Sumitomo Corporation has announced that they will partner with JCIE on the Supporting Youths of Diverse Roots and an Inclusive Society (SYDRIS) Initiative, which was launched earlier this year in Japan utilizing funds made available under the Act on Utilization of Funds Related to Dormant Deposits to Promote Public Interest Activities by the Private Sector.

The partnership, which officially launched in October 2020, is Japan’s first full-scale corporate skills-based volunteer initiative to support young people in Japan with foreign roots and the nonprofit organizations working to help them adjust to and thrive in Japan. As part of Sumitomo Corporation’s “100SEED” campaign,^[i] employees will be volunteering their time and know-how through March 2023 to NPOs that have been selected under the SYDRIS initiative. They will be helping to strengthen the institutional and project management capabilities of the target organizations and will help students who are receiving academic assistance.

Youths in Japan who have foreign roots face various challenges, including the study of the Japanese language and other subjects, career development and employment, etc. Currently, those young people, who could achieve great things if they had appropriate and comprehensive support, are not receiving such support and the impact of that is reflected in the high school dropout rate for such youths, which is seven times that of Japanese students.

Amid growing public interest in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Japan, this JCIE-Sumitomo partnership is the first case in which a company is focusing its attention on the challenges faced by young people with foreign roots living in Japan and systematically working to develop human resources who can play a key role in the future of Japan in order to meet SDG 4 (ensure inclusive and equitable quality education for all), SDG 8 (promote decent work and economic growth), and SDG 10 (reduce inequality within and among countries).

Sumitomo Corporation’s participation in the SYDRIS initiative implemented by JCIE is expected to increase public interest in the issues facing youths with foreign roots and the importance of their education and career development. In addition, by creating a mechanism to support collaboration between companies and NPOs working on solving social issues via different frameworks, JCIE hopes to strengthen the institutional foundation and quality of support for NPOs in the field of assisting youths with foreign roots, thereby improving the sustainability of their work.  We also hope to promote the creation of new social values through the expansion of corporate engagement in the field and to make new discoveries through the evolving collaboration between companies and NPOs.