Contribution to children and local communities

Basic Policy on Social Contribution Activities

As a company that helps people lead healthier, happier lives, Nippon Shinyaku will seek to secure growth in harmony with the environment by engaging in business activities that are friendly to the global environment and pursuing initiatives that conserve, maintain, and improve the environment.

Priority areas in social contribution activities

  • Contribution to the development of healthcare and welfare
  • Activities for fostering the next generation
  • Contribution to the Development of Local Communities

Related Initiatives

Contributing to the future of children

The Nippon Shinyaku Children's Literary Awards

The Nippon Shinyaku Children's Literary Awards were initiated in 2009, the 90th anniversary of the company’s founding, with the aim of bringing every child dreams and hopes through picture books and helping them grow healthily. With the support of the Japan Juvenile Writers Association, we call for entries in the two categories of stories and artworks every year. The entries selected for the first prize in each category are used to produce picture books. Copies of the completed picture books are presented to children nationwide through children’s hospitals and other medical institutions, as well as public facilities. The picture books are also posted on the award’s website.

Nippon Shinyaku Kids Channel for Brilliant Future

In October 2020, Nippon Shinyaku opened a YouTube channel, “Nippon Shinyaku Kira Kira Mirai Kodomo Channel (Nippon Shinyaku Kids Channel for Brilliant Future)” to show videos illustrating and narrating the 12 stories produced as part of the Nippon Shinyaku Children’s Literary Awards.
We hope that, as outdoor and other daily activities are largely restricted due to the COVID-19 pandemic, many children will enjoy the videos and nurture their hopes and dreams for a brighter future.

Nippon Shinyaku Sparkling Future Mobile Library

As part of the project to celebrate the centenary of its founding, in 2019, Nippon Shinyaku launched the Nippon Shinyaku Sparkling Future Mobile Library initiative to offer exciting reading experiences to children. Loaded with about 1,000 printed books and digital books, including picture books produced as the fruits of the Nippon Shinyaku Children’s Literary Award, illustrated encyclopedias, and accessible books (Braille and audio picture books), the bookmobile visits elementary schools and special needs schools together with volunteers from Nippon Shinyaku.
We will continue to contribute to enhancing the mental health of children, in addition to their physical health, by providing them with opportunities to enjoy various books.

Nippon Shinyaku & Seitaro Kuroda
Smiles Art Project

In March 2013, Nippon Shinyaku launched “Nippon Shinyaku & Seitaro Kuroda Smiles Art Project,” a nationwide traveling art project featuring Mr. Seitaro Kuroda, a renowned illustrator. In this project, members of the general public, led by Mr. Kuroda, visit and draw pictures on the walls of local hospitals, nursing homes, and other such facilities.
By getting healthcare professionals, patients, elderly persons, young children, college students, and many others to draw pictures together, the project aims at deepening ties among people in local communities and spreading happy smiles.

Community Service through Sports

Working with municipal governments and baseball associations, for many years the Nippon Shinyaku baseball team has organized baseball clinics for players of various ages, including elementary, junior high, and high school students. In recent years, the Company has been holding sports clinics for preschool children in the vicinity of Kyoto to experience the joy of exercise. In November 2022, Nippon Shinyaku visited Kyoto Seibo Gakuin Nursery School in Fushimi Ward, Kyoto, and conducted sports clinics, including tee-ball classes. At the Nippon Shinyaku Children’s Challenge Cup, held at Wakasa Stadium Kyoto in December 2022, the Company conducted athletic performance measurements—something most preschool children never get to experience—nutrition education activities, and other activities.
In addition, besides our hardball baseball activities, we organized e-sports contests accessible online and on site for children with disabilities with the use of an eye-tracking application in August 2022. Going forward, we will carry on with these initiatives and contribute to the development of local communities through social contribution activities.

A baseball lesson for children
A baseball lesson for children
A tee-ball lesson
A tee-ball lesson
e-sports contests
Scene from the e-sports tournament

Conducting dietary education activities for children

In the fall of 2021, we began developing food education activities as part of our efforts to establish a new materiality.
In recent years, the trend toward nuclear families, simplification of meals, “individual eating,” (family members of the same household eating meals separately), and “solitary eating,” (eating alone) have led to an unbalanced nutritional intake and an increasing number of people who do not have the habit of eating breakfast. The problem of not eating breakfast is particularly serious among the current generation of children. This does not only affect children, but also the elderly, who suffer serious consequences of low nutrition such as frailty*1 and sarcopenia*2. To address these serious challenges among the younger and older generations, we are working with local governments, educational institutions, and other organizations to develop activities for food education and to develop products that will foster interest in food and healthy eating habits. As a first step, we registered as a “Kyoto Food Education Support Company” in March 2022. As a business, we will actively support and cooperate with the “Kyoto Food Education Network” organized by Kyoto Prefecture to promote food education activities through the collaboration of various parties involved in food education, including local governments, schools, experts, and media organizations. The main objectives of Kyoto Prefecture's food education activities for children are the establishment of regular eating habits, wellbalanced nutrition, and teaching the traditions of local specialties and food culture. Nippon Shinyaku supports these activities by providing on-site classes, producing and supplying booklets, and assisting with the hosting of events. We are also working to develop consumer products that contribute to food education.

