Tackling Social Issues through Business: Japan

The south Asian nation of Bangladesh.

Despite years of remarkable economic growth, this society still faces various issues.

I would like to put first these helpless women.

With no education, with poor education.

Deprived by their husbands, divorced by their husbands.

One facility opened to assist such women is this factory...

Where they receive a stable income making baby clothes for export to Japan.

Now my children can eat properly.

Everybody here is so kind.
Nobody abuses us.

The initiative is the work of a Japanese social business network.

We use business as a means
to address various social issues.

The organization develops business models that respond to the needs of individual communities.

And its roster now includes ventures tackling issues such as poverty, prejudice, and pollution in some 16 countries and regions worldwide.

One key feature is the way each project is founded as an independent company that aims for self-sufficiency...

As the staff behind each venture dedicate themselves to tackling a specific set of social issues.

My targets are poverty and child labor.

I aim to help people escaping violence,
and turn their despair to hope.

Their solutions come in the form of in-depth business models.

This time on Sharing the Future, we follow a unique network tackling social issues through business projects around the world.

Fukuoka is a major city in southwest Japan.

It's the home of Borderless Japan, a firm tackling social issues around the world.

The teams behind the firm's many social businesses are based in this office.

I work on Japanese classes for
foreign technical interns in Japan.

To promote green energy in Japan,
we lease out solar panels.

Though each project receives initial seed funding from the group, they are operated as independent companies, managerially and financially.

Borderless Japan was founded by Taguchi Kazunari.

We have no private offices,
not even for the CEO.

I hate working cloistered away!

And through its unique approach, the firm is seeking to transform wider business norms.

We only deal in social businesses.

But as long as it's a social business,
we're happy to work in any field.

A social business is a company that works to address social issues, from poverty, to prejudice, pollution, and more.

Taguchi's company operates some 47 such businesses in 16 countries and regions around the world: including computer classes for women in deprived parts of India,

another project providing stable incomes for small organic herb farmers in Myanmar, and a soap factory in Ecuador, giving work to former women prisoners.

And collectively, these businesses are having a significant global impact.

It can be difficult for lone individuals
to achieve a large social impact.

So, we gather together a large team
of people who want to improve society.

And they drive each other on to
achieve solutions with a major impact.

And maintain that impact long term.

The company provides a platform that enables individual ventures to be independent but not isolated.

Having first taken an interest in social issues in his college days, Taguchi Kazunari founded Borderless Japan in 2007, initially as a real estate brokerage...

But with a portion of profits set aside for donation to social initiatives.

Through his work, he realized that difficulties finding accommodation in Japan were leaving many non-Japanese lonely and isolated.

In response, he launched a new business providing houseshares aimed equally at Japanese and international tenants.

Charity had seemed like the only way
for our business to contribute socially.

But I realized another approach: Businesses can propose alternative
solutions to longstanding issues.

Two years after founding his company, he shifted the emphasis to launching businesses specifically designed to tackle social issues.

Bangladesh is one country where just such a project is in action.

Despite rapid economic growth in recent years, poverty remains a major problem: especially when it comes to employment opportunities for women with no educational background.

The local project provides work for many such women.

It's based in Ashulia, on the outskirts of the capital, Dhaka.

It's a garment factory, specializing in baby clothes.

The people who come here, particularly helpless people: Physically vulnerable, single mothers, divorcees...

Some socially vulnerable people, also.

Instead of choosing staff based on prior work experience, the factory prioritizes those for whom personal circumstances or physical disability have been a barrier to finding work.

I'm so happy to have found a job
despite my visual impairment.

Now my daughter can go to school.

This job has let me electrify my home,
and buy furniture, too.

Back in Fukuoka— Nakamura Masato is the instigator behind the factory in Bangladesh.

As CEO of a baby apparel-focused company in Taguchi's group, each morning he's among the first to arrive in the office.

I'm usually here first if I don't
take my son to daycare.

I work better in the morning.

Nakamura's focus has long been on one social issue in particular.

Addressing poverty in Bangladesh,
especially child labor, is my goal.

Across Bangladesh, some 1.7 million children are drawn into child labor to support their family finances.

Nakamura witnessed this firsthand on visits to the country, and one scene in particular has stayed with him.

I visited a coconut factory.

And there were kids of four or five,
just cracking coconuts all day.

They can't go to school.

And when they grow up, their kids
will end up working just like they did.

