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Since its founding, Lion has sought to help consumers create healthy living habits through the provision of products and services while carrying out educational and awareness activities and communication aimed at promoting people’s healthy daily lives.
In Asian countries, Lion is engaged in initiatives that contribute to the sustainable development of society and the global environment through the areas of health, comfort and cleanliness (see Lion Group Charter for Corporate Behavior.) We believe that our continued business viability depends on co-existing harmoniously with the communities in which we are involved, such as those where Lion facilities are located. We therefore strive to help solve issues in and invigorate local communities by strengthening partnerships with local residents, government agencies and citizens’ groups. In addition, by increasing opportunities for every employee to get involved in business-related educational activities, we foster human resources that create new value informed by a high level of social and environmental awareness.
Lion’s founder, Tomijiro Kobayashi, had close ties to Ishinomaki City. Honoring this connection, Lion has pursued recovery support initiatives in the city on a continuous basis since the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011.
In January 2019, Lion formed a comprehensive collaboration agreement with the city to promote the health of city residents and revitalize the area using its accumulated health improvement expertise. In January 2024, after a long suspension in our activities due to COVID-19, we signed on for the second phase of the comprehensive collaboration agreement and will continue working with Ishinomaki City. We will continue to implement a variety of initiatives based on employee participation.
Since October 2006, in accordance with an agreement with Yamanashi City, Lion has been involved in the maintenance of a city-owned forest, which is called “Lion Forest in Yamanashi” the first of the Company Forest Promotion Projects being promoted by Yamanashi Prefecture. Our goal is to increase employee awareness of the environment through the experience of caring for the forest, which serves as a water source. We are also trying to rehabilitate the adjacent developed land into a satoyama. Through this activity, We are also engaging with the local community.
The KireiKirei City-Sakaide Project is an initiative implemented through a partnership agreement signed in 2014 by Sakaide City, the Lion Chemical Co., Ltd. Oleochemical Production Site and Lion that aims to improve the health of the citizens of Sakaide City by educating them about healthy habits such as handwashing and oral healthcare.
In 2020, Lion formed an agreement with the municipality of Sumida-ku, where our headquarters were formerly located, to collect and recycle used toothbrushes with the aim of recovering plastic resources.
Between April 2020 and March 2021, used toothbrushes were collected from elementary schools and other organizations (many of which are educational institutions), recycled into rulers, and returned to the collecting organizations.
In March 2023, we concluded an agreement with the municipality of Taito-ku upon the relocation of the Head Office to that area. This agreement was forged with the aim of collaborating and cooperating in the promotion of local residents’ health and contributing to community development for the realization of a sustainable society and our harmonious coexistence with the community.
Together, we are promoting activities in the following seven areas. In addition, an annual meeting to report on these activities is held to confirm their progress and to deepen mutual friendships.
Partnership Agreement Activities
(1) Measures promoting health and dental health
(2) Environmental measures and product recycling
(3) Promotion of a gender-equal society
(4) Sound upbringing of children and youth
(5) Disaster prevention measures
(6) Tourism promotion
(7) Promotion of sports
(8) Others
We conduct sustainability training on themes related to the two most important issues of “promoting initiatives for a sustainable global environment” and “creating healthy living habits” with the aim of enriching employee understanding and awareness of key sustainability issues, as well as advancing the integration of key sustainability issues with business operations.
Participation in such activities and direct contact with social issues enhances problem-solving skills, employee teamwork, and empathy while raising awareness of social contribution, and we are actively engaged in activities that contribute to human resource development.
We launched a sustainability experiential training program in 2024 to further improve contributions of sustainability to our operations. In addition to classroom lectures, the training incorporates on-site activities such as water resource conservation activities through forest maintenance and oral health care awareness activities for elementary school students held in school cafeterias. Through the training program, we have seen improvements in the level of understanding of key sustainability issues and in the level of implementation through business operations.
| Sustainability Experiential Training | 2024 participants |
|---|---|
| Environmental | 148 |
| Oral health care awareness | 93 |
Since 2014, as part of the Company’s training program, our younger employees go to kindergartens and preschools across Japan to teach children about the importance of good handwashing habits through a set of fun song and dance activities. In addition to providing products, our employees play a helpful role in promoting self-directed cleanliness and hygiene habits.
Since 2019, Lion has been holding events to support “Rico-Challe,” a campaign to support female junior high, high school and university students choosing science, technology, engineering and mathematic (STEM) fields being implemented by the Gender Equality Bureau Cabinet Office, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Education Policy Bureau and the Japan Business Federation.
