Co-existence with Local Communities

We at Fuji Oil Co., Ltd. implement food education project for children, encouraging the next generation to consider the health of people and the planet. Since FY2014, we have been conducting the project in Japan in cooperation with the nonprofit Houkago NPO After-School.
In FY2024, we once again ran four visiting lecture programs: two on soybeans (“The Global Environment and Our Food” and “Food Education Bingo”), one on palm oil (“Food Detectives, Discover the Secrets of Food!”) and one on cocoa (“Choco Action for the Future”), with twenty of our employees acting as lecturers. In the new cocoa program, added in FY2024, we encouraged students to learn about the issues surrounding chocolate and consider what actions they can take. Both children and teachers have commented on how much they learned from this program.
Through the programs, we held 38 sessions in-person on soy, palm oil, and cocoa for 1,041 students at 20 elementary schools. A total of 7,020 children have participated in the food education project since it began.
Aside from the food education project, we also held food education sessions for university students, school teachers, and community events, exploring the topic of global sustainability through familiar foods, using our main ingredients as subject matter. In FY2024, we delivered these sessions to more than 250 people across six locations.
We also teamed up with students to give a presentation titled “Bringing global issues closer to home: enjoy learning about food sustainability” at the Food Education Promotion Forum hosted by Japan’s Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. Our presentation was awarded the judges’ special award.

Since 2018, Fuji Oil Co., Ltd. has sponsored SDGs for School,^* a project run by the non-profit Think the Earth. The project supports class teachers and students by creating educational content and networking spaces for learning about how to create a more sustainable society through the SDGs. In 2021, Think the Earth was officially designated by Japan’s Ministry of the Environment as an organization that supports environmental education, and the programs were registered as services of human resource certification.

• * https://www.thinktheearth.net/en/

Fuji Oil Co., Ltd. launched the Hannan Forest Project in 2010 to regenerate Satoyama landscape in Izumisano City, Osaka Prefecture, where its head office is located.
Since March 2018, the project has expanded, and employees have worked as volunteers to support park development at Izumisano Kyuryo Ryokuchi (Izumisano hillside park)^* in Osaka. At the site, local volunteers, companies, and the Osaka Prefectural Government work together on forest development and bamboo forest management. The company’s employees conduct monthly activities to nurture the secondary forest in its designated Corporate Forest area.
A trail called the Explorer Route has been created and maintained as part of the management of the bamboo forest.
In FY2024, around 160 people took part in eight volunteering events.
Going forward, we will continue our park development efforts, with the goal of creating a rich forest habitat for owls, giant flying squirrels, and other wildlife.

• * http://izumisano-kyuryo.jp/en/

The Fuji Oil Group founded the Research Committee of Soy Protein Nutrition in 1979 to fund academic research on soy protein. After restructuring as a public interest foundation, it transformed into the Fuji Foundation for Protein Research^*1 in 2012 to continue building upon this legacy of plant-based protein research. To date, the Foundation has funded over 1,300 studies in total, covering a wide range of research fields, including nutritional science, food processing, and breeding. We have also been supporting researchers in the Netherlands with international research grants since FY2023.
The results of the funded research are published annually in the journal “Soy Protein Research, Japan” and posted on the Foundation’s website,^*2 where they are widely accessed by researchers.
In addition, the Foundation also holds free open lectures for the general public as part of its public interest activities to promote awareness and utilization of soy and plant-based proteins. In FY2024, we presented online lectures from the venue in Izumisano City. Three speakers gave lectures from various perspectives, including (1) the many roles and functions of soybeans in food processing; (2) the role of domestication and mutation in soybean crops; and (3) how the physiological functions of soybeans help Japanese people live long lives. Over 260 people registered for the lectures and many more people watched the video archive on the Foundation’s website.
Through donations to the Foundation, we will continue to support academic research on soy and plant-based proteins and contribute to the society.

• *1 https://www.fujifoundation.or.jp/english/

• *2 Follow the link below for research results.

  https://www.fujifoundation.or.jp/search_en/

Harald Indústria e Comércio de Alimentos Ltda (Brazil) has been running a free chocolate entrepreneurship program since 2019 to help low-income earners and small-scale entrepreneurs generate a profitable secondary source of income. In FY2024, over 1,500 training sessions were held around Brazil, providing around 8,500 participants with the specialized knowledge required to succeed in the confectionery industry. The program covers all the information that entrepreneurs need to start their own business, including proper handling of chocolate and compound chocolate, pricing, digital marketing, sales strategies, presentation skills, and more.

In February 2025, Blommer Chocolate Company (U.S.) took part in a volunteer event at St. Mary’s of Providence (SMOP), a non-profit residential facility that provides care for approximately 80 women with developmental disabilities. This event was initiated 17 years ago by former Blommer employee Sandy Murphy, and is held annually by the Chicago chapter of the American Association of Candy Technologists (AACT). Blommer has been donating chocolates and volunteering every year since the event began. Blommer’s booth featured a pink strawberry-flavored chocolate fountain and sweets such as brownies, marshmallows, pretzel rods and crispy rice bars. With help from our employees, the women in the facility enjoyed dipping these treats in the chocolate fountain and decorating them with various sprinkles.

Blommer Chocolate Company (U.S.) conducts a sustainability awareness program that uses chocolate as its theme, targeting college students. In March 2025, the company invited college students studying sustainability and their professors to the Blommer Chocolate R&D Applications Lab located in the Merchandise Mart in Chicago. The members of R&D team and the sustainability team talked about the importance of sustainable food systems, the company’s approach to sustainability and its sustainability initiatives, followed by interactive sessions.