Business in Resolving Social Issues

Promotion Structure

The Yamato Group has established a Local Community Subcommittee, chaired by the executive officer in charge of promoting sustainability. The Local Community Subcommittee shares information on initiatives that contribute to business in the resolution of social issues and examines the creation of an internal environment for creating businesses that resolve social issues.

Initiatives to Solve Social Issues

Tackling the SDGs Together with Business Partners

At Yamato Transport, sales drivers engaged in front-line business operations are in direct contact with customers. We have introduced a system in which sales drivers communicate with customers and enter details of customer feedback and problems into a mobile app. The information entered is linked to corporate division systems. Inquiries from customers regarding SDGs-related Yamato Group initiatives and projects have been increasing in recent years, due to growing public interest in social issues. Through this system, the Yamato Group examines and formulates strategies to address customer problems and issues, and engages in proposal activities to solve social issues.

Tackling the SDGs Together with Business Partners

Example: Support for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Improving Logistics Efficiency

To contribute to the reduction of emissions in supply chains by improving our customers’ logistics processes (Scope 3), the Yamato Group implements processes aimed at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through comprehensive guidance, from calculations to understand the current status of GHG emissions, to reviewing logistics to make reductions and the verification of results.
For details, please refer to Open in New WindowSupport for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Improving Logistics Efficiency (Japanese only).

Initiatives Undertaken with Local Governments and Partners in Communities

Partnership Agreements with Community Members

To be a partner that contributes to solving issues in communities, the Yamato Group concludes partnership agreements with local governments and partners in communities and undertakes initiatives that will contribute to solving social issues.

Breakdown of initiatives by type(as of March 31, 2023)
Number of local governments signing agreements Number of projects
Watchover assistance 194 49
Shopping assistance 14 14
Produce support 16 61
Tourism support 14 43
Event support 5 43
Disaster support 171 59
Passenger / cargo mixed transportation 13 17
Hometown tax donations (furusato nozei) 27 153
Environmental conservation 2 7
Medical care 2 17
Comprehensive support 166 40
Other community support 23 123
Total 647 626

Watching over the elderly

As of March 31, 2023, we have signed 194 agreements related to watching over the elderly with local governments and related organizations nationwide. Against the backdrop of social issues such as the increasing number of elderly people living alone and a lack of people who are watching over people in communities, we provide the Kuroneko Monitoring Service HelloLight Visit Plan using IoT light bulbs. You can watch over your family member living separately simply by replacing the light bulbs in the bathroom, hallway or other places in the home of the family member with HelloLight bulbs. The monitoring service is used not only by individual customers but also real estate companies that seek to enhance the value of real estate. Certain local governments use the Kuroneko Monitoring Service in their elderly monitoring services.
Approximately 10,000 households use the service as of August 31, 2023.

Overall image of the service

Lifestyle Support Utilizing Community Hubs

Nekosapo Station
Supporting the lives of local people through Nekosapo Station

To enable people living in communities to live a safer, more comfortable life, the Yamato Group opened a Nekosapo Station in Tama, Tokyo in 2016. Subsequently the Group opened Nekosapo Stations in Matsudo, Chiba, Fujisawa, Kanagawa, Sendai, Miyagi, Fukuyama, Hiroshima, and Machida, Tokyo. The Nekosapo Station disseminates local information, hosts social events and provides opportunities to create a sense of community among people of different generations. It also provides services that support everyday life, including household chores and shopping. In this way, the Nekosapo Stations help people in communities live safe and comfortable lives.
Through these initiatives, we aim to contribute to building environments where everyone can continue to live in communities that are familiar to them without worries and also contribute to the sustainable, sound development of communities as a concierge in communities.

Nekosapo Station, Greenade Nagayama
Nekosapo Station, Greenade Nagayama

Passenger / Cargo Mixed Transportation Initiatives

Yamato Transport is working with local governments and bus companies to maintain the bus route networks in mountainous areas where depopulation and aging are progressing by introducing passenger/cargo mixed transportation (simultaneously transporting passengers and cargo together), and improving lifestyle services for local residents by improving the efficiency of logistics.

Advantages of Mixed Transportation

Local customers
Since the bus route networks in depopulated areas are maintained and stable use of route buses can continue, residents can access facilities such as hospitals and supermarkets, stabilizing their lifestyle base. TA-Q-BIN services also become more convenient, since sales drivers stay in the area for longer periods of time, enabling longer collection deadlines. It is also expected to have a beneficial effect on traffic safety and the environment by reducing the number of vehicles running in the region.

Departure ceremony in Nobeoka city
Departure ceremony in Nobeoka city

Bus companies
Transporting TA-Q-BIN in the free spaces of local buses can provide new revenue streams that enable bus companies to maintain their bus networks and increase productivity.

Yamato Transport has launched passenger / cargo mixed transportation services in cooperation with Miyazaki Kotsu Co., Ltd. and local government agencies. This initiative has increased the length of time that sales drivers can stay in villages, enabling them to respond to requests such as wanting to change delivery times, and allows consideration of other services such as shopping support and watching over senior citizens at the time of delivery.

In 2017, we also introduced route buses equipped with dedicated cool boxes. We are also contributing to the expansion of sales channels for local specialties, such as by quickly delivering the local specialty Nishimera salmon overseas while maintaining freshness.

Revitalization of Local Economies through Support for Shopping

We are engaging in trials with Sapporo Drug Store Co., Ltd. wherein satellite stores are set up in Yamato Transport sales offices in Hokkaido (Okushiri, Hokkaido Horonobe, Tokoro, and Oumu) to support the lifestyles of and a shopping environment for people who live in rural areas where the market population is declining in line with the falling birthrate and aging population.
Employees of Yamato Transport act as sales representatives within the sales offices for items such as daily commodities. Additionally, as an initiative to help shoppers who face difficulties buying daily essentials, we have been operating mobile sales vehicles, utilizing pickup and delivery vehicles from the Okushiri sales office, since August 2022. We are carrying out trials for mobile sales of products carried by Sapporo Drug Store Co., Ltd. in districts where people facing difficulties with shopping live.

Satellite stores
Satellite stores
Mobile sales vehicles utilizing pickup and delivery vehicles
Mobile sales vehicles utilizing pickup and delivery vehicles

Building a Sustainable Network for the Transportation of Pharmaceutical Products

Maintaining a network for the transportation of pharmaceutical products is becoming a serious social issue in areas whose population is aging or decreasing. In hilly and mountainous areas, in particular, a new issue is emerging: patients do not have any way of receiving prescription drugs even if they do have access to online medical care during the COVID-19 pandemic. To solve this issue, Yamato Transport conducted demonstration experiments to examine the economic feasibility of using drones to transport the medical devices needed by local medical facilities and prescription drugs to the homes of patients in Wake-cho, Okayama and Naka-cho, Tokushima.

Building a Sustainable Network for the Transportation of Pharmaceutical Products