It's an inescapable cycle of poverty,
that people can't beat on their own.

He founded the baby apparel business in 2017, with a team of four Japanese and five Bangladeshis.

- Are these two different?
- Yes, just the base color.

Oh yes, I see.

Their garments are designed in Japan and manufactured in Bangladesh, primarily for the Japanese market.

With no brick-and-mortar stores, they leverage online retail, with a focus on gifts for newborns.

This is the shipping room.

Nakamura chose baby apparel as the surest way to offer a decent, steady wage.

Babies are born constantly year-round,
which means steady demand for gifts.

Baby fashion isn't so seasonable,
and it's not really subject to trends.

They also offer personalized garments...

with another innovation to facilitate hand-me-downs.

You just cut off the name tag,
and pass it on to the next user.

Within two years, the business was turning a steady profit, and it now brings in over 200 million yen a year.

What is it that drives Nakamura on?

I want to create a society
in which anyone can work.

And shape their own life, regardless
of where they were born.

But for Nakamura, too, the road to this point was far from plain sailing.

He first joined the then-fledgling Borderless Japan straight out of university, and took part in planning Bangladesh-based ventures based around products like bread and honey.

Neither was successful, but the lowest point was his next project, another Bangladesh-based clothing startup.

I almost bankrupted the whole company
through the losses from that project.

The brand was based around matching outfits, and to raise awareness they opened multiple stores.

But the plan backfired, leaving the new project 300 million yen in debt.

Not only did the plan fail to create
stable employment in Bangladesh.

It also upended other new projects
that were just starting to grow.

Nakamura was ready to quit, but CEO Taguchi stepped in with some much-needed words of support.

"Do you let things end in failure,
or do you try to use this experience?"

"Don't waste this. You can try again."

That's the amazing thing about
this group, and about Taguchi-san.

And Taguchi has been there for Nakamura through every stage of his journey.

He's an interesting guy. At first, he
said he wanted to be like Bill Gates.

He's so quick to absorb information
on all sorts of social trends.

Even when things are tough, he wants
to keep going for the social good.

And I think that's very precious.

That opportunity to learn from trial and error is a unique feature of Borderless Japan's business model.

It centers around an innovative system for circulating funds between group companies.

After recouping their own investments, each company contributes surplus profits to a shared reserve.

While proposed new ventures can draw up to 15 million yen in seed funding from this pool.

And besides funding, senior staffers also share the know-how accrued through prior endeavors.

The idea isn't just to underwrite failure,
but to create a safety net.

That lets staff take on new challenges
without bearing all the risk themselves.

If the funds run out, a project is shelved.

But with no need to repay the investment, teams are free to try new ventures.

Meanwhile, if a project achieves sustainable profits, their surplus goes back into the shared pool.

Our model is not really about repaying
an obligation to the group.

But paying it forward to later ventures.

And key to each companies success is the partnership they can forge with colleagues overseas.

Nakamura's Bangladeshi counterpart is factory manager Mohammad Aminul Islam.

Nakamura-san and me basically both have the same dream.

Basically, we are on the same boat.

Having previously worked for an NGO tackling poverty and education, Islam was drawn to this project by Nakamura's vision.

Going back to my childhood, I used to see many poor people, helpless people in my neighborhood.

I can fulfill my dream, to have a beautiful Bangladesh, beautiful society, where women will live with dignity, with respect.

But the baby apparel venture has also faced its share of issues.

We shouldn't be able to see this.

The lining is visible from the outside.

Recently, the launch of this new dress was delayed due to defective items...

Forcing Nakamura to call an urgent meeting.

How things will be easier for them, to make a better product— In a very little way, not in a very big way, basically.

It's very difficult to change the silhouette, right?

And then, I think that Shorif or you needs to judge it: "This is impossible for us to make it."

We can only make easy products.

That's why the price— also low.

If the products themselves are too basic, they'll be difficult to sell for a fee that guarantees workers a living wage.

I'm not saying that basically we can't make designed or complicated products.

But how to make complicated products in an easier way.

When we are developing a sample, at that time, is it possible to fix some standards?

Until now, product samples had been entrusted to an external partner.

But after today's discussion, they resolve to try out samples on the actual production line and set some unified standards.

Thank you for arranging this meeting.

We can cooperate.

Right, shall we wrap things up?

They always end their meetings in the same way.

OK, let's do it.

We are family! Number one!

