The SoftBank Group has been engaged in activities to support recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake. Immediately after the disaster, the Group lent out mobile devices and started collection of relief money. Today, programs are implemented to provide sustained supports to help people in the affected area get on their feet. The Group will continue to examine what it could and should do as a company group offering information communication service and extend supports that cater changing needs of people in the affected area and evacuation shelters.
SoftBank Mobile and SoftBank BB started Charity White in August 2011 and in December 2012 respectively. The program that allows customers to make donation along with their payment of monthly usage charge is aimed to provide sustained support to people in areas affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake.
Under the Charity White program, customers pay 10 yen per month as a donation for two years after application*1 on top of their monthly usage charge and SoftBank Mobile or SoftBank BB pay matching amounts of donation (10 yen per customer) so that the combined total of 20 yen per customer for a month goes to the Central Community Chest of Japan and Asinaga. SoftBank Mobile has opened a dedicated phone number for Charity White to guide SoftBank mobile phone/smartphone*2 users through a simple IVR-based application process for donation. The phone number is set to “*3170” to make it easy to remember as its Japanese phonetic is the same as “everyone” in Japanese, hoping that as many people will join Charity White as possible. The donation is used for supporting children in the affected areas.
Currently more than 1,000,000 customers joined Charity White as of February 7, 2013. The total 76,283,098 yen including the matching donation from SoftBank Mobile and SoftBank BB was donated to the Central Community Chest of Japan and Ashinaga as of March 7, 2013.
It has been over two years since the Great East Japan Earthquake but activities by NPOs supporting recovery efforts in the disaster affected areas are still ongoing. The Charity White website and the Charity White Report on facebook show the regular updates on the activity reports of such NPOs.
Please refer to the links below for more details.
SoftBank Mobile set up a system allowing users to make donations to disaster relief from SoftBank mobile phones and smartphones, and conducted a fundraising drive at SoftBank shops. Smartphone users were able to use the SoftBank Simple Donation app to make a donation together with their mobile phone charges*3. SoftBank Mobile implemented schemes to allow users to donate using a credit card, SoftBank Money, or SoftBank Mileage Points.
Yahoo! JAPAN, Japan's biggest portal site, which is in run by Yahoo Japan Corporation, began accepting online donations through its Emergency Disaster Fund from the evening of March 11, 2011, and as of January 2012, it had raised about 1.37 billion yen through the generosity of the public. Yahoo! JAPAN services such as Yahoo! Auctions and Yahoo! Shopping are also running donation programs.
| Name | Period | Amount donated | Principal recipient | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| SoftBank Mobile Corp., SoftBank BB Corp. | Charity White | August 1, 2011 –*4 | 76,283,098 yen*5 |
|
| SoftBank Mobile Corp. | Great East Japan Earthquake Donation Project | March – July 2011 | 218,158,515 yen*6 |
|
| Yahoo Japan Corporation | March 2011 – January 31, 2012 | 1,371,453,800 yen*7 |
|
|
| Carview Corporation | 13 March – April 30, 2011 | 4,208,000 yen |
|
|
| SOFTBANK Players Corp. | Through March 31, 2011 | 78,000,000 yen |
|
|
SoftBank Mobile, SoftBank BB, Yahoo Japan and SOFTBANK GIFT issue Fukko Shien SortBank Coupon, which is exchanged with Housing Eco-points given by the Land and Transportation Ministry and Environment Agency.
The Housing Eco-point is given to those who newly built or remodeled their houses damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake with energy-saving features. One point of Housing Eco-point is exchanged with 1 yen of the Fukko Shien SoftBank Coupon with which people can pay their purchase at FUKKO DEPARTMNET, an online department store that collectively sells local specialties and delicacies from various shops and producers in Tohoku region, and at SoftBank shops in the affected areas. Yahoo Japan Corporation serves as the secretariat of FUKKO DEPARTMENT.
With Fukko Shien SoftBank Coupon and the FUKKO DEPARTMENT, the SoftBank Group will continue to support revitalization of economy in the affected areas.
Please refer to the links below for more details.
SoftBank supports TOMODACHI Summer 2013 SoftBank Leadership Program, which invites up to 100 high school students from Iwate, Miyagi and Fukushima prefectures affected by the Great East Japan Earthquake for free to a 3-week program at the University of California, Barkley in July 2013, as the Company supports the objectives of TOMODACHI, a Japan-US exchange initiative led by the U.S. Embassy in Japan and U.S-Japan Council, a non-profit educational organization. This Program started in 2012. Many of the alumni of the Program in 2012 are trying to make use of what they learnt from the Program for the benefit of their local communities and have been demonstrating leadership in various occasions.
Right after the Earthquake, the strong ties between Japan and the US were demonstrated in Operation Tomodachi, the joint effort by Japan Self-Defense Forces and US military to provide relief to the affected area. To carry over the ties to the next generation, TOMODACHI initiative was established. The Program, a part of TOMODACHI, was designed to broaden the horizon of high school students in the affected areas through cross cultural experience and English class and help them set a vision and goal for the future. The Program sincerely hopes the students ride out the difficult time with a perspective for the future.
The Company provides financial supports to the Program for high school students in the affected areas. During the Program at the University of California, Barkley from July 22, 2013 to August 12, 2013 (tentative), the Program participants will study leadership and community contribution while staying at the dorm. Also off campus they will learn first-hand about the local people, community and culture by joining volunteer activities and staying at local family's home.
Please refer to the links below for details.
Donations of relief money and aid by SoftBank and its Group companies and individually by SoftBank's Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son are used to provide funding to organizations such as local governments, NGOs, public service corporations and NPOs to help restore the disaster-affected area and its people to normality as quickly as possible.
| Name | Amount donated | Recipient / Amount | |
|---|---|---|---|
| SoftBank Corp. | 1 billion yen | Japanese Red Cross Society | 400 million yen |
| Central Community Chest of Japan | 400 million yen | ||
| Ashinaga | 200 million yen | ||
| Yahoo Japan Corporation | 300 million yen | Japanese Red Cross Society | 100 million yen |
| NIED | 100 million yen | ||
| Central Community Chest of Japan | 100 million yen | ||
| Fukuoka SoftBank HAWKS Corp., Fukuoka SOFTBANK HAWKS Marketing Corp. | 35 million yen | Do for Japan from Fukuoka | |
| GungHo Online Entertainment Inc. | 1,000 million yen | Japanese Red Cross Society | |
| IDC Frontier Inc. | Approx. 50 million yen | UNICEF | |
| NC Japan K.K. | 500 million yen | Japanese Red Cross Society | |
| Carview Corporation | 20 million yen | Japanese Red Cross Society | |
| Vector Inc. | 5 million yen | Japanese Red Cross Society | |
| Masayoshi Son (individually) | 10 billion | Japanese Red Cross Society | 1 billion yen |
| Central Community Chest of Japan | 1 billion yen | ||
| UNICEF Japan, others | 600 million yen | ||
| Direct donations to affected municipalities | 3.4 billion yen | ||
| Great East Japan Earthquake Recovery Initiatives Foundation | 4 billion yen | ||
| All remuneration received as SoftBank Group's representative until retirement | |||
Copyright © SoftBank Corp. All rights reserved.
