Basic Idea

In order to realize Well-Being Life for stakeholders, the Group will work with local communities and partners to create new and lively communities through local revitalization by chisan-chisho based on local procurement and other efforts.

Promotion of Local Production for Local Consumption (Chisan-Chisho)

Using its strength of having stores nationwide, the Group contributes to revitalizing local areas by finding and communicating local attractiveness. We will promote local revitalization through initiatives for chisan-chisho, or local production for local consumption, such as Daimaru Matsuzakaya’s project Think LOCAL and Parco’s crowdfunding BOOSTER.

Chisan-chisho through Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Stores’ Think LOCAL project

As part of its sustainability activity, Daimaru Matsuzakaya Department Stores engages in the Think LOCAL project that considers local problems and supports the area. In September 2020, the company ran the Let’s Buy, Eat and Be a Part! Campaign consisted of online sales of local specialties from around the country and a digital charity through which donations go to NPOs, etc. in the areas where the stores are located. The company carried out the Best of Japan Delivered to Your Door from Local Food Mart, which sold recommended delicacies online from where its stores are located, and the online fund-raising to support local companies, facilities and organizations affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Local revitalization through Parco’s crowdfunding BOOSTER*

Parco has evolved its initiatives for local revitalization using crowdfunding BOOSTER, which is jointly operated by Parco and Campfire, Inc. In October 2020, the company, mainly Sendai PARCO, launched #Stand by Tohoku project, which supports traditional crafts, local products, etc. from six prefectures in the Tohoku region to support the artisans and companies that have overcome the Great East Japan Earthquake and have proceeded powerfully.

*Crowdfunding site jointly operated by Parco and Campfire, Inc., which is one of Japan’s largest crowdfunding platforms

Hakata Daimaru Kyushu Tankentai (Kyushu exdedition team)

Under the Kyushu Tankentai project, the department store employees visit cities in Kyushu and Okinawa and cooperate with the governments in collecting information on, finding, and introducing attractive people, tangible goods, intangible goods, culture, and others, which are not yet widely known, to revitalize Kyushu as a whole. The Kyushu Tankentai visited all 119 cities by August 2022 and was certified as an information communication ambassador by 91 cities.
The Kyushu Tankentai won the Grand Prix at the JFR Creation Award 2021, an annual competition held by the Group for business ideas conceived by employees.

Industry-Academia Partnership to Develop Future Generations

The Daimaru Kobe store

The Daimaru Kobe store concluded a “partnership agreement concerning the revitalization of local communities and the promotion of lifelong learning” with Kobe Gakuin University and held a signing ceremony in the Port Island Campus of Kobe Gakuin University on July 5, 2018. Their nine partnership items include co-organized projects to foster the creativity of children, support for the next generation, the promotion of education and human resource development, disaster prevention and reduction, and regional development and the resolution of regional issues.

Marking the 20th anniversary of its grand reopening after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake (the “Earthquake”), the Daimaru Kobe store “looked back at the 20 years when it has been supported by local people and developed with local communities and wanted to take actions so that the store can further contribute to revitalizing local communities and society.” As such, the store has pursued partnership with Kobe Gakuin University.

Mr. Sato, the President of Kobe Gakuin University, introduced the “Motomachi Kodomo Daigaku (lit. Motomachi college for children),” which started as an advance project. He also told that Kobe Gakuin University, as a university closest to the epicenter of the Earthquake, has pursued education and studies concerning local disaster prevention and reduction ahead of the rest of the country in order to apply the lessons learned from the Earthquake to education. According to him, these initiatives lead up to today as the “Department of Social Studies of Disaster Management of the Faculty of Contemporary Social Studies,” which was established in 2014, and the University will implement community-based initiatives in partnership with the Kobe store.

The Matsuzakaya Nagoya store

The Matsuzakaya Nagoya store and National University Corporation Nagoya University concluded a partnership agreement in May 2017. The purpose of this agreement is to enable mutual collaboration between Nagoya University and the Matsuzakaya Nagoya store in the fields of culture, industry, education, academics and so on with the aim of contributing to the development of the local region and human resources. Beginning with the research on the revitalization of the Sakae area using ICT, we will implement various initiatives that contribute to service innovation and the development of local appeal toward the “creation of Nagoya, a hospitable city in information services.”

Parco

Parco concluded an industry-academia partnership agreement with Showa Women’s University in February 2021 for the purpose of practical, project-based learning and regional revitalization. Students will address real issues in society and business and utilize their fresh sensibilities to identify issues faced by society and propose plans to solve them.

Local Revitalization through Industry-Academia Partnership Tre-Share

Tre-Share is Parco’s SDGs local revitalization project through industry-academia partnership. With “vitalizing local economy” and “SDGs” as its themes, university students in Tokyo take the lead in searching for attractive local products and services (Treasure) together with local junior and senior high school students and sharing them with a nationwide audience from astudent’s point of view.
In April 2022, we created with the students of Niigata Prefectural Tsubame Junior High School an opportunity for more people to learn about the charms of the region by selling products in the warehouses of companies in the Tsubame-Sanjo area of Niigata Prefecture through crowdfunding with the theme of how to utilize products that have lost sales opportunities due to replacement with new products.

Coexistence with Local Communities

• Development of Local Areas Using Their Attraction

• Collaboration with Local Communities

• Support for the Next Generation