Hello! I’m Ikeda of the secretariat of the SEI Group CSR Foundation(*).

The SEI Group CSR Foundation provides scholarships for international students studying in Japan. In FY 2012, we granted scholarships to 16 students. The other day, inviting four such scholarship students who recently completed their masters programs at the end of March, we held a party to celebrate their two years of hard work and asked them about their research results and future aspirations.

All four are students in science-related majors. What impressed us most was that, although they came from China or Taiwan, they spoke Japanese fluently and explained their research activities passionately. Prior to the party, we showed them around Sumitomo Yuho-en garden in Kyoto, although it was a little bit early to enjoy cherry blossoms. At the party, they also said that they were moved by the beauty of the garden.

Although the four students all had made different career choices, we would be very happy if they utilize what they have learned in Japan and contribute to society.

(*) SEI Group CSR Foundation
The foundation was established in April 2009 for the purposes of contributing to developing human resources and promoting academic activities in various fields both in Japan and overseas. The foundation was certified as a public service corporation in February 2010.
Website：SEI Group CSR Foundation Website

“Selamat pagi”
“Pagi”
With these greetings, the morning begins.

I’m sorry for not introducing myself sooner. I’m Higuchi from Recruitment Group, Human Resources Department, HR & Administration Division.

I’m sure that many of you have often heard of internship programs. Put simply, they give students the opportunity to gain work experience. As part of our social contributions, Sumitomo Electric Industries, Ltd. has for many years offered placements to more than 10 students every year mainly in our research-related groups. On top of that, we have now decided to provide internship opportunities for foreign students too. This year, we received two foreign students in the Human Resources Dept. - one from Indonesia and the other from Pakistan.

▲Internship students

The internship program was held for two weeks from August 27, on the theme of preparing PowerPoint documents to help job-hunting students understand our broad range of business activities. The program began with an overview of our company, followed by vigorous efforts to collect the necessary information, including conversations on the situation in each of our businesses, visits to our plants, interviews with our foreign staff, and a look at our training system. Meanwhile, as the host organization, we were also quite busy preparing for the program, partly because we were not used to receiving foreign students. We needed to ensure that pork-free dishes were available for lunch at our cafeteria. We also needed to make arrangements at short notice to ensure that alcohol would not be served at the get-together. Although they were regarded as adults in their own countries, they were regarded as minors in Japan. Moreover, although people say that globalization is in progress, there are few opportunities in Japan to use English on a daily basis. We were able to learn a lot by communicating with the two students, who were better at English than at Japanese.

They used the PowerPoint documents that they made in accordance with the theme to give their presentation. They performed magnificently; firstly their presentation skills were superb and attracted the audience strongly, and secondly their design was excellent. I later found that both of them had attended lectures on design and presentation at their universities. This served as the base for their outstanding presentation.

This noteworthy internship program ended after two weeks. The two students commented that although the program was very useful and helped them improve their Japanese proficiency, they were sorry that the period was so short. I sincerely hope that they will continue to grow and develop.

Hello, everyone. I am Fujima of Tokyo H&R Group, H&R Section, H&R Administration Dept.

On August 1, 37 students from a prefectural high school in Hiroshima visited us at our Tokyo head office. The visit was part of the Top Leader High School Support Program promoted by the Hiroshima Prefectural Board of Education. The program is designed for students of prefectural high schools designated as top leader high schools to establish independent study habits and adopt a more ambitious attitude toward the realization of their high career goals. The program includes a visit to a university and a company located outside Hiroshima Prefecture, and we began working together on the program a year ago.

The visit began with an explanation of the structure of the manufacturing industry and our businesses, followed by a business game among students. Divided into teams of five or six students, they made designated products of paper and then tried to sell them. The teams competed against one another in sales. Since each team needed to think about the structures of material procurement and mass production, the game served as a good opportunity to experience some actual jobs carried out at a manufacturing company.

The game was characterized by some challenges that are often observed in actual business scenes: the number and type of tools provided in advance varied among the teams, the product sales price and material purchase price fluctuated, and the amount of provided information depended on sales. Although we had slightly worried at first that the game might be too difficult for high school students, all the participants were ambitious enough to work on the game, cooperating well with each other and devising ways and means to solve various problems.

Some of the responses to the questionnaire conducted for the game were along the lines of “The game helped me learn about jobs carried out at a manufacturer,” “Cooperating with group members, I enjoyed learning about society,” and “This is what I’ve never experienced in my daily life. It was impressive.” It seems that the game helped raise their interest in manufacturing.

We would be happy if we could help them understand about manufacturing, which we think they are not familiar with in their daily lives. We look forward to their bright future!

▲ Teams are seriously engaged in the business game!

▲ What price can they sell the products they have made?

Hello, everyone. I’m Sekiguchi of the HR & Administration Group of SEI Optifrontier Co., Ltd.

Every year at our Saitama Works, we provide cooperation with a work experience program for local junior high school students. This year, we received three second-grade junior high school students for two days, August 1 and 2, providing them an opportunity to experience some of the jobs carried out at our company.

The program began with education on safety and business manners, as well as a tour of our optical fiber cable manufacturing plant. This was followed by actual experiences of cross-section measurement testing of drop cables, and slip processing.

Cross-section measurement testing is an important process in which a cross section of a finished cable is displayed on a monitor screen where software programs are used to confirm whether the internal structure of the cable meets the designated standard values. Although there were many items to be checked, the students worked hard on this tough task. I was very impressed with their concentration.

For the slip processing, the students were asked to register the used amount and stock amount of delivered materials. Using a bar-code reader, the students processed the data for hundreds of slips. Understanding the importance of the material flow, they worked on this task steadily and seriously.

