Examples of Social Contribution Activities

Brother Industries, Ltd. (BIL) participated in the launch of the "Tokai Young Entrepreneur Seminar" to assist young social entrepreneurs who address social issues and community revitalization through their businesses in the Tokai area, where BIL's headquarters are located, and started cosponsoring the activity in 2008.

In the Seminar, Brother works to place businesses on a trajectory for growth, such as by supporting entrepreneurs to formulate business strategies and develop services. As of 2021, it had supported a total of 59 entrepreneurs engaged in nursing care and welfare work, multicultural coexistence, the creation of learning spaces for children, childcare support, town development, and so forth.

In FY2022, four entrepreneurs, who were addressing social issues through projects such as providing support by midwife for women in their pre- and post-natal period, and providing students with learning opportunities outside of school, joined as members of the fifteenth seminar.

Brother Earth Kids Academy is an event that has been held since FY2018 for children attending after-school clubs during summer vacation, providing them with opportunities to learn about environmental issues through crafts. At the event, through the creation of an "endangered animals picture book," the program gives the children an opportunity to study the causes of the increase in endangered species and allows them to learn about the mechanism of global warming, which is one of the causes, and efforts to prevent it.

The event was held at Brother Museum in FY2018 and FY2019, then as online events in FY2020 and FY2021 due to the impact of the COVID-19. In FY2022, some regulations were eased, so in addition to online events, BIL has been holding on-site events where they visit after-school clubs. These events have been held over 50 times with approximately 2,500 participants.

In FY2023, summer vacation was free of movement restrictions for children due to the reclassification of COVID-19 as a Category V Infectious Diseases in May of the same year. As a result, all events during the period from July 26 to August 25, 2023, were held in person. In addition to the on-site events held in the previous year, events were also held at Brother Museum for the first time in four years, with a total of 14 events and approximately 500 children participating.

In addition to the production of the "endangered animals picture book," which has been carried out in the past, the event at Brother Museum featured new programs only possible at in-person events, such as the "environmental declaration poster" and "Brother crossword quiz."
For the "environmental declaration poster" program, children were tasked with choosing one activity they thought they could practice from four options: saving energy, saving water, recycling, and reducing food waste. Then, they completed an "environmental declaration tree" by pasting the icons created by Brothers Scan Cut^* onto a tree illustration. The completed posters were brought back to be displayed at the after-school clubs so they would try not to forget the declarations they made.
For the "Brother crossword quiz." program, children explored the Brother Museum while completing a crossword quiz so that they could enjoy learning about Brother’s history and products. Through these programs, children not only learned about the global environment, but also created fun summer vacation memories.

The children who have participated in the event have said that they would try to save electricity, reduce food waste, and recycle from now on. In addition, instructors at the after-school clubs have commented that "the children are taking the initiative seriously and we, the instructors, also learned a lot ourselves," and "it is great that we were able to create an opportunity for the instructors and the children to learn about global warming and endangered species together."

Going forward, toward achieving a sustainable society, Brother will continue to contribute toward Goal 4 "Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all," Goal 13 "Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts," and Goal 15 "Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss" of the Sustainable Development Goals by conducting educational support activities in regions and initiatives leading to global environmental conservation.

• A product that allows you to cut paper, cloth, thin plastic sheets, stickers, etc. using a touch panel (without using scissors or a cutter).

Brother (China) Ltd. (BCN), one of the Brother Group's sales facilities in China, has made its mission to "contribute to the development of Chinese society and the abundance of people's lives " and is engaged in initiatives to support economically disadvantaged women in Yunnan Province, China.

While China has achieved remarkable economic growth, there is a gap between urban and rural areas, with some women struggling to find employment in the southwesternmost province of Yunnan as well. Although women in Yunnan make a living such as by hand-sewing embroidery, which is a traditional culture of the province and is listed as one of China's intangible cultural heritages, they must migrate to work to earn a sufficient income and live apart from their families and children. These children left behind in rural areas as a result of their parents' migrations are known as "left-behind children," and they represent a social problem unique to China.
To address this, from FY2022 to FY2023, BCN donated 26 sewing machines and provided training on how to use them. This initiative enabled women in Yunnan to earn more income by making bags, wallets, and other handicrafts using traditional Yunnan embroidery. In addition, this has enabled them to continue working locally and live with their families and children, thereby improving the problem of left-behind children.

The Brother Group has identified five materialities to "contribute to society and help protect the earth" as Our Purpose in the Brother Group Vision "At your side 2030." BCN will work to solve social issues through business towards "supporting people’s value creation," one of the five materialities.