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FUJIFILM Business Innovation and its affiliates continue to conduct a range of activities to identify and meet local needs. We introduce some of these activities in the following.
Self-reliance Support for People with Disabilities Provided through Exhibition of Their Works of Art
Our activities at FUJIFILM Business Innovation include spread and encouragement of artistic activities by people with disabilities and the organization of events that make artistic activities meaningful for their lives.
FUJIFILM Business Innovation Japan continues to support an art exhibition hosted by Tohoku Shogaisha Geijutsu Shien Kiko, a public interest incorporated foundation that supports artistic activities of people with disabilities, and provide opportunities to exhibit award-winning works. The company provides the support jointly with the HASU ClubNote1 of FUJIFILM Business Innovation.
Works which win corporate awards in the exhibition, which is held in autumn each year, are displayed in the showrooms of the FUJIFILM Business Innovation Japan's Center Office in Toyosu (Tokyo) and its office in Sendai (Miyagi). Display of the works not only leads to self-reliance support for people with disabilities but also soothes and moves visitors to the showrooms.
- Note1HASU Club of FUJIFILM Business InnovationIt is an organization committed to social contribution that consists of volunteers from among retired employees of FUJIFILM Business Innovation and its affiliates.Funded by contributions from its members, the HASU Club engages in volunteer activities and makes donations.
Education for future generations: Offering Learning Materials in Emerging Countries
In the Asia-Pacific region, where FUJIFILM Business Innovation is mainly doing business, there are many children who have limited access to primary education. This project contributes to narrowing educational gaps among children in emerging countries through the distribution of learning materials for primary education.
FUJIFILM Business Innovation supervises the project in its entirety, finding partners who will donate content and financial sponsors who will cover printing and other costs in order to create materials that meet local needs. The created materials are printed out in the quantity required using FUJIFILM Business Innovation production printers, and the copies are distributed to children who lack sufficient educational opportunities as a means of supporting their education in cooperation with local NGOs and communities.
We launched the project first in the Philippines in 2014 and then expanded to Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia. We have already achieved the original goal of “distributing materials to 100,000 children in the Asia Pacific region in 10 years” ahead of schedule. 111,500 children across the 6 countries have benefited from our project as of FY2021. Though this project reached a turning point with the achievement of its goal, we will continue to leverage on our leading-edge technology to support the sustainable development in the countries we operate in according to their unique situation and needs.
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Spread of activities
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Activities of FUJIFILM Business Innovation Vietnam, in collaboration with Saigon Children's Charity
Reproduction of Historical Documents and Their Use as Digital Cultural Properties -- Our CSV Activities Aimed at Preserving and Utilizing the Traditional Culture of Japan
At FUJIFILM Business Innovation, we are advancing CSV activities of reproducing historical documents for use as digital cultural properties by combining our multifunction devices and latest technologies under the theme of "timeless, valuable communication." We launched this initiative in Kyoto in 2008 and began to expand it all over Japan in 2014. At present, with FUJIFILM Business Innovation Japan Kyoto as the base,we receive requests from all over Japan to create replicas of historical documents that can be touched and handled as alternatives to their originals, which must be preserved to slow their aging. We received the Good Design Award 2020 for this initiative, in recognition of its system of returning a part of proceeds from the service to owners of the originals as grants, as well as our stance of supporting the exhibition and utilization of historical documents in a sustainable, multilateral manner, in addition to our many years of our efforts to develop technologies for the reproduction. We remain committed to activities contributing to discovering diminishing, irreplaceable historical documents, disclosing undisclosed historical documents, passing down teachings, wisdom, thoughts, and feelings of our ancestors, and other activities for utilizing such documents in society and passing them down to future generations.
- Number of historical documents that we have reproduced: More than 400 copies/volumes
- The oldest historical document that we have reproduced: One from approx. 790 years ago (Kamakura period)
- Number of development engineers who have been involved in the reproduction: More than 12
- Number of student interns involved in the reproduction: More than 60 in cumulative total
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(1) Replica of Nariai-ji Sankei Mandala (Nariai-ji Temple pilgrimage mandala), which is in the possession of Nariai-ji Temple in Miyazu-shi, Kyoto. This mandala was drawn to attract visitors to the temple and as a map of the sacred ground.
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(2) Replica of Chokudai Ka Ryaku-zu Kou, which is in the possesion of Kamesuehiro, a confectionery shop in Chukyo-ku, Kyoto. Pictures of Japanese cakes, which were exhibited at a confectionery fair, are drawn on this notebook.
We have built a system under which part of the fees paid by people who have used the service is returned to the owners of documents as grants, as part of our efforts to preserve cultural properties and pass them down to future generations.
Kobayashi Fund
Since its foundation, FUJIFILM Business Innovation has been committed to promoting better communication to contribute to mutual understanding and harmony among people in society. As part of efforts to fulfill this commitment, we established the Setsutaro Kobayashi Memorial Fund in 1977 in recognition of the achievements made by the late Setsutaro Kobayashi (1899–1977), the first president of the company. (The fund was renamed the Kobayashi Fund in 2016.) By using this fund, we launched the “Research Grant Program for Foreign Doctoral Candidates in Japan” as an initiative to give research grants to people from Asia-Pacific countries who were undertaking doctoral courses on humanities or social sciences in Japan. We decided to implement this program based on the idea that we needed to help future leaders in the Asia-Pacific region to better understand Japan and foster mutual understanding between Japan and their countries through academic and cultural exchange as the basis to create a more vibrant international community. In 1996, we also established the Kobayashi Fellowship Program to give grants to Japanese researchers to help them deepen their understanding of Asia-Pacific countries and serve as a bridge between Japan and these countries.
