Listening to Feedback from Society (Stakeholder Dialogues)

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  Yoko Ishikura Professor, International Business Strategy
  Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy
  Hitotsubashi University

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  Kouyuu Furusawa Professor, Faculty of Economics
  Kokugakuin University

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  Daishiro Kyushin Deputy Consultant, Nishikaze Office
  Member of the Nippon Association of Consumer Specialists

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  Riichiro Oda President, Change Agent Inc.

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  Makoto Teranaka Secretary General, Amnesty International Japan

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  Satoko Ito Chief Program Officer, Japan Center for International Exchange

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  Masami Kojima Senior Staff Writer, Living and Domestic News Department, Tokyo Office, The Mainichi Newspaper

Topics of discussion

1. Expectations for the activities of the Ajinomoto Group in the context of its aim to be a group of companies that contributes to human health globally
2. The need for the Ajinomoto Group to procure and use food resources sustainably over the long term

In 2009, the Ajinomoto Group designated global sustainability, food resources, and healthy living as three challenges that humanity faces in the 21st century. In an effort to find solutions to these social issues, workshops were held for employees to generate discussions on initiatives that the group could pursue. The resulting ideas were shared with stakeholders, who, in turn, offered opinions from the perspective of their respective fields of expertise on what activities were required by the group to address the social challenges.

As the Ajinomoto Group formulated its FY2011–2013 Medium-Term Management Plan, the management recognized stakeholders' opinions as representing the views of society, and is actively sharing them with employees while focusing on creating and enhancing CSR management systems.

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  The presentation given by Yoko Ishikura

A presentation given by Yoko Ishikura focused on three points: the importance of doing fieldwork to understand local conditions; the need to rapidly respond to global shifts based on a comprehensive view of social issues and a full grasp of international trends; and the observation that corporations are not cooperating effectively with people who are knowledgeable about local conditions, such as members of NGOs and international organizations.

Each group began discussions after the presentation. Some of the key ideas that arose are presented below.

Main opinions expressed by the two discussion groups

• The Ajinomoto Group should increase its presence within major frameworks designed to maintain global health.
• Thorough knowledge of a local area to conduct business is essential.
• The company's upper management should not limit its involvement to business sites, but also participate in international discussions to gain a better understanding of global trends.
• The Ajinomoto Group should increase cooperation with NGOs and international organizations.
• As farmers around the world live in poverty, global food companies have begun strengthening support for such farmers and their communities in response.
• As the Japanese market is highly developed in meeting demands related to the aging of society, the group will be able to contribute to societies over the world if it can identify and implement solutions that address such issues.
• The Ajinomoto Group should declare a firm commitment to pursue initiatives that can contribute to solving social problems highly relevant to its operations.
• The group should search for ways to help countries and regions that are seriously affected by hunger due to poverty.
• Young people seek employment that is beneficial to society. It is therefore crucial for the group to promote its socially conscious business activities in order to attract motivated employees.
• To encourage employees and consumers to read through the Ajinomoto Group CSR Report entirely, the group should take the reader's perspective. Content should be tailored to show the future outlook, match reader interests, and inspire employees.

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  The presentation given by Kouyuu Furusawa

The presentation given by Kouyuu Furusawa also examined three issues: whether food production can keep pace with the world population, which is forecast to exceed 9 billion people in 2050; the complexity and difficulty of understanding issues related to food resources without taking a comprehensive view of the interrelatedness of particular circumstances; and the need to identify initiatives to be taken by countries, local communities, and corporations to address food resource issues.

Following the presentation, both groups engaged in discussions that went beyond company-level issues to include broader opinions. Some of them are listed below.

Main opinions expressed by the two discussion groups

• The Ajinomoto Group must, first and foremost, determine whether any problems exist at sites where food resources are procured, clarify the roles and responsibilities of national governments, local communities and industries, and respond accordingly by implementing appropriate measures.
• When the group provides support to help improve the productivity of traditional farming, measures should be taken to ensure that changes do not result in environmental damage or problems related to labor, human rights, health and safety.
• In the most impoverished countries, the group should consider methods for raising land productivity that employs the abundant workers available, rather than adopting standards of labor productivity adopted in advanced economies.
• As the Ajinomoto Group employs amino acid fermentation technologies that use resources differently from traditional organic methods, the group's approach could be one solution for food resource problems.
• The group can control resources if it owns agricultural land. When that is not the case, it must oversee suppliers using procurement standards.
• The Ajinomoto group must give consideration to social issues such as forced labor and health care in relation to the supply chain.
• Consumer education is essential to address the issue of significant food waste.

This session of the stakeholder dialogues covered far-reaching issues and produced a wide range of opinions from participants. While it is not possible to sum them up under a single theme, some of the main points raised are listed as follows:

• As the Ajinomoto Group expands its business globally, it should differentiate between global issues that cannot be solved without the participation of the international community, such as climate change and nuclear proliferation, and universal issues that can be handled feasibly at the local level, such as securing resources and protecting biodiversity.
• The group must understand societal issues in their entirety, identify the causes, and put forward solutions from a medium- to long-term perspective.
• Soil, water and nutrients are vital for food resources. It is therefore necessary for the Ajinomoto Group, as a global company, to clarify its stance on issues related to these matters.
• Close collaboration with NGOs to more quickly and efficiently expand business in developing countries is essential.
• While the group's initiatives may be positive, they will not be recognized if they are not effectively promoted to the public.

Following the stakeholder dialogues, the opinions of stakeholders were shared in a meeting with managers and members of each of the company's divisions. As the FY2011–2013 Medium-Term Management Plan were in the process of being formulated at the time, the results of the stakeholder dialogues provided an opportunity to re-examine what kind of approach the Ajinomoto Group should take toward the three challenges related to global sustainability, food resources, and healthy living, as well as how it should communicate its initiatives to society.