ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) and KCJ Group Inc. (headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Einosuke Sumitani, President & CEO; hereinafter “KCJ Group”) announced today that they will be hosting “Out of KidZania with ITOCHU: Experience the Creation of a Business using New Technology” on August 4 and 5 (Thursday and Friday). “Out of KidZania” is a program that provides students from the fourth to sixth grades in elementary schools nationwide with opportunities to experience work in the real world.

This is the third such program, and this year’s theme is “Experience the Creation of a Business Using New Technology” as abusiness person of a gerenal trading company. With the cooperation of Euglena Co., Ltd., which has been successful in creating a business from Euglena, a type of algae that is drawing attention worldwide for its potential role in addressing food shortages, measures to prevent global warming, and energy problems, participants will brainstorm ideas for the development of products that harness the power of Euglena. The program will begin with a lesson on venture investment to determine the future and growth potential of the new technology. This will be followed by observation of Euglena under a microscope to learn about its characteristics and benefits, its business applications, and the kinds of social issues it can be expected to solve. Finally, the children will brainstorm ideas with their unique views about new products using Euglena and present their proposals.

This program goes beyond a general community visit and provides children with an opportunity to learn and experience a general trading company’s business through the products it handles. Pretending to be members of the company, they will work to identify and solve the issues and challenges its group companies face. The aim of the program is to enable children to acquire a wide range of knowledge about work in the real world and society, and help have them improve their problem-solving capabilities. The program is also designed to enable children to fully understand the significance of work, and help each develop work views of their own.
ITOCHU is developing the KidZania pavilion and undertaking this project in line with its corporate philosophy of “Committed to the Global Good.” It will continue to provide positive initiatives to support the healthy development of young people.

KidZania originated in Mexico as a theme park to provide children with hands-on work experiences. It opened in Japan in 2006 as KidZania Tokyo, followed by KidZania Koshien in 2009. It has become very popular as a facility that allows children to have fun while learning about the structure of society through hands-on experience. Currently there are 90 enterprises sponsoring KidZania in Japan, and about 1,600,000 people visit each year.