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Corporate Citizenship Activities
Since its founding, the Yamato Group has grown hand in hand with society. We believe that enriching local communities is the foundation for the Group's growth and development. The Yamato Group is therefore engaged in corporate citizen activities utilizing its various assets (inducing networks, know-how and human resources), with the aim of ensuring the sound and sustainable development of local communities and quality of life for the people who live in them.
Promotion System
Yamato Transport has assigned sustainability ambassadors, who promote sustainability activities in local communities, with the aim of promoting corporate citizenship activities rooted in local communities and that are unique to the Yamato Group. Through the “sustainability café" (an online exchange meeting), sustainability ambassadors share examples of activities in each region. In this way, they deepen their understanding of sustainability initiatives by participating in corporate citizenship activities in their own region.
Policy on Corporate Citizenship Activities
The Yamato Group will address social issues related to the global environment, community safety and communities through business activities and a variety of activities as a corporate citizen. The Group will contribute to creating a fair society that leaves no one left behind through co-creation with communities.
Priority Themes
Considering social issues, the Yamato Group's management philosophy and the thoughts on welfare of the late Mr. Masao Ogura, who created TA-Q-BIN, the Yamato Group works on four priority themes: the environment, safety, local communities, and diversity and inclusion. The Yamato Group aims to help create a sustainable society through its activities and will contribute to creating an enriched society and co-create an enriched society for public welfare in cooperation with partners in local communities.
Environment
The Yamato Group has a network of business sites throughout the nation and thinks that working on local environmental conservation is a social responsibility it bears. To preserve local areas that are rich in nature for the next generation, the Group aims to create a society that is in harmony with nature through the environmental education of children and local environmental conservation activities.
Kuroneko Yamato Environmental Classes
Yamato Transport launched Kuroneko Yamato Environmental Classes in October 2005, in which Company employees visit schools nationwide to provide lessons for children, the leaders of the next generation. To date, over 3,000 lessons have been provided, with approximately 25,000 children participating. We renewed the Kuroneko Yamato Environmental Classes from October 2023, in keeping with the school curriculum, targeting elementary school children in grades four to six.
After communicating the Company’s environmental initiatives through a quiz, they conduct group work using worksheets before encouraging the children to consider what they can do themselves for the environment. We hope that the children may learn how the accumulation of individual actions that are friendly to the Earth can lead to environmental preservation, and inspire them to engage in environmental initiatives.
Biodiversity conservation
The Yamato Group is aware that its business activities affect biodiversity. The Group is working to conserve local biodiversity to coexist in harmony with the natural environment that supports our enriched society.
For details, please refer to Biodiversity conservation
Participation in a Local Event
The Yamato Group actively participates in various local environmental events as a way of deepening its interaction with the local community through environmental activities.
Yamato Transport West Tokyo Regional Branch Office participated in the 2024 Hachioji Environmental Festival (held June 9, 2024), which was held in Hachioji City with the aim of inspiring people to participate actively in environmental preservation activities. We presented a panel display about the Yamato Group’s sustainability activities and EV vehicles to foster deeper understanding among the local community.
Local Community Cleanup and Beautification Activities
The Yamato Group actively holds community cleanup and beautification activities.
Employees from the Yamato Transport Kurume Regional Branch Office participated in the SPOGOMI Competition in Kurume, held on May 20, 2023.
SPOGOMI is a sport that is good for the environment. Under the slogan “Trash pickup is a sport!,” teams compete to pick up trash in a designated area within a designated time limit and are awarded points for the amount and type of trash picked up.
38 teams participated (including two from Yamato Transport) and picked up a total of 176.2kg of trash together with members of the local community.
Safety
With its philosophy of “safety first and business second,” the Yamato Group considers it one of its missions to ensure that children, who will lead the next generation, understand about the importance of traffic safety. Moreover, as a social infrastructure company, we recognize that it is our duty to conduct disaster prevention and recovery support activities in cooperation with local communities, in readiness for large-scale disasters. We will continue these initiatives, aiming to realize secure, safe living for communities.
Yamato Transport launched a volunteer leave system in 2020 for employees who wish to participate in recovery and restoration activities after large-scale natural disasters, such as earthquakes.
Children's Traffic Safety Workshop
Since 1998, Yamato Transport has been holding traffic safety workshops for children at locations throughout Japan, to convey knowledge about traffic rules and traffic safety to local children. Approximately 30,000 workshops have been held to date, and around 3.4 million people have participated. Yamato Transport employees—mainly Sales Drivers—visit local nursery schools, kindergartens and elementary schools to provide easy-to-understand traffic safety guidance. In particular, experiences involving the observation of collection and delivery trucks enable children to actually see the inside of the vehicle, sit in the driver's seat, and experience the blind spots of Sales Drivers, all of which are experiences they do not often have the opportunity to try. These visits have been well received by children, parents, and teachers alike.
This initiative has also spread to other Group companies in various ways, including those overseas.