One example of how Lion supports science education is by conducting experience-based lessons for high school students from Super Science High School designated schools,* helping these students to deepen their knowledge, and by offering tours of the Research and Development Headquarters that cover the history of Lion’s technological development, the motivations of the developers and the technologies used in Lion products in order to foster their interest in science. Because students are able to hear from researchers directly, these events help students develop a sense of what it is like to work in research.
* The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology has implemented the Super Science High School program since 2002 to carry out research and development focused on math and science education with the goal of developing future international scientists and engineers. Under the program, upper secondary schools providing advanced math and science education are designated as Super Science High Schools and receive special support.
Edogawa-ku, where Lion’s Hirai Research Center is located, has been conducting an ongoing science education center project for more than 50 years in which the ward, schools, and local residents collaborate to teach children about the fascinating scientific phenomena happening around them. For more than 15 years, we have been holding science classes for elementary school students to familiarize them with interface science, which is the foundation of Lion’s products, and to help them become familiar with science in their daily lives.
Click here for more research institute activities [Japanese]The Lion Fangs, Lion’s rugby club, celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2022. We would like to take this opportunity to thank the many people who have continued to support us and help us achieve this milestone. We would like to express our sincere gratitude. As part of its sports promotion activities, the Company’s rugby club holds the Lion Rugby Festival every year in spring at the Chiba Plant sports field. About 700 members of the community, mostly children from the local rugby school, attend each year. During the festival, currently active rugby players teach rugby skills in an easy to understand way to young aspiring players ranging from kindergarten to upper elementary school students.
In addition, since 2012, as part of Lion’s project to promote recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake, the rugby club has been holding rugby classes in the city of Ishinomaki, as well. Every year, 100 people attend this event. Furthermore, from 2024, we will co-sponsor the Taito Rugby Festival organized by the Taito-ku Board of Education, which saw roughly 200 participants in its inaugural year. Through rugby, we will continue to participate in a variety of community and social contribution activities.
RCC Hiroshima Women’s Ekiden (long-distance relay race) [Japanese]
RKK Women’s Ekiden (long-distance relay race) [Japanese]
All Japan Junior Kendo Tournament [Japanese]
Walking Event [Japanese]
Lion is promoting the Kaji × Kaji Happy Share Project in partnership with municipalities and companies across Japan with the aim of eliminating the “chore gap” in households. By helping foster smoother relations within households in the communities where we promote this project, we are supporting the resolution of a variety of social issues, such as women’s participation in the labor force and the low birth rate. Through this project, we are working with municipalities to provide useful information not only to married couples, but broadly throughout communities.
Lion considers plant tours to be an important contact point between customers and the Company. So that customers can get to know Lion products and witness the extremely high priority the Company places on safety and environmental conservation in its operations, we welcome many visitors to the plants every year. Plant tours were suspended from February 2020 to prevent the spread of COVID-19 but since 2023, we have been proceeding with the phased reopening of the program.
| Plant | Chiba | Odawara | Osaka | Akashi | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Participants | 2,154 | 186 | 37 | 62 | 2,439 |
Valuing communication with local communities, Lion Group plants and offices proactively engage in cleanup activities not just within their own grounds, but in the surrounding areas, as well.
The Club of Rome Conference in Fukuoka, Kyushu held in May 1992 was an opportunity for citizens, companies, and local governments to cooperate in Love Earth Clean-up, a local environmental beautification activity launched as a practical way to implement the theme of the conference, “Global Environment and Local Action.” Employees and their families participate in the cleaning of Momochihama beach, which is near the Fukuoka office.
The Odawara City Kouzu Ward Neighborhood Association holds an annual cleanup of the Kouzu Coast. Lion employees in Odawara have been participating in the cleanup activities since 2003. In 2008, the location of the cleanup was changed to the nearby Sekiguchi River. We have continued participating in the cleanup every year.
The Lion Chemical Corporation Fine Chemical Production Site has been conducting cleanup activities with employees and local residents on the Kamisu City coastline (Hikawa and Hasaki beaches) every June since 2009 as part of our community contribution activities.
Lion provides a wide variety of products that support daily living based in significant part on value derived from nature.
Accordingly, Lion is committed to the sustainable use of resources and to the preservation of biodiversity in line with its Biodiversity Policy.
Every year, Lion and its domestic Group companies, conduct surveys to assess the results of theirsocial contribution activities in addition to compiling and managing donations and other contributions.
The total amount donated fiscal 2024 was approximately ¥413.8 million.
*Monetary donations include donations to the Lion Foundation for Dental Health (LDH) [Japanese]
