HOME > Corporate Social Responsibility > Division CSR Activities > Consumer Lifestyle Business
Procuring Raw Materials and Supplying Consumer Merchandise
At the Consumer Lifestyle Business Division, we believe that our corporate social responsibility is to ensure the stable supply of food, clothing and other essentials for daily living and create the optimum system for procuring raw materials and bringing goods to the market to meet diverse consumer tastes and despite constantly shifting trends in raw materials procurement.
The Textiles Unit endeavors to provide merchandise reliably, taking into account the social aspects related to suppliers and their products, such as labor issues, legal compliance and product liability. We also endeavor to and strengthen supply chain management.
The Sojitz Food Safety Council within the Foods Unit, set up to address consumers’ stronger needs for food-related safety and peace of mind, established quality standards and has endeavored to obtain stable supplies of food from sources in Japan and overseas while practicing food safety management. It is regrettable, however, that frozen meat dumplings imported from China late in 2007 were found to be contaminated with an organophosphate insecticide, and we apologize to customers who were affected after eating the product. We are doing our best to prevent any further problems and are cooperating with the Japanese authorities to identify its cause.
Updates concerning this incident will be announced on http://www.sojitz. com when they become available.
Export Promotion
Billboard promoting Japanese food, Beijing
In 2007, Sojitz was delegated by Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries to undertake activities to create and broaden overseas sales channels for Japanese agricultural, forest and marine products. The aim of this ministry-sponsored program is to carry out sales promotion on a permanent, continuing basis at high-end department stores and other outlets, to speed penetration of safe, high-quality Japanese food and forest products among consumers overseas. Between September 2007 and March 2008, we operated a store in the BHG Market Place, the basement level food hall of Shin Kong Place, an upscale department store in Beijing catering to affluent Chinese consumers, where we sold Japanese foods and made them more accessible by presenting them in the context of Japan’s food culture. We also conduct research into overseas markets and consumer tastes, and carry out promotional activities such as cooking demonstrations, regional food fairs and in-store tastings, to boost market penetration and expand sales channels.
Commercializing a New Type of Cool Material
The Sojitz Group’s Daiichibo Co. Ltd., which carries out integrated spinning, knitting and setting up, processing, and sewing operations, has succeeded in developing special core yarn using the industry’s most sophisticated air-jet spinning technology, and has become the first company to mass-produce core yarn using this technology.
Fabrics made from yarn spun using air-jet spinning technology offer contact coolness and have water-absorbing and fast-drying properties, are pilling-resistant and provide improved ventilation, greatly reducing sweatiness when worn. The product, called Center Island, is being sold to underwear makers as a new fiber for spring and summer wear.
Reuse of Waste Cooking Oil
In the mid-1980s, Sojitz realized that there were business opportunities in recycling waste cooking oil. We supported the creation of Japan’s first cooperative of waste cooking oil collectors among large-scale cooking oil users such as food processors, fast food shops and restaurants and set up a waste cooking oil collection system. At the same time, we established a system for separating the oil collected by grade and type and reconditioning and selling it as raw material for fatty acids, livestock feed, soap and fuel. Today, Sojitz handles the largest share of waste cooking oil in the industry, and the reclaimed and reconditioned oil is used not only in Japan but also exported to China, Malaysia, Taiwan, Korea and other Asian countries.
