Message from Chief Advisor Yoshio Kadekaru

Our founder, Sosei Gushiken, believed that what we should leave for Okinawa’s future generations is establishing an industrial infrastructure that promises eternal prosperity. Based on this belief, he devoted his efforts to promoting local industries. He decided to take on beer production even while facing difficult issues such as water and manufacturing technology. He wanted to create a society where the local Okinawan people, who had lost confidence after the war, and the young people responsible for the next generation could have hopes and dreams. The founder’s belief that corporate activities based on this conviction could only continue thanks to the support of many people, including local people, coworkers, and family, and his desire to “Repay kindness with gratitude,” continues to be passed down to Orion Breweries’ activities today.

“Love yourself, love your company, love society, and prosper with the local people.” This is one of the intentions passed down from our founder that support our activities. Our participation in the beer festivals that are a mainstay on Okinawa’s summer calendar and other events in various cities and towns is also based on this principle of “coexistence and co-prosperity.” In 2020, we brewed beer using rare barley grown on Ie Island. We used beer lees produced during our manufacturing process as the fertilizer to help the barley to grow. This initiative won the “Social Products Award” at the 2021 Social Products Awards (sponsored by Association for the Promotion of Social Products). The award was in high recognition of the project’s contribution to the increasing the vitality of the local area and its consideration of the environment. In addition, we are engaged in activities aimed at developing collaborative products with local manufacturers and food and beverage-related companies, such as Okinawan-grown Shikuwasa, hibiscus, and Okinawa-produced salt, working hand-in-hand with the local community to achieve mutual growth and development.

Our articles of incorporation state that “we may use part of our profits for beneficial projects.” Since our founding, we have worked on projects in areas that include welfare, restoration of cultural assets, international exchange, promotion of sports and performing arts, and conservation of the natural environment. We have been donating New Year’s money gifts to children in child welfare facilities and organizations through the Okinawa Prefectural Social Welfare Council since 1984, and we continue to do so to this day. This year (donations in December 2020), we delivered gifts to 390 locations and 4,785 children in the prefecture. In 1987’s “International Flower Exchange” event, we brought seeds back from South America, sowed them in Okinawa and grew them into seedlings, which we distributed free of charge throughout the prefecture. Today, the beautiful blooms of the trees grown from those seeds decorate the streets every year, and they have become a tourist attraction of Okinawa, a prefecture that relies heavily on tourism. In 2017, we produced commemorative cans and donated part of the proceeds of their sale to help preserve the designated national park Yambaru Forest.

“Conveying the culture (spirit) inherited from our ancestors” and “helping to create a community where people can find hope” are corporate activities that we cherish. As part of our cultural heritage, we are planting and cultivating “Chargi (Buddhist pine)” trees, which we hope will be used as materials to restore Shurijo Castle 100 years from now. We are allocating funds to support the reconstruction of Shuri Castle, including the planting and cultivating of “Chargi” trees. In 2020, the number of trees exceeded 7,000 trees, and they are all growing well. We also believe that nurturing local human resources is another of our corporate responsibilities for the development of Okinawa. To that end, in 2016, we established the “Orionbeer Scholarship Foundation,” a public interest-incorporated foundation. The foundation provides scholarships with no repayment obligation and grants to organizations that provide learning support to children from financially disadvantaged families. In 2020, we signed an industry-academia collaboration agreement with the University of the Ryukyus Research Promotion Organization with the aim of cooperation in education and research. One of our corporate activities is to help create a future in which the children of Okinawa 100 years from now will love themselves, respect others, and be glad to have been born in Okinawa.

In recent years, an increasing number of companies have been working on activities following the “SDGs” advocated by the United Nations. As part of our corporate social responsibility, we are also working to solve social problems facing our beloved homeland of Okinawa. One of these problems is child poverty, which has become even more severe due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As a step towards a concrete solution, the Orionbeer Scholarship Foundation applied to the Japan Network for Public Interest Activities (JANPIA) to be a “fund distribution organization based on the Act on Utilization of Dormant Deposits, etc. for the 2020 Regular Open Call.” That application was successful, and the Foundation was designated as a fund distribution organization for FY2020. We used the grant funds to implement a career support project for single mothers in the prefecture. Aiming to create a prosperous Okinawa where all prefectural citizens connect through smiles, all of us at Orion Breweries will never give up, never flinch from our duties, and always give our utmost in the spirit of “We’ll do it, no matter what!,” “Repay kindness with gratitude,” and “Co-existence and co-prosperity.”