It seems that this work experience program served as a good opportunity for the students to think about their future and careers. I hope this experience will help them find what they really want to do in their future. Also, I’d be happy if I can someday welcome the students who experienced the program at our company as new employees. I look forward to such a day.

▲ Students conducting cross-section measurement testing

▲ Student doing a slip processing

▲ Study tour of premises equipment

My name is Kubota, and I am in charge of the Solar Power Generation Project at Nissin Electric Co., Ltd.

Upon request by the Pacific Resource Exchange Center (PREX), our company has cooperated with “Training on Planning Support for the Introduction of Solar Power,” one of Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA)’s various support activities for developing countries. In line with this, 17 trainees from 14 Asian and African countries visited Nissin Electric’s head office in Ukyo-ku, Kyoto City, on February 13.

That day, after attending lectures on photovoltaic power generation systems and power conditioners, the trainees, shivering from the cold, went on a study tour of equipment and products on the premises. In the Q&A session, the trainees enthusiastically asked questions that made me feel their passion. I’ll be truly happy if they can make use of what they learned in this training in their future efforts.

Nissin Electric will continue its active commitment to international contributions through activities like this.

♪ Related link：
Pacific Resource Exchange Center (PREX)　　http://www.prex-hrd.or.jp/index_e.html
International Cooperation Agency (JICA)　　http://www.jica.go.jp/english/index.html

▲ Observing the manufacturing process

Hello, everyone. I am Takahashi; I work for the Hard Materials Development Department　of Sumitomo Electric Hardmetal Corporation.

On December 22, 2011, we hosted a factory tour for five students and their teacher, Mr. Yahagi, from Osaka Prefectural Sumiyoshi High School.

The school has been designated a Super Science High School (SSH) by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and they have been working on chemical vapor deposition of diamond as an SSH research theme. In April last year, we received an inquiry from Mr. Yoshii, a member of the research team, via our website. As a company manufacturing and selling synthetic diamonds, we were pleased to be able to make a contribution to high school science education. This is how our relationship started.

In addition to exchanging e-mails with them, in September I gave a lecture on diamond synthesis at the high school to assist their research activities. We thought it would be difficult for high school students to synthesize diamond, given their constraints in terms of time and equipment. However, they tackled the challenge aggressively, and succeeded!

Having heard that their SSH project was reaching the final phase, we decided to provide them with an opportunity to observe the production facilities at our plants located on the premises of Sumitomo Electric’s Itami Works. This was an exceptional event; ordinary visitors are normally not allowed to enter the plant. On the occasion of the factory tour, the students in turn gave a presentation on their research results, followed by an active question and answer session. They asked many pertinent questions, which indicates how hard they had worked on their diamond synthesis experiments.

The exchanges with these highly-motivated students who are determined to pursue science reminded us of our own high school days, refreshed our minds and further motivated us to carry on our research and development activities.

We wish them every success in all their future endeavors.

▲ Commemorative photo of all participants

♪ Related Link： Osaka Prefectural Sumiyoshi High School Website (Japanese)
　　http://www.osaka-c.ed.jp/sumiyoshi/

Dear All, my name is Venus and I work for Sumitomo Electric International (Singapore) Pte. Ltd. (SEIS).

SEIS started its CSR activities last year. As part of the activities, we invite Japanese junior high school students to our company for one-day occupational experience. This gives the students practical experience of working at a company.

On October 27th, a 14 years old student arrived at our company at 9 o’clock in the morning. After a short orientation about the company’s business operations and a brief overview of what each department does, he was assigned to the Accounting Department, where I work. First, our boss explained major accounting terms and duties of our department. Then, my two colleagues and I gave him practical guidance in turn. We showed him our daily tasks such as data entry using accounting software, dealing with checks and telegraphic transfers, and issuance of receipts and payment vouchers. As each of us used different types of accounting software, he could learn three different ways to do similar work.

Eight hours were too short to see everything at our work site, however, we hope he enjoyed the working experience and gained some knowledge on accounting terms and skills. I also hope that his memory at our company will last long with the happy photos taken at the end of the program with us, the three “o-nee-san” (big sisters in Japanese) who enjoyed this CSR activity.

▲ We enjoyed working with him!

▲ We took a photo in front of SEIS entrance.

▲ Beigoma (traditional Japanese spinning tops)

Hello, I am Takaishi, of the HR & Administration Group, Itami Works.

Every summer vacation, Itami Works holds a hands-on manufacturing class for junior high school students, under the title “Beigoma Championship,” in order to promote interest in manufacturing among children, who will play leading roles in the future. At this year’s third annual event, 20 students from Itami Municipal Itamikita Junior High School participated.

In the Beigoma Championship, participating students are divided into several teams, each of which will create a beigoma (traditional Japanese spinning top) out of paper in small, medium and large sizes, matchsticks and toothpicks. Respective teams compete with one another to see whose beigoma can spin the longest. The greatest objective of the class is to provide individual students with opportunities to consider, through trial and error, how they can prolong the beigoma’s rotation time, which can easily interest junior high school students. Accordingly, the competition results don’t matter much.

In this year’s class, students were grouped into four teams. Each team’s members had one hour in which to work together to create a beigoma that they believed to be the best. Through such manufacturing processes, the class was intended to impart upon students the joy of creating something, the importance of improvement, the significance of analyzing results and devising countermeasures, the spirit of competing as a team, and the knack of collaboration. If participating students were able to learn these matters in any way, we would be extremely happy as the organizers of the class.

We are planning to continue this hands-on manufacturing class next year and onward, while adding further improvements.