion's first majorly successful phosphate-free detergent
- 1989
- Founded Lion Oleochemical Co., Ltd., which produced highly biodegradable raw surfactant materials from palm oil
- 1990
- Established the Environmental Action Promotion Committee (renamed Environmental conservation committee in 2004, Sustainability Promotion meeting in 2019)
- 1991
- Launched Spark laundry detergent, formulated with the highly biodegradable surfactant MES, made from palm oil, as the main ingredient
- 1996
- Received the Minister of International Trade and Industry Award as a consumer-oriented excellent company
Published the Company's first Environmental Report
Promoting Comfort—For People and the Planet
- 2001
- All of Lion's factories received ISO 14001 certification
- 2006
- ECO LION Declaration
Established the Lion Eco Standards as a set of new criteria for product environmental friendliness
Established the Lion Forest in Yamanashi
Published the Company's first CSR Report, combining information about initiatives to address social issues with the information previously published in the Lion Environmental Report
- 2007
- Received the 16th Grand Prize for the Global Environment Award
- 2008
- Became the first manufacturing company to receive Eco First certification from the Japanese Ministry of the Environment.
- 2009
- Began participating in the United Nations Global Compact
- 2010
- Released TOP NANOX super-concentrated liquid laundry detergent, formulated with plant-based high-detergency ingredient MEE for easy, one-rinse washing and environmental friendliness (this product was rereleased as TOP SUPER NANOX in 2016)
- 2013
- Announced Eco Vision 2020, a set of environmental targets
- 2014
- Launched a environmental logo and environmental label as a means of communicating environmental information to consumers through products
- 2019
- Announced LION Eco Challenge 2050, a new environmental objectives