Amid the trend toward nuclear families, there are often fewer people whom parents can easily turn to with questions about raising their children. In light of this, Seven & i Group offers various types of support through its stores.

Ito-Yokado and Sogo & Seibu has placed maternity and childcare consultation offices in 100 stores and Pre-Mama Stations in 5 stores (as of the end of February 2022). Here, consultants certified as public health nurses and midwives provide free consultations on health during pregnancy and childcare. Each of these facilities offers restrooms equipped with such conveniences as diaper-changing tables, private spaces for breastfeeding, water heaters for milk formula, and toilets for children. In addition, the consultants also collect information on the types of assistance offered by local governments and provide this information to users.

Ito-Yokado holds various events to provide childcare advice and encourage mutual interaction among parents. The company also actively takes part in events in collaboration with universities, municipalities and several product manufacturers to maintain and promote the health of mothers, offer techniques for relaxation and rejuvenation and provide helpful childcare-related information. The overarching theme of the events is “enjoyment at home through public-private-academic partnerships.” Through these events, it is helping to expand community childcare support networks. (To prevent the spread of COVID-19, no events were held in the fiscal year ended February 28, 2021 or February 28, 2022.)

And since 2021, Ito-Yokado has started holding Kids Workplace Experience Tours, where parents and their children can enjoy learning. These tours are events at which they can join workplace experience programs at Ito-Yokado and learn about such matters as initiatives that are considerate of hygiene management and the environment from the perspective of SDGs.

To support career education at elementary schools, junior and senior high schools, and universities, Seven & i Group cooperates with requests from schools by sending out employees to each school, providing workplace tours, and holding workplace experience programs at its Group stores, where participants have the chance to take part in conducting familiar retail store operations.

Seven-Eleven Japan has a store in Shinagawa Student City, which has been run jointly by Shinagawa-ku and Junior Achievement Japan since 2003. The concept of Shinagawa Student City is to create a virtual town inside an elementary school, with various companies setting up shops and providing experience of working and society. The children working in the 7-Eleven store experience customer service, store shelf organization, and other operations to learn about the systems of society.

Ito-Yokado welcomes elementary, junior high, and senior high school students from educational institutions for workplace experience programs. They experience the joy of thinking up and expressing their own proposals through such interactions with customers as coordination proposals and in-store sampling, and they experience the importance of complying with basic standards to ensure safety and reliability. To prevent the spread of COVID-19, it conducts workplace tours using online conferencing tools in the fiscal year ended February 28, 2021 or February 28, 2022.

York provides opportunities to observe the food processing operations and to practice stocking the shelves in the store with products. Around 7,000 elementary and junior high school students participate each year. To prevent the spread of COVID-19, stores refrained from holding such in-store studies in the fiscal year ended February 28, 2022. Among other things, however, they did respond to interviews from teachers and distribute the CSR booklet "Our Initiatives for Society" and the Environment to students.

Seven & i Group training facility, Ito Training Center, provides store shelf organization and food processing experiences, as well as opportunities to provide service from various customer perspectives, such as helping customers in wheelchairs. Through these experiences, students can feel the value of working and the joy of interacting with customers.

Seven-Eleven Japan holds outreach classes at an elementary school as a part of the Yomiuri Education Network, which seeks to increase interactions between companies and schools. Through the group work, the children come to understand in a fun way the roles that 7-Eleven plays in society. At the same time, they learn about how the products and services of 7-Eleven, which aims to build stores that are convenient and close to people, have changed (CRM strategy* and response to SDGs) in accordance with changes in society (changes in customers’ needs). The class provides a good opportunity for children to think about their society from the everyday perspective of a convenience store.

Since 2005, Seven Bank has cosponsored and cooperated in the publication of Bonolon, Warrior of the Forest*, which is a free picture book created with the hope that such qualities in the heart-warming world of Bonolon as kindness and courage will help future generations grow to have enriched minds. Among other activities, the bank also distributes picture books free of charge and holds storytelling sessions led by employees to contribute to the sound development of the youth.

Seven & i Group promotes dietary education activities for children through various experiences in order to prepare them to be people who can convey knowledge about foods and practice sound and healthy dietary habits.

For example, some Denny’s restaurants operated by Seven & i Food Systems regularly hold dietary education classes for children. These classes are opportunities for children to learn about how to use chopsticks, knives, forks, and spoons as well as proper table posture and other basic etiquette. They are also opportunities to learn in an enjoyable way through explanations using ingredient-themed panels and quizzes on seasonal vegetables, and more. While stores have refrained from holding face-to-face classes to prevent the spread of COVID-19 since 2020, it holds dietary education classes via online meeting tools.