Along with society

The Paris 2024 Paralympic Games were held between August 28 and September 8, 2024. The 175-member TEAM JAPAN was the largest contingent ever sent to an overseas competition. The para-athletes from Japan competed fiercely and achieved outstanding results, including 14 gold medals among 41 overall.

The Ajinomoto Co., Inc. has been a Japanese Olympic Committee (JOC) partner since 2003, helping strengthen the nation's top athletes. Desiring to support the Paralympic Games as well, Ajinomoto Co., Inc. has become a partner of the Japanese Paralympic Committee (JPC). We also signed sponsorship agreements with the Japanese Para-Swimming Federation, the Japan Wheelchair Basketball Federation, and the Japan Blind Football Association. We also partner with individual athletes to provide nutritional support.

Ajinomoto Co., Inc. began supporting Paralympic athletes with the Rio 2016 Paralympics. At the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games, we offered Ajinomoto products and operated the Café du Dashi at the support booth to provide further conditioning support with Japanese-style dashi stock made using Ajinomoto HON-DASHI_®. With the lack of soups offered in the athletes' village cafeteria, many athletes and team staff members made use of our dashi stock on a daily basis. The cafe also provided coffee for athletes and staff to drink during their off time. Since the hard water in France tends to make coffee bitter, Ajinomoto AGF, Inc. researchers sourced French water in advance to test. The researchers chose the Sen brand as the best-tasting coffee to use with French water.

At the Victory Project_® support booth, we offered aminoVITAL _® and Glyna_® amino acid supplements, as well as the protein-rich series of miso soup and other soups, Knorr_® MAME TO YASAI, rice porridge, and more to help athletes maintain peak condition during the games. Our efforts ensured that athletes and staff supplemented with the nutrients needed, in the amounts needed, and when needed. The Aji Panda_® straps containing AJI-NO-MOTO_® for quick access any time were highly popular, and some athletes were even seen putting the straps on their carry-on luggage as they headed off to the competition. Blind Football Team members were served GYOZA produced by Ajinomoto Europe S.A.S., cooked and delivered to the players, who obviously enjoyed the dumplings.

Ashina was deeply concerned that the Paralympics is not given the same coverage as the Olympics, and that attention will fall off sharply once the Games concluded. "The reality was that even the Ajinomoto Group devoted most of its support on resources for the Olympics. We wanted to make the para-athletes more accessible and familiar to the general public. To that end, we are taking on the challenge of more impactful activities and communications."

One example is the online video, #ListentotheGame. The video focuses on the sounds of para-sports, highlighting wheelchair basketball and blind football. Ajinomoto Co., Inc. also published the video on streaming sites. Another example is the Inclusive Cooking Project, planned and implemented by volunteer Ajinomoto Co., Inc. employees. This project provides opportunities for para-athletes and sports enthusiasts with disabilities to come together and discuss food and the value of food from personal experiences. In a related workshop, Mako Takeuchi and Kento Torii, athletes designated for training support by the Japan National Blind Football_® Team, demonstrated their cooking skills, giving an insight into how people with visual impairments go about their daily lives.

In October 2024, Ajinomoto's Osaka branch held a Camp MESHI event in conjunction with Wakayama Prefecture and Okuwa, a local supermarket chain. Kento Torii participated in this event as well, enjoying cooking and playing blind football with the participants. Also in October, the Ajinomoto Group held a Blade Athlete Academy event in which Ajinomoto Group-supported para track and field athlete Atsushi Yamamoto demonstrated how to run on prosthetic legs. Ajinomoto also held a Kachimeshi_®. study session at the event, participating on the ground for para-athlete development. We actively communicate these efforts and the spirit of athletes in competition through social media and other channels. The video of the aforementioned workshop has been viewed 240,000 times, attracting positive and supportive comments from around the world.

These athletes live life to the fullest, competing and challenging themselves daily. The Ajinomoto Group interacts with athletes through year-round support activities. Therefore, we believe we are in a strong position to communicate these activities to society at large. My take on DE&I is 'Developing Everyone Individually.' I hope that, as a company actively involved in creating this kind of society, Ajinomoto continues supporting these activities for many years to come." (Ashina)