Seven & i Holdings seeks to mitigate the environmental impact associated with its business activities and to contribute to making a better society through those activities. When selecting external partners for activities, we always ensure that they have a philosophy that is compatible with our own, and that they have sufficient specialist expertise.
We measure the effect of our social contribution activities based on four perspectives. Moreover, we plan to revise our measurement methods in the future to enable an even more accurate measurement of the inputs for an activity, the respective outputs for the Company and society after the activity, and the final impacts on the Company and society, respectively.

Seven & i Holdings believes that employee participation in social contribution activities is also crucial. Based on this belief, we plan and implement activities such as opportunities to experience nature and disaster reconstruction support programs. Moreover, to encourage employee participation in volunteer activities, Seven-Eleven Japan, Ito-Yokado, York, Seven & i Food Systems, and Seven Bank have instituted a volunteer leave system under which employees can take five days off per year for volunteer work. At Ito-Yokado, part-time workers may also take volunteer leave. In the fiscal year ended February 28, 2023, 9 employees in the Group took volunteer leave.

In March 2016, Ito-Yokado commenced activities to encourage customers and employees to donate funds throughout the year by placing collection boxes next to almost all of its POS registers nationwide. This fund collection drive is the first of its kind to be held at a superstore chain throughout the year and is being undertaken to help solve various social issues on a revolving basis every three months. In addition, since June 2020 we have been collecting donations over the internet through the Seven & i Group’s Seven Mile Program. Through these fund collection drives, we raised ¥47,935,326 in donations from our customers and employees in the fiscal year ended February 28, 2023.

Furthermore, the “Thanks Blooming” initiative—launched in the fiscal year ended February 28, 2022 as part of our efforts to improve employee engagement—for collecting donations from employees by allowing them to exchange “Thanks Blooming” points as a way of saying “thank you” to their colleagues raised a total of ¥765,134. Ever since we began collecting donations at our stores in 2016, these three initiatives have raised a total of ¥255,340,308.

Seven & i Group companies support the training of guide dogs for the visually-impaired and collect donations for this purpose at Ito- Yokado and York stores.
Ito-Yokado began making donations to the National Federation of All Japan Guide Dog Training Institutions in 1991 to support the training of guide dogs, and celebrated its 31th anniversary in 2022. From 1991 to 2022, a cumulative total of ¥101,703,904 has been donated.

Since August 2017, Seven-Eleven Japan has been donating a portion from product inventories－except fresh foods and products requiring permits such as alcohol, cigarettes, and stamps－that arise during store renovations to Second Harvest Japan, a foodbank organization.
In addition, Seven-Eleven Japan signed a three-party agreement with Yokohama City and the Yokohama City Council of Social Welfare in April 2018 and began a similar initiative. The donated products are distributed to organization and facilities that support people such as seniors, persons with disabilities, children, and the needy, leading to the promotion of social welfare and reduction of food waste.

Akachan Honpo has been providing sponsorship for the White Ribbon Campaign launched by JOICFP to protect the lives and health of pregnant women and babies throughout the world. It has been working on the Community Safe Motherhood Project (which involves the donation of funds to establish Maternity Waiting Houses in Zambia). Besides accepting donations on behalf of JOICFP through its stores and online, it has also installed 29 White Ribbon Campaign Vending Machines at inside and outside of stores as of the end of February 2023. For every beverage purchased from one of these machines, the companies donate ¥2 to JOICFP (¥1 from the beverage manufacturer and ¥1 from the store where the machine is installed). 

The social contribution activities provided by Seven & i Group in the fiscal year ended February 28, 2023, including the provision of financial assistance or the donation of goods, and the personnel costs of employees involved in these activities, amounted to a total of ¥1.50406 billion when converted into monetary terms. Of this total, cash donations were approximately ¥0.45 billion.