ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that from April 12 ITOCHU will launch Eco Shop Pavilion Activity No. 4: “Make Your Own MOTTAINAI Notebook” under the theme “Gratitude for the Earth and Eco-friendliness” at KidZania Tokyo (Toyosu, Koto-ku, Tokyo). ITOCHU has been operating as official sponsor of the Eco Shop Pavilion since April 2012 at KidZania Tokyo, an interactive facility where children can experience diverse occupations, operated by KCJ Group Inc. (headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Einosuke Sumitani, President & CEO).

About the Eco Shop Pavilion

The Eco Shop Pavilion is a pavilion where children can experience conservation activities. These activities utilize the know-how on environmental education accumulated through the global environmental “MOTTAINAI Campaign” (based in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Tatsuo Nanai, Representative) in which ITOCHU participates. Approximately every four months, environmentally themed activities, such as creating an Eco-Bag for Shopping and My Chopsticks to Carry Along using eco-friendly materials are featured. And for every child who participates, the amount equivalent to the cost of one tree sapling will be donated to the Green Belt Movement, a tree planting campaign established in Kenya by Professor Wangari Maathai (1940-2011). This initiative is intended to provide opportunities for participating children to familiarize themselves with global environmental issues and to experience the joy of participating in specific actions to address them.

Make Your Own MOTTAINAI Notebook and Design Contest

The fourth activity, Make Your Own MOTTAINAI Notebook, will be launched under the theme “Gratitude for the Earth and Eco-friendliness” on April 12. Children will be able to create their own original notebook by designing its cover using MOTTAINAI Campaign and KidZania character stamps and original stickers. The notebook will be made from recycled paper using vegetable ink and bound without using staples in consideration of the environment and to improve understanding on recycling. We will be holding a My Own Notebook Design Contest and present an award for the best design aimed to examine global environmental issues and foster a desire to take good care of our possessions. The contest also welcomes ideas for eliminating mottainai activities in our daily life and there is a plan to introduce the ideas on the MOTTAINAI Campaign Website.

ITOCHU initiatives for fostering next generations

Under the corporate philosophy “Committed to the Global Good,” ITOCHU advocates the fostering of next generations as one of the Basic Activity Guidelines on Social Contribution. Set up in 1974, ITOCHU Foundation has been active in supporting children’s libraries and creating electronic libraries for disabled children. It held a Summer Children Class in which local elementary school children were invited to study issues such as global warming, as well as the ITOCHU Baseball Class targeted toward disabled children. Even overseas, it offered subsidies to establish the “House for Youth,” youth independence support facilities in the Philippines. The Group will continue to actively promote activities that support the sound nurturing of young people inside and outside Japan.

KidZania Tokyo

KidZania (http://www.kidzania.jp/ ) is a theme park for children where they can experience diverse occupations. The park originated in Mexico. In Japan, KidZania Tokyo opened in 2006 and KidZania Koshien in 2009, and both have been very popular as interactive facilities where kids can learn about the structure of society while having fun. Some sixty enterprises currently exhibit pavilions, with about 830,000 people visiting each year.

MOTTAINAI Campaign

The word “mottainai” embodies the meaning of reducing (reducing waste), reusing, and recycling, together with respect for the earth’s irreplaceable resources. The MOTTAINAI Campaign (http://mottainai.info/ ) is a global campaign that uses this word as an internationally recognized byword for protecting the environment, with the aim of creating a sustainable and recycling-oriented society by promoting lifestyles that have less of an impact on the environment. The Campaign was proposed by Professor Wangari Maathai, the founder of the Green Belt Movement tree planting campaign in Kenya, and was launched in 2005. ITOCHU and many other enterprises have shown their support for the Campaign, supporting the philosophy of Professor Maathai and the Green Belt Movement in various ways, for instance by promoting the use of environmentally products such as the My Furoshiki Wrapping Cloth, Eco-Bag for Shopping, My Chopsticks to Carry Along, donation of a portion of profits from flea markets, and one-click fundraising.