Coexisting with Society

The festival was held on the premises of Kakogawa Works and the adjacent sports ground, baseball field, and gymnasium. As a venue for fulfilling interaction with the community, it featured numerous events such as tours of the hot strip mill and plate mill, which are normally not available for viewing, a go game competition, an ironmaking experience, a game center, a superhero show, a rugby workshop, and a softball workshop.

The festivities included stage shows such as singing, impersonations, and street performances, raffles, and the handing out of flower seed packets. The street performances in particular were a favorite among the children.

The festival included many exciting events, especially for children, such as a fun yearly raffle, a tuna carving show held with cooperation from the local Chofu fishery co-op, and a show featuring anime superheroes.

The day included a variety of exciting events such as employee taiko drum and band performances, hula dancing, a brass band performance by the nearby Arai Junior High School, a stage show with a popular superhero character, and the annual raffle.

This year the festival included a performance by the orchestra of Hiroshima Nagisa Junior High School, Senior High School, which is near the Itsukaichi Factory, a performance of sacred Shinto music and dancing, and a kids' corner where children had the chance to get on a real excavator, and more.

Then, on October 17, 2015, around 6,000 people enjoyed the Wing Song Show on the same main stand. Songs ranging from popular ballads to classic folksongs delighted people across generations.

Group employees in the area of the Kobe Head Office and volunteers from nearby companies have been conducting weekly cleanup activities since July 2013, focusing on commuting routes from the closest stations (Iwaya and Nada stations) to the head office.

These are enduring activities that have been ongoing since starting in 2008.

Shinko Kenzai has been conducting cleanup activities twice a year since 2014 as part of its Eco Action 21 (EA21) activities. The cleanups are carried out because it was decided that regular initiatives were needed due to the large amount of illegally dumped trash in the shrubbery and gutters in the area around the plant. Each workplace cooperates and around 20 employees join the cleanup each time.

The company also regularly participates several times a year in cleanups along the Tamekawa riverside organized by the Kurashiki Tamashima Chamber of Commerce & Industry and along Tamashima Harbor Island roads organized by the Mizushima Seaside Industrial Zone Area E General Council.

The Nadahama Science Square holds nature classes, including biotope observations, nature crafts, and observations of plant and insect specimens. During summer vacation this facility also holds many arts and crafts classes and science experiment classes, which are welcomed by many people as a way for children to do their summer science research projects for school. Nadahama Science Square also arranges plant tours for elementary and junior high school field trips, a program that is used by numerous schools not only from the local community of Kobe but also from across the country.

Lessons were given at Meijo Elementary School in Amagasaki in July 2015 and at Befunishi Elementary School in Kakogawa in March 2016. In both cases, the theme of the lessons was how to make a pinhole camera (a simple camera with no lens). Teachers who experienced the lessons gave feedback such as, "The children look forward every year to the manufacturing classes. The school believes that the classes are a meaningful chance to convey the fun of manufacturing."