Be cheerful! Make friends!

Oh wow, new lines.

And regular discussions like these have brought ongoing updates to their approach.

Including a training program to develop workers' skills, and a pay scale that rewards staff as their sewing improves.

Today we want to hear your opinions.

They also pay attention to workers' own suggestions on ways to improve the workplace.

To accommodate single mothers, they launched a daycare facility.

As well as after-school classes for workers' children.

We meet one employee whose such innovations have enabled to take charge of her own life.

Nasima Akhter is in her fourth year with the company.

I have one daughter. My husband
left when I was six months pregnant.

Though she started out doing unskilled tasks, she gradually learned her craft and worked her way up to the rank of seamstress.

It has really improved my life.

In Bangladesh, with social welfare limited, the only way for women like Akhter to secure an income is to find a job.

She currently lives with her mother, her religious scholar brother, and her five-year-old daughter, Mafisa.

Did you have dinner?

Nasima is the family's main breadwinner.

Look! Look!

And after years of struggling to provide for her daughter...

This year has seen another positive development.

We got her into school.

I feel quite positive moving forward.

Working in the factory has given Akhter both confidence and peace of mind.

I love the working environment here.

The managers are fantastic.
They're like parents to me.

I want my daughter to study
and have a happy life.

Five years since the factory opened, it now has some 300 workers.

We are family! Number one!

Be cheerful! Make friends!

- It's been like five years, right?
- Yes.

I feel proud, you know.

I feel honored.

I really appreciate it.

What do you think - next five years?

Thousands of women will be with us.

Seriously, think about that- how we can deliver jobs.

One solution is to set up a dormitory.

If we make a big factory, but it's still only in the neighborhood...

One solution also, we could have a bus.

I would like to talk about this kind of topic face to face.

Before any project like this can go ahead, Borderless Japan has one crucial step.

Thank you.
First, let's look at today's approvals.

This "CEOs' meeting" gathers the heads of all current group companies.

And each new proposal must gain the approval of everyone present.

Does this business match our ethos?

And will it have a real social impact,
and address a social issue?

Everyone looks very closely at those.

Today's hopeful is Haraguchi Eiko.

For five years, she was at the helm of another poverty-battling social business in Bangladesh, based around leather goods.

But having handed the healthy business over to another colleague, she has her sights set on a new challenge.

Burkina Faso in West Africa has
many internally displaced people.

I want to help them find employment.

In fact, it was a trip to Burkina Faso as a college student that first got Haraguchi interested in global issues.

The women have such special smiles.

And despite widespread poverty,
people seemed to enjoy their lives.

But in recent years, armed insurgency and terrorism have caused a growing refugee crisis.

I aim to help people escaping violence,
and turn their despair to hope.

Haraguchi delivers her proposal to the CEOs' meeting.

Many women fleeing violence face
financial and mental health challenges.

To address that I want to provide
a safe place of work, a steady income.

And a new sense of community.

Haraguchi's plan is to make shea butter from the nuts of abundant local shea trees.

With the presentation over, the other CEOs give their own input.

One concern I have is fluctuations
in the price of shea nuts.

And also dollar price fluctuations.

My figures are based on high nut prices.

And about the dollar price,
of course that's hard to predict.

But I've calculated to allow for 40%
profits even if the yen gets stronger.

- Thank you! I'm right behind you!
- Thank you!

Will they have to pick the shea nuts?
Or will you buy them in?

It's often not clear who owns
the land with shea trees on it.

We don't want to risk any disputes,
so at first we plan to buy them in.

Time to decide. Can you put your
hand up if you approve this proposal?

- So that's everyone. Let's do it!
- Thank you so much.

With the plan approved, the next step is to work with in-house financial and legal experts to push things forward.

A few weeks later, Haraguchi makes one last stop at the office before her departure for Burkina Faso.

Do you want to see a map?

Not everywhere is on Google Maps,
so I have to carry this.

Here is the airport,
and here's the town center.

Wish me luck!

At the end of her last day, her colleagues gather downstairs to see her off.

Thanks everybody.

Good luck Haraguchi-san!

Good luck! Safe travels!

I want to build a community there
like we have here.

Thanks everybody!

While it's hard to eliminate social issues,
it's important not to just abandon them.

That's a key point for me.

I want to expand our system worldwide.

And as we find challenges in various
places, we'll tackle them together.

My main aim is to forge
those kinds of partnerships.