Creation of a Traffic Safety Quiz Website
Okinawa Yamato Transport has launched a Traffic Safety Quiz website in collaboration with the professional basketball team Ryukyu Golden Kings operated by Okinawa Basketball Co., Ltd. The website enables children to learn about traffic safety with the team's mascot, Gordy, through quizzes. Children answer ten true-false quizzes and learn about traffic safety in a fun and easy-to-understand way. On the answer pages, the answers to questions about traffic safety are explained. Children can deepen their understanding of traffic safety. They can learn, for example, that running into the road is dangerous and that drivers have blind spots.
Summer Fund Raising
The Federation of Yamato Group Corporate Labor Unions is a labor union for companies that operate on public roads. It has held a summer campaign every year since 1987 to support families who have lost members in traffic accidents. To date, the union has received donations exceeding 1.9 billion yen.
In fiscal 2023, the campaign received donations from around 180,000 Yamato Group employees, totaling 90,860,000 yen. Campaign funds are presented to the Ashinaga Foundation, which offers physical and mental support for children who have lost their parents, and to the Yamato Welfare Foundation, which supports the independence and social participation of people with disabilities.
Local Communities
The Yamato Group's business is supported by local communities. To help create an enriched society as stated in the Group's Management Philosophy, which we embrace in day-to-day operations, we cooperate with local partners and we cherish the connections between communities and individuals.
Kuroneko Family Concert, the Music TA-Q-BIN
Since 1986, we have held the Music TA-Q-BIN Kuroneko Family Concert, which delivers authentic, high-quality music to customers and people in local communities of all different ages and regions to express our gratitude to them. A total of 356 concerts have been held so far, for approximately 590,000 participants.
In fiscal 2023, in addition to holding live audience events in five cities (Souma, Fukushima prefecture; Honjo, Saitama prefecture; Fukui, Fukui prefecture; Takamatsu, Kagawa prefecture; and Fukuoka, Fukuoka prefecture), we broadcast public live streams and archived streams in Fukuoka for family members to enjoy. Both the live audiences and those watching online participated in and enjoyed the event, which had a theme of “music to dance to.”
Local employees also participated in operations at each event. These included welcoming guests on the day and collecting money for charities related to children orphaned by traffic accidents.
For details, please refer to the following special website.
Support for Work and Social Experience Facilities for Children
Yamato Transport is an official sponsor of KidZania Tokyo, KidZania Koshien, and KidZania Fukuoka To create opportunities for the children, who are responsible for the future, to understand the structure of society and the purpose of work, since the initial opening of KidZania Tokyo in 2006, we have set up a Courier Service Pavilion, where children can participate in a simulated experience of working as a Sales Driver collecting and delivering TA-Q-BIN packages.
We installed a PUDO Station at KidZania Fukuoka. PUDO Stations are lockers used by all home delivery service operators installed at facilities that are used every day, such as train stations and supermarkets, to meet the diverse needs of customers connected with the increasing use of e-commerce in recent years, and children can participate in simulated experience activities using the PUDO Station, enabling the non-face-to-face, no-contact collection and delivery of parcels.
Sponsoring the National Remote Island Exchange Junior High School Baseball Tournament
Yamato Transport cosponsored the 15th Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism Cup National Remote Island Exchange Junior High School Baseball Tournament, commonly known as the Remote Island Koshien, (held August 19–22, 2024). The baseball tournament was held in Iki City, Nagasaki Prefecture, with 23 teams from all over Japan participating. The tournament began in 2008, with the aim of creating exchange opportunities for baseball players living on remote islands, where it is difficult to play against outside teams.
Yamato Transport is empathetic to the tournament's aims—of creating opportunities for exchanges between children who will lead the future of remote islands, teaching the importance of hopes, dreams, and courage, and fostering a mindset of taking pride in remote island heritage—and has been continuously sponsoring the tournament since its initial year. Players in the tournament were presented with a wristband of an original design and banners bearing messages of support from local people on each remote island. Yamato Transport also utilized its nationwide network to support the delivery of luggage for players participating in the tournament.
Visitors’ Facilities
The Haneda Chronogate and Kansai Gateway visitor courses introduce the Yamato Group’s systems, including TA-Q-BIN, and the future we are aiming for.
The Yamato Group Kuronekoyamato History Museum was established on November 29, 2019, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Yamato Group. The facility utilizes a spiral-shaped slope within the building to display the Yamato Group’s 100-year history for visitors to see as they descend. Furthermore, it is a facility that both adults and children can enjoy, with a TA-Q-BIN Hands-on Corner and a Future Creation Lounge & Library.
Delivering Shoes to Children in Africa
Taiwan Yamato is working to deliver shoes that are no longer needed to Africa through public interest groups, based on the wishes of employees to fulfill their social responsibilities. Many children in Africa suffer from a skin disease called tungiasis (sand flea infestation), which leads to difficulty in walking and causes gangrene and other problems. Tungiasis is counted among the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) identified by the World Health Organization (WHO), and wearing shoes is the most effective way to prevent it.
