FILLING THE GAP:
"Social Venture" Companies on the Rise

April 2, 1997

Social services provided by these companies include home meal delivery. (Photo: Jiji Gaho Sha, Inc.)

An increasing number of activist citizens in Japan are establishing businesses as vehicles for their efforts to contribute to the common good. By enlisting the efficiency of business in their endeavors, these citizens hope to carry out their altruistic inclinations on a large scale. Not satisfied with simply doing volunteer work, these individuals want to provide a wide range of socially beneficial products and services that big business can't offer. This sentiment has led to the emergence of a new breed of company that can be termed a "social venture."

Women, People with Disabilities Play Key Role
The companies span a wide range of business activity. In one social venture, a group of women was interested in creating a workplace that would allow people with disabilities and women to work close to home. As they were casting about for ideas, they hit on the notion of setting up a factory for processing fresh-cut flowers into pressed flowers for ornamental use. The women devised their own technique for sealing the flowers while they are still fresh, and recently they established a factory in the city of Kitaibaraki, located in Ibaraki Prefecture. The factory has flowers sent from about 400 growers around the country, then processes the flowers into products such as postcards, coasters, and wall hangings.

One of the factory's many flower sources throughout the country is a group of 10 or so housewives based in Akan, a town on Japan's northern island of Hokkaido. Since last year, these women have been using a tentlike plastic greenhouse, which they set up themselves in a rented field, to cultivate flowers for use in making pressed flowers. Akan has been troubled by depopulation and the aging of its existing population, and has decided to help the women's flower-growing business to create jobs, revitalize the town, and help the region. A newly established semipublic organization will be able to expand its operation by coordinating efforts with social-service organizations.

Meanwhile, in Okinawa, a citizen involved in environmental preservation efforts recently established a company that sells Okinawan foods and crafts. The company has signed contracts with about 100 farming households on outlying islands for the supply of goods such as organic vegetables and handmade textiles. It sells these goods to buyers' clubs around the country and donates a portion of the profits to tree-planting efforts aimed at creating windbreak forests. The company's stated goal is to support Okinawan agriculture while preserving the natural environment of the islands.

Yet another social venture is a company that produces printed materials that people with visual impairments and people with normal vision can use together. This company has devised a means of superimposing Braille text onto ordinary printed pages using a transparent ink that creates a raised surface on the paper. The company also produces picture books in the same manner, outlining the illustrations with the special transparent ink. In the near future, the company intends to popularize this printing technique by making it available to facilities that support people with visual disabilities. When asked about the motivation for founding the company, the president said it had started with a promise made to a visually impaired girl he had met during a volunteer activity. He had promised to give her a picture book.

Local Governments Lend a Hand
Some local authorities are now trying to foster social ventures of this kind. After all, local governments and these companies share many common goals, such as enhancing social services, providing suitable workplaces for people with disabilities, revitalizing communities, and protecting the environment.

In February the city of Kyoto held a seminar for women interested in starting businesses. By supporting female prospective entrepreneurs, Kyoto hopes to foster providers of social services, and ultimately to invigorate the city's economy. The seminar offered training and practice in three areas: social services, the environment, and everyday living and residential issues. Enthusiasm filled the air at the seminar, which attracted its full capacity of 57 participants, including both homemakers and part-time workers. The city plans to host more of these seminars on a regular basis.

In Yamaguchi Prefecture, women who are considering starting up businesses are receiving broad-based support that includes not only seminars, but also advice and financial assistance. The prefectural authorities say their objective in providing this support is to promote the formation of social ventures that make the most of women's inherent nurturing qualities. In the past five years, over 500 women have attended the seminars, and nearly 80 have started their own businesses.

Social ventures can accomplish things that neither government, big business, nor volunteers alone can do. There are heavy restrictions on government involvement in business activities. Big businesses, meanwhile, are devoted primarily to the pursuit of profits, and aren't nimble. And volunteer groups are limited in their efficiency, productivity, and ability to expand. Social ventures represent an advantageous blend of all of these worlds. Accordingly, their role in promoting the common good can only be expected to grow.