Support for the Next Generation Development
The Sapporo Group respects children's right to education and provides programs to give them opportunities to learn throughout their growth.
Support for the Next Generation Development
Holding "Lemon Classes"
April 1, 2025 - March 31, 2026
POKKA SAPPORO Food & Beverage's lemon business aims to contribute to a healthy and enriched dietary life and delivers fun on-site classes that increase interest in food through lemons. Research has shown that citric acid, which is abundant in lemons, has a “chelating effect” that makes it easier for calcium to be absorbed into the body, and that regular intake of lemons can help reduce fatigue. The class program incorporates experiments and quizzes to provide enjoyable learning about these benefits of lemons, which are recommended for growing children. The program also introduces children to the history and food culture of lemons, which they may be less familiar with, thereby broadening their knowledge of food.
POKKA SAPPORO Food & Beverage began full-fledged delivery of the classes in 2022 and conducted them at more than 100 schools during 2024, as in 2023. In post-class surveys of teachers and school staff, the program received high ratings in terms of satisfaction, ease of understanding, and other factors.
The food and nutrition education (Shokuiku) activities of the Lemon Class were first certified as those of a “Shokuiku Promoting Company / Organization” in FY2023 by the Japanese Society of Shokuiku and have been certified for three consecutive years (as of 2025).
Holding “Space Classes”
To explore the possibilities of food in space, a research on space has been conducted since 2006 by Associate Professor Sugimoto of the Institute of Plant Science and Resources Laboratory, Okayama University.
In the course of this research, seeds of the “Haruna Nijo” barley variety developed by Sapporo Breweries returned to Earth after a five-month stay on the International Space Station, becoming the “space-traveling barley."
With the cooperation of Associate Professor Sugimoto, Sapporo Breweries has been holding a hands-on event “Space Classes” utilizing the offspring of “space-traveling barley” twice every year since 2008, at the development test field of Raw Material Development Laboratory in Ota City, Gunma Prefecture. Participants, including local elementary school children and their parents, sow the barley seeds in autumn and crop the harvested seeds next spring.
In December 2024, the 28th seeding event was held. In addition to roasting barley, the raw material for barley tea, participants also played a nature game (target game) using wild plants under the guidance of NPO Gunma Green Interpreter Society. In September 2024, the “Space Class” was also held for the first time at the Raw Material Development Laboratory in Kamifurano, Hokkaido. There were 72 participants throughout the two events.
We want to deepen children's interest in science and space through these experiences and hope that a future scientist or astronaut will emerge from the children who participated in the events. We will continue our activities to nurture children's dreams for space and their interest in science and nature.
VOICE
Associate Professor Manabu Sugimoto
Institute of Plant Science and Resources Laboratory, Okayama University
These hands-on events using “space barley” are perfect opportunities to teach children that having humans go beyond the earth’s atmosphere and to use and live in space is no longer just a dream, and active research is being undertaken to make this a reality. I hope this will help connect space and children as a bridge to the future.
Support for the development of aquaculture feed for red sea bream that takes marine conservation into consideration
Since 2022, the Product Technology Innovation Department of Sapporo Breweries has supported research on red sea bream aquaculture conducted by Shizuoka Prefectural Yaizu Fisheries High School. The Department provides the school with malt feed (a byproduct) produced in the beer production process for use in feeding red sea bream, and cooperates in developing sustainable feed which is partially made from malt feed. The catch of natural anchovy, the main raw material for aquaculture feed, has been decreasing in recent years, and it is hoped that raw materials can be developed to replace natural fish. The cultured red sea bream fed with the feed containing malt feed has a flavor quality that is comparable to that of ordinary cultured red sea bream, expanding the possibility of using it as feed for marine products. The research was presented in the High School Student Section of the 2023 Spring Meeting of the Japanese Society of Fisheries Science. Sapporo Breweries will continue to cooperate with the school to develop a more sustainable aquaculture industry.
Providing opportunities for workplace experience
To help nurture children who will carry the next-generation, the Sapporo Group provides workplace experience opportunities to junior high school students and internships to high school and college students. Sapporo Lion provides an environment for deepening thoughts on the importance of work and the connection with the future society through experiential work.
Conducting traffic safety activities
Since 2017, Sapporo Group Logistics has invited children and teachers from local kindergartens to its traffic safety classes, with the goal of creating a safe society in which children can live happily. In 2019, Hokkaido Branch (Eniwa City, Hokkaido), Shizuoka Branch (Yaizu City, Shizuoka Prefecture), and Kyushu Branch (Hita City, Oita Prefecture) worked together with the company’s logistics partners to hold traffic safety classes taught by instructors from local traffic safety associations. Children learned how to correctly cross the road at traffic lights and how to walk on the roads, rode trucks and forklifts, and experienced blind spots as seen by truck drivers.
Sapporo Group Logistics also works together with local communities to carry out activities aimed at increasing public awareness of traffic safety. These include standing by the roadside and waving flags urging drivers to drive safely, and participating in truck parades hosted by local traffic safety associations.
Holding sports promotion events for children
Sapporo Breweries, in collaboration with JAL (Japan Airlines) and the Hokkaido Shimbun Press, has been holding the “Junior Sports Challenge!”, an event to familiarize children in Hokkaido with sports. By holding training sessions for children by professional athletes, the company will work to solve issues such as improving the physical fitness and athletic ability of children and revitalizing local communities in Hokkaido.