Delivering Picture Books to Children in Asia
Since 2013, Yamato System Development has been participating continuously in support of the Campaign to Deliver Picture Books organized by the Shanti Volunteer Association (SVA).
Employees and their families cooperate to attach stickers printed in local languages to the Japanese portions of picture books published in Japan and send the picture books to countries in Asia, including Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Afghanistan.
Diversity and Inclusion
The Yamato Group has approximately 180,000 employees. We aim to create a society where everyone can actively participate. We will contribute to laying a foundation for a society where diverse people are able to actively participate, respecting one another’s diverse life styles and diverse cultures, so that each person can leverage their individuality.
Investments in Companies
Yamato Holdings has invested in Mirairo Inc., which engages in universal design for products and buildings so that they can be used by everyone regardless of their gender or language.
For details, please refer to Human Rights & Diversity.
Yamato Welfare Foundation Activities
The Yamato Welfare Foundation was established in September 1993 by the late Masao Ogura, the creator of TA-Q-BIN, who invested his private fortune after retiring with the aim of supporting the independence and social participation of people with mental and physical disabilities. Based on the Yamato Group's Corporate Stance, the foundation is responsible for part of the Group's social contribution activities by promoting activities to support the independence of people with disabilities.
Yamato Welfare Foundation (Japanese only)Subsidized Projects
| Subsidies for supporting pay increases for people with disabilities | The foundation provides subsidies for the start of new businesses and the procurement of necessary facilities and equipment for raising productivity with the goal of increasing pay for people with disabilities. |
| Welfare subsidies for people with disabilities | The foundation provides broad support for businesses and activities that lead to happiness for people with disabilities, including events, sports, meetings, surveys, and publications. |
| University scholarships for people with disabilities | The foundation provides scholarships for university students who are studying with a desire to overcome their disabilities and contribute to society. |
Power-Up Forum for Workplaces Employing People with Disabilities
This forum originated with the “Small Workshop Power-Up Seminar,” which was held in 1995 for the operators of facilities for people with disabilities, by the first chairperson, Masao Ogura, with the aim of moving past salaries of 10,000 yen per month. Today, the forum is held throughout Japan each year for welfare facility operators and people with an interest in creating workplaces for people with disabilities.
Yamato Welfare Foundation Masao Ogura Award Presentation
The Yamato Welfare Foundation Masao Ogura Award is given to two individuals each year to praise the distinguished actions of those actively promoting initiatives that provide people with disabilities with the satisfaction and sense of fulfilment that comes from working, such as the creation of work, the creation and expansion of employment, and the improvement of working conditions.
Assistance for Other Groups Supporting Work, Etc. for People with Disabilities
In addition to its own projects, the Yamato Welfare Foundation is also widening the scope of its activities, such as assistance and planning and operational support for other groups supporting work for people with disabilities, as well as various projects and so forth started by recipients of the Yamato Welfare Foundation Masao Ogura Award.
Volunteer Projects
In collaboration with the Yamato Transport labor union, we are promoting volunteer projects to connect Yamato Group employees and their families with facilities for people with disabilities in each region and increase interaction with them. In fiscal 2023, over 141 employees participated in volunteer activities.
Activities of Swan Co., Ltd.
Swan Co., Ltd. was founded by the late Masao Ogura together with the Yamato Welfare Foundation and Yamato Holdings. The company’s purpose is to realize the concept of “normalization,” which refers to a society in which people with and without disabilities can work and live together. Today, as a special subsidiary of Yamato Holdings, the company employs 36 people with disabilities.
At Swan Co., Ltd., people with disabilities make and sell bread, and provide services such laundry and building cleaning. There are currently five directly-managed Swan Bakeries, with an additional 20 franchised stores nationwide, supporting over 300 people with disabilities in achieving economic independence and participation in society through work.
Yamato Self-Support Center Social Welfare Corporation Activities
Yamato Self-Support Center Social Welfare Corporation is a company that was jointly established by the late Masao Ogura and Yamato Transport to realize the concept of normalization. The center supports people with disabilities in achieving independence in the community and enjoying work by equipping them with the necessary knowledge and skills for work, cultivating employment providers, and providing ongoing support after hiring.
Since the fiscal year ended March 31, 2012, Yamato Self-Support Center has undertaken contracted services as an employment and living support center for people with disabilities, providing even broader specialist support while using its accumulated expertise in supporting people to find work.
Support for Service Dogs
From 2017, Yamato System Development has been sending donated items, such as used postal stamps, unused postal stamps, soiled postcards, unused postcards, telephone cards, various vouchers, detergent, and dog gear, to the Japanese Association for the Promotion of Hearing Dogs. The foundation is responsible for the training, certification, and publicity of “assistance dogs for people with physical disabilities (seeing eye dogs, hearing assistance dogs, and service dogs),” which support people with physical disabilities.
