Companies make international contributions

Promoting peace through business

Victims of the earthquake in India eat Magic Rice in 2001. (Courtesy of Satake)

Satake, a maker of rice-polishing machinery in the city of Higashi Hiroshima, has sent its "Magic Rice" to disaster areas. Magic Rice is a kind of instant rice that can be prepared by just adding water.

It is made of dried rice and was developed to serve as a convenient food, like instant noodles. Magic Rice can be prepared in only 15 minutes with hot water and 60 minutes with cold water so, even without cooking facilities, it can be made and eaten in disaster areas.

Satake's first shipment of Magic Rice to a disaster area was in 2001 in connection with an earthquake that struck western India. The company sent 3,000 servings there. In 2004, they sent Magic Rice to Niigata after a large earthquake hit that part of Japan.

In 2008, when a cyclone hit Myanmar, Satake sent one ton of Magic Rice through an NGO in response to a request from the Hiroshima Prefectural Government. The rice was transported for free in cooperation with truck and airline companies.

However, Satake faces a problem with regard to its aid activity. Because the company does not have its own way of transporting the rice, this can hinder its efforts. Due to a lack of transportation, it was unable to deliver rice to a disaster area in China after an earthquake struck Sichuan Province.

The idea for providing this aid was prompted 15 years ago when the city of Kobe had a major earthquake and the company sent Magic Rice to the staff at its Kobe branch. Naoshi Otaki, 32, in charge of public relations for Satake, said, "Our sales of rice-polishing machinery are supported by people all over the world. For us, it is important to repay this debt." (Yuki Sakata, 16)

Demining equipment moves across flat land. (Courtesy of Hitachi Construction Machinery)

Yamanashi Hitachi Construction Machinery manufactures machinery to remove landmines in order to reduce accidents involving these weapons and promote the building of schools and farms.

There are two types of equipment for demining: one is for working on flat ground and the other is a type adapted from a shovel car and can be operated on a variety of land conditions, including inclines. Seventy such machines are being operated in seven countries, such as Afghanistan and Cambodia.

The catalyst for manufacturing the demining equipment came when the company's president, Kiyoshi Amamiya, 62, visited Cambodia on a business trip and saw landmine victims who had lost limbs.

It took three years to complete the first prototype for the machinery, which was made in 1998. Japan, though, has a ban on exporting weapons and such demining equipment was lumped into this category. The company pressed the Japanese government for an exemption for their equipment and received it two years later. At present, the equipment is shipped overseas as a part of the Japanese Official Development Assistance. The company also invites people from those locations to Japan to train them in the use of the demining equipment.

Just one piece of machinery costs between 100 million and 200 million yen to manufacture. "For the project to be sustainable," Mr. Amamiya told us, "there needs to be enough revenue to cover our expenses for development and personnel." He added that companies also contribute internationally by providing business opportunities for their partners.

Mr. Amamiya said it's a moving sight for them to see a school or a farm built on land that they have demined. "Making the land safe improves the education and health of the people," he stressed. "It's vital that we build good relations overseas that bring benefit to both sides." (Akane Murashige, 17)

Mr. Ueki (left) hands school supplies to students at a school in Cambodia in September 2004. (Courtesy of CastaNet)

Since its founding in 2001, CastaNet, a company that sells office supplies, has sent new school supplies, such as pencils, erasers, and pens to elementary schools in Cambodia to support education there.

Chikara Ueki, 51, the president and head of the philanthropy effort, had met a person who was involved in building elementary schools in Cambodia and he heard that Cambodian schools lacked supplies. So he came up with the idea of sending these shipments.

The CastaNet aid effort is pursued in cooperation with a Japanese foundation that has an office in Cambodia. CastaNet puts together sets of school supplies in a greater number than the number of students at each school and sends them once or twice a year. To date, they have sent more than 7,000 sets of school supplies to Cambodia. The costs are covered by 1% of the sales from toner cartridges. Their partner foundation then delivers the school supplies when making visits to the schools.

In the beginning, CastaNet was only involved in providing the school supplies. However, when Mr. Ueki visited Cambodia to check that all the school supplies had reached the schools, he came upon a school where the building was close to collapsing. At that point, he decided to build new school buildings, too.

Mr. Ueki now has other ideas in mind, such as training teachers in Cambodia and providing support to students who wish to study in Japan. (Yuka Iguchi, 15)

Sekisui House, a house builder based in Osaka, created guidelines in April 2007 for its purchase of wood to help prevent damage to the environment.

According to Masaaki Sasaki, 52, the senior manager for Sekisui House's environmental division, the company has used roughly 374,000 cubic meters of lumber each year since February 2007. In Indonesia, a lighter and easy to use type of wood, called lauan, has been overcut and this has reduced the habitat for wild animals like orangutans. Sekisui House, believing the company has the social responsibility to consume wood with concern for the natural environment, then drew up the guidelines.

The guidelines specify 10 areas of assessment, including such things as the location where the trees are growing and the logging technique. Each item is given a certain number of points and the assessment is then classified into four ranks depending on the total. If there is a possibility that the trees could be cut down illegally or depleted, the company won't purchase the lumber even if it has been given high marks in other respects.

The assessment standards were created in cooperation with an NGO that collects information about logging worldwide. Sekisui House also organizes research groups with like-minded companies. As a result of such research, the idea to use eucalyptus trees instead of lauan trees was proposed. (Shotaro Takata, 15)