ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it will hold the Eco-Bag Tie-Dyeing Experience for a limited time starting on October 5 at the Eco Shop Pavilion of KidZania Tokyo (Toyosu, Koto-ku, Tokyo), a job and social roleplay experience facility for children whose planning and management is carried out by KCJ GROUP INC. (headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Einosuke Sumitani, President & CEO; hereinafter “KCJ GROUP”).

ITOCHU has maintained the Eco Shop Pavilion at the KidZania Tokyo facility as an official sponsor of the company since April 2012. ITOCHU will hold the Eco-Bag Tie-Dyeing Experience with the Lee brand in cooperation with EDWIN Co., Ltd. and Lee Japan Co., LTD., our group companies, in commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the opening of KidZania Tokyo. During this event, participants can create different patterns according to their choice of color and how they wring the fabric to make the own one-of-a-kind bags. Children can develop a sense for treating things carefully and responsibly through this activity of creating their own unique and original eco-bags.

The Eco Shop Pavilion is a facility for children to enjoy the experience of environmentally friendly activities by making use of the expertise about environmental education from the MOTTAINAI Campaign (Secretariat office: Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Tatsuo Nanai, Representative), a global environmental activity in which ITOCHU participates. The Pavilion carries out the activity of creating environmentally friendly original goods, such as the Eco-Bag and My Chopsticks, using natural materials at intervals of about four months. In addition, each time a child participates, the cost of one seedling for afforestation efforts is donated to the Green Belt Movement, a Kenyan afforestation campaign launched by Wangari Maathai (1940-2011). Through this activity, we help children who participate in the event feel closer to global environmental issues and provide them with the opportunity to learn how to engage in these solutions themselves.

Lee jeans are a product made by H.D. Lee COMPANY, which was established by Henry David Lee in Kansas, in 1889. They are said to be the best in quality and comfort of the three major jeans brands in the world, along with overalls, jeans, and jackets. In Japan, Lee Japan Co., LTD., a subsidiary of EDWIN Co., Ltd., conducts the planning, production, and sales of the Lee brand and the WRANGLER brand to further expand sales and marketing.

KidZania (http://www.kidzania.jp/en/ ) is a job and social roleplay experience facility for children that originated in Mexico. In Japan, KidZania Tokyo opened in 2006, and KidZania Koshien opened in 2009. They are very popular experience-oriented facilities where children can enjoy learning about social systems. Currently, about 60 companies have pavilions that attract about 860,000 visitors annually.