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Sustainability Material Issue 2 Creating Healthy Living Habits
Promote the establishment of cleanliness and hygiene habits that prevent bacteria and viruses from entering the body across all aspects of daily living, so that everyone can stay healthy.
| Indicators (2030) | Total number of persons provided with products, services and information aimed at creating healthy living habits ⇒500 million |
|---|---|
| Progress (2022 results) |
Cleanliness and good hygiene habits: 120 million* Promoting and Establishing Cleanliness and Good Hygiene Habits through Educational Institutions Lion Group:
Broadening Coverage of Activities to Support the Establishment of Cleanliness and Hygiene Habits Japan:
*Source: Lion survey |
| Globally Common Measures to 2030 |
|
Since the 1890s, Lion has implemented educational activities aimed at spreading the practice of washing with soaps and detergents. Furthermore, since the 1990s, when group infections through food poisoning came to be seen as a social problem in Japan, Lion has advanced the unique concept that washing with antibacterial hand soap can be fun, promoting the formation of proper hand washing habits alongside its products.
We can work together to keep germs and viruses off of us and keep from bringing them into the places we live, work and play. The first step is to wash our hands and gargle as soon as we get home. To help realize healthy living for all, Lion seeks to help firmly establish basic habits like these. Lion has long carried out activities to this end in Japan and across Asia.
To establish cleanliness and hygiene habits, Lion’s policy is to foster proper habits that can be practiced anywhere, anytime. In addition to fostering proper cleanliness and hygiene habits in everyday life with a focus on children, Lion promotes hand cleanliness care that can be practiced when there is insufficient water for washing and the establishment of cleanliness and hygiene practices for food service professionals, such as those working at restaurants and hotels. In doing so, we seek to go to consumers where they are under the KireiKirei banner, partnering with local communities, including government bodies and schools, to advance employee-led activities together.
Lion carries out activities to promote proper hand washing habits as part of junior employee training. Every year, around 100 junior employees work in teams to teach children at kindergartens and preschools around Japan the importance of hand washing.
Furthermore, we are helping increase awareness among employees through activities in coordination with retailers and by incorporating activities to promote proper hand washing habits at kindergartens and preschools into the training of junior employees. We are advancing initiatives with trading partners around the country, such as Sugiyama Drugs Co., Ltd., in Nagoya.
In 2021, we expanded the scope of employees’ activities to promote proper hand washing to include elementary schools. To minimize the number of visitors to elementary schools and thereby lower virus infection risk, the employees leading the activities conducted hybrid class visits that could be joined online. Since 2022, we have been shifting toward holding the events in person.
The theme of the classes was “learning proper hand washing to protect our health and the health of those we care about.” In the classes, the employees worked to instill understanding of hand washing and proper habits by encouraging the participating children to think about why hand washing is important and ways of protecting themselves from viruses and bacteria.
Lion aims for all current employees to have participated in activities to promote good hand washing habits by 2050. From 2012 to 2022, 1,569 employees have participated (cumulative participation rate 49.2%). Over this period, approximately 39,000 children took part in these activities.
Percentage of All Current Employees
That Have Participated in Activities to Promote Proper Hand Washing Habits
| 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5,900 | 4,100 | 200 | 1,300 | 2,300 |
The KireiKirei brand has continued implementing the Kirei Relay Project, which aims to realize a society full of human interaction by encouraging people to practice hygiene habits for the sake of the people they care about.
This project seeks to make everyday hand washing more fun. For example, one activity has participants create one-of-kind personalized KireiKirei hand soap bottles, and another involves holding a week-long hand washing challenge for preschools and elementary schools. Through these and other activities, the project is promoting the formation of proper hand washing and gargling habits.
Washing for at least 30 seconds is fundamental to the effective removal of viruses and germs from the hands. We are implementing fun activities to help foster proper habits like this even among small children.
In 2022, ｔo prevent infection outside the home, the Lion Group collaborated with shopping districts and local governments to promote the habits of cleanliness and hygiene through the Relay Project for Cleanliness, and conducted a project to promote “HAND WASH & HYGIENE before meals at hotels and restaurants”. Moreover, in support of Global Handwashing Day on October 15, we hosted the Global My Bottle Sticker Drawing Contest, with the aim of establishing fun hand washing habits for the whole family. For the contest, children created their one-and-only KireiKirei bottles with their own drawings. We received more than 24,000 entries from children in Japan and seven other countries and regions in Asia.
We are promoting proper hand washing habits at kindergartens, preschools, elementary schools and public facilities, mainly in areas across Japan where Lion facilities are located as well as in Ishinomaki City (Miyagi Prefecture), which was affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake and an area closely connected to our founder, and Sakaide City (Kagawa Prefecture), where KireiKirei Hand Soap is manufactured.
Specifically, we have been promoting proper hand washing habits at kindergartens and preschools in Ishinomaki City since 2012 as part of support for recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake. Since 2015, junior employees at Lion’s Sendai Office (also in Miyagi Prefecture) have taken part in these activities as part of their training.
![KireiKirei City-Sakaide Project [Japanese]](/ja/sustainability/img/community/cleanliness/img_2023_04.png)
KireiKirei City-Sakaide Project [Japanese]
Lion’s initiatives to promote recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake
Lion began marketing KireiKirei hand soaps overseas in 2005. Today, the brand is sold by Lion Corporation (Singapore) Pte Ltd, Lion Corporation (Thailand) Ltd., Southern Lion Sdn. Bhd., Lion Corporation (Korea), Lion Daily Necessities Chemicals (Qingdao) Co., Ltd., Lion Corporation (Hong Kong) Ltd. and Lion Home Products (Taiwan) Co., Ltd. Each company, alongside the provision of products, carries out activities to promote the formation of cleanliness and hygiene habits, aiming to increase awareness of cleanliness and hygiene. In Bangladesh, a new market for the Group, we will also contribute to the development of cleanliness and hygiene habits by providing educational materials through the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) as a means of supporting children’s hygiene education.
* Ai! Kekute (literally, Oh! Clean!) is a hand soap brand marketed by Lion Corporation (Korea).
In times of disaster, living in evacuation shelters, a limited water supply and other factors can increase hygiene-related risks in daily life, so keeping clean and taking care to stay healthy are extra important. In particular, maintaining oral hygiene and health—which is connected to one’s overall health—is crucial.
Lion has published a pamphlet covering oral and hand hygiene and health care in times of disaster as well as ways of preparing for such situations. In addition to providing information about hygiene and health in times of disaster, Lion participates in disaster readiness and other events around Japan to promote awareness and good practices.
Professionals who handle food, be it in restaurants, hotels, food product factories or other industries, all want to provide the best service possible so that their customers will enjoy their food with peace of mind, have a good time, and make great memories.
Lion Hygiene Co., Ltd., as a comprehensive hygiene management company, helps create clean, safe and hygiene environments through products, hygiene assessments and other forms of support based on scientific insights in order to help food service professionals make their vision a reality. In particular, the foundation of hygiene management for professionals who handle food is thorough hand washing. As part of support efforts, Lion Hygiene provides hygiene management information that is important for such professionals, including not only hand washing techniques, but key points about hand washing timing and facilities, among other topics, through “Hygiene Tayori” fliers issued four times a year.
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