Yotaro Kobayashi (1933–2015), the first chairman of the fund who supported the establishment and development of the fund, said, “The ultimate purpose of studying abroad is to deepen exchange with people sharing the same ambition and have new encounters.” He continued the activity in order to make contributions, albeit small, to the creation of social value for the current and future generations and to the solution of social issues. In fiscal 2018, 41 years after the fund was established, we ended the research grant program, reasoning that its role had been fulfilled to a certain extent.
Research Presentation and Exchange Meeting of Koyabashi Fund (February 2018)
In fiscal 2018, 41 years after the fund was established, we ended the research grant program, reasoning that its role had been fulfilled to a certain extent.
As many as 1,455 researchers were given grants under the program and many of them are making meaningful contributions in the academic, industrial and governmental sectors in Japan and abroad. We hope that these researchers will continue to make contributions and foster mutual understanding and cultural development as a bridge not only between Japan and Asia-Pacific countries but also across the world.
Results of grant
| Program | Research Grant Program for Foreign Doctoral Candidates in Japan | Kobayashi Fellowship Program |
|---|---|---|
| Duration | FY1984-FY2018 | FY1996-FY2018 |
| Target | Young scholars from the Asia-Pacific region who are enrolled in doctoral programs in the humanities or social sciences at Japanese graduate schools | Young Japanese researchers who are enrolled in doctoral programs in the humanities or social sciences and are pursuing research about other Asia-Pacific countries and regions |
| Total recipients to date | 1,243(For 35 years, students from 23 countries and regions) | 212(For 23 years） |
Research Findings
The research results of the grant recipients were published in the form of a report, copies of which we donated to research institutes, including university libraries, upon their request.
Building an Alumni Network for Past Recipients
We have a Facebook account for the Kobayashi Fund to continue exchanging and sharing information with researchers who received grants, and continue running the account even after the program ended.
Offering Large-print Textbooks to Students with Low Vision
Volunteers creating large-print school textbook in sales office
About 300,000 people in Japan are estimated to be visually impaired, 60 to 70 percent of whom are considered to have low vision. For students with low vision, who find it difficult to read the text and pictures in regular textbooks, many textbook publishers offer large-print textbooks. However, the levels and ways of seeing are very different from student to student and some students have difficulty in reading such standard large-print textbooks. To meet the unmet needs, volunteer organizations create textbooks individually tailored to meet each student's specific needs.
FUJIFILM Business Innovation Japan supports their activities by allowing those volunteer textbook creators and students with low vision and their parents to use color multifunction devices in our sales and services offices and sales companies across Japan free of charge. This support project started in 1989 in a limited number of our business sites in Kanagawa. In 1994, the project expanded to cover our sales and services offices across Japan, making this initiative widely known by volunteer organizations as well as students with low vision and their parents and teachers. We will continue to support the publication of large-print school textbooks in and outside Japan aiming to expand education opportunities for students with low vision.
Special Olympics (Sports Festival for People with Intellectual Disabilities)
Creating and Distributing ID cards
Special Olympics is a sports festival for people with intellectual disabilities. In Japan, "Special Olympics Nippon," (hereinafter SON) established in 1994, is in charge of sending Japan's team to international games, organizing national competitions, supporting athletes' everyday training, and so on. The local activities of the organization are supported by more than 10,000 volunteers from across the country.
FUJIFILM Business Innovation began supporting SON in 1995, the year after it was founded. Presently, branch offices of FUJIFILM Business Innovation Japan play a central role in providing supports in a manner suitable for each host region across Japan, including in the form of donations and support for the printing of documents. On top of that, our employees have been supporting regional Special Olympics as volunteers.
All Japan High School Soccer: Supporting the Competition Even Before the Word "(Soccer) Supporter" Became a Japanese Word
Photo courtesy of NTV
The All Japan High School Soccer Tournament started in 1917 is a competition sponsored by the Japan Football Association, 43 commercial broadchasting companies, and the All Japan High School Athletic Federation. It determines which of Japan’s approximately 4,000 high schools has the best soccer team and all high school soccer players dream of participating in. It is also known for producing a great number of outstanding players such as ones of Japan national team and J.League. As such, it attracts interest not only from soccer fans but a broad range of people from all walks of life. FUJIFILM Business Innovation has been supporting this annual tournament since 1970, when soccer was not yet a popular sport in Japan, and more than 20 years before the establishment of the J.League (Japan Professional Soccer League, launched in 1991) and the birth of the Japanese word "supporter. "Currently, FUJIFILM Business Innovation, five other corporate sponsors, and three partner companies take turns each year to serve as the "managing company," which hands out trophies at prefectural qualifier finals and participates in related events. The sponsors also conduct activities to enhance the value of these soccer events, in which the players consistently make their very best efforts in a spirit of fair play. We will continue to support this soccer event, through which we will support high school students who are practicing hard to join and win this competition and ultimately contribute to the healthy development of young people, in other words, future leaders.