*1 Frailty: A condition in which the body's ability to maintain a healthy body and to cope with stress deteriorates.

*2 Sarcopenia (muscle atrophy): A condition in which overall body functions deteriorate due to loss of muscle mass and strength.

In the fall of 2021, we began developing food education activities as part of our efforts to establish a new materiality.
In recent years, the trend toward nuclear families, simplification of meals, “individual eating,” (family members of the same household eating meals separately), and “solitary eating,” (eating alone) have led to an unbalanced nutritional intake and an increasing number of people who do not have the habit of eating breakfast. The problem of not eating breakfast is particularly serious among the current generation of children. This does not only affect children, but also the elderly, who suffer serious consequences of low nutrition such as frailty*1 and sarcopenia*2. To address these serious challenges among the younger and older generations, we are working with local governments, educational institutions, and other organizations to develop activities for food education and to develop products that will foster interest in food and healthy eating habits. As a first step, we registered as a “Kyoto Food Education Support Company” in March 2022. As a business, we will actively support and cooperate with the “Kyoto Food Education Network” organized by Kyoto Prefecture to promote food education activities through the collaboration of various parties involved in food education, including local governments, schools, experts, and media organizations. The main objectives of Kyoto Prefecture's

food education activities for children are the establishment of regular eating habits, wellbalanced nutrition, and teaching the traditions of local specialties and food culture. Nippon Shinyaku supports these activities by providing on-site classes, producing and supplying booklets, and assisting with the hosting of events. We are also working to develop consumer products that contribute to food education.

*1 Frailty: A condition in which the body's ability to maintain a healthy body and to cope with stress deteriorates.

*2 Sarcopenia (muscle atrophy): A condition in which overall body functions deteriorate due to loss of muscle mass and strength.

on-site classes
Scene from the on-site class

Contributing to regions and cultures

Contribution to Kyoto culture

Colored stencil calendar

Every year for more than half a century, Nippon Shinyaku has created a calendar featuring colored pictures made with a traditional stencil-dyeing technique originating in Kyoto. These beautiful colored stencil pictures represent Kyoto’s seasonal landscapes and staples, historic events, etc.

Publication of the PR magazine Kyo

We publish a quarterly PR magazine titled Kyo to showcase the huge appeal of Kyoto from a wide variety of perspectives—from the city’s many shrines, temples, and other cultural assets to its cuisine and local specialties.

Cultivation and dedication of futaba aoi (Asarum caulescens) for the Aoi Festival at Kamigamo-jinja Shrine, Kyoto Prefecture

In collaboration with the Afuhi Project, a general incorporated association, Nippon Shinyaku cultivates and dedicates futaba aoi (Asarum caulescens), which is used in the Aoi Festival held in Kyoto every May.

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Participation in a Kyoto City Board of Education project

Kyoto Manabi-no-machi Ikikata Tankyu-kan (Learning City Kyoto’s Life Path Exploration Hall) is a project launched by the Board of Education of Kyoto City to offer various forms of participatory learning to promote education in life path exploration. One program within the framework of this project is Kyoto Monozukuri-no Dendo/Kobo Gakushu (Kyoto Manufacturing Hall of Fame and Learning in Workshops). This program is composed of two parts: an exhibition facility (Hall of Fame), which displays and introduces the lives and works of Kyoto-based manufacturing company founders, scientists, and other personalities, and Monozukuri Daiichi Kobo (First Manufacturing Studio), where workshops are held for participants to experience and learn about manufacturing on themes related to the exhibits at the Hall of Fame.
As a Kyoto-based company possessing technologies and products closely related to people’s daily life, Nippon Shinyaku has a permanent exhibition booth at the Hall of Fame and Learning in Workshops. The booth is mainly visited by elementary school pupils from Kyoto City.

Guided tours at the research laboratories

As part of Nippon Shinyaku’s community service activities, the company organizes guided tours at the Research Laboratories Kyoto in the Head Office area and at the Discovery Research Laboratories in Tsukuba City for a broad range of audiences, including students from nearby junior high schools and other secondary schools and colleges.
In the tours, guides communicate the missions of pharmaceutical companies in society, drug discovery R&D, and so forth in a manner that is accessible to each visitor group.

Research Laboratories Kyoto Organized for students of Saikyo Junior and Senior High School,
other secondary schools and colleges, and the general public
Discovery Research Laboratories in Tsukuba Organized for students of Tsuchiura Dai-ichi Senior High School and other neighboring schools

Activities at the Yamashina Botanical Research Institute

To contribute to educational activities, the Yamashina Botanical Research Institute organizes study tours and observation events focusing on useful or rare plants intended for researchers and students. The gardens at the institute are periodically open to the public as part of the Group’s active commitment to communicating with the local communities.

Total number of visitors Visitors from universities
(including instructors)
Botanists and
medical professionals
General visitors
FY2019 1,645 people 67 people 225 people 1,353 people
FY2020 327 people 8 people 53 people 226 people
FY2021 745 people 228 people 44 people 473 people
FY2022 1,335 people 103 people 240 people 992 people

Data

Donations

FY2020 FY2021 FY2022
Total amount of donations related to social contribution activities 222,090,020 yen 220,587,322 yen 182,999,261 yen