⁠- The Sustainability Promotion Division was established in February 2021 under direct control of the President. This means that you yourself will be the leader in promoting the TOMY Group’s sustainability and CSR. Could you tell us about your thoughts in establishing the medium-term sustainability targets and KPIs?

President Kojima:The targets and KPIs were formulated to be an action phase in achieving our sustainability vision of becoming friends with children around the world.
The TOMY Group’s founding philosophy and the idea of coexistence and coprosperity that lies at its core will not change in the future, but on the other hand, we need to ensure that our products and services keep pace with social environments and trends, and also need to vastly change the internal organization and systems we have to achieve this. I would like the TOMY Group to shift into action as a whole with these points firmly in mind.
Ensuring confidence and safety, which is connected to our first social responsibility pillar of Commitment to Quality Manufacturing, has always been and will always be our greatest focus. By continuing to create safe and quality products that contribute to the healthy growth of children, and products that can excite and enrich the lives of people even after they become adults, we can build a relationship of trust with our customers over many years that will consequently lead to sustainable growth of the TOMY Group. Furthermore, as values continue to diversify, there is especially strong demand for universal-design toys. Moving forward, we will continue to deliver ethical products and services⁠—that consider diversity, human rights, the environment and other sustainability factors⁠—to everyone around the world who appreciates the benefits of play, what we call asobi.^*

*asobi is a Japanese word for “play”, “amusement”, “diversion”, “pastime” and more.

- As values diversify, there is indeed an increasing demand from society for universal-design toys that can be enjoyed by a variety of different customers. What are your thoughts about diversity in human resources?

President Kojima:The active participation of diverse personnel is a material issue in our second pillar of social responsibility, Sound Management. TOMY has set targets for ratio of female managers and employment of persons with disabilities in its medium-term targets and KPIs, but those are not the final goals. By creating environments where diverse personnel from different backgrounds and with different characteristics can work together, engage with one another and be themselves as they participate actively, we can reflect diverse viewpoints in our products and services. We must not forget that this is the world that lies beyond numerical medium-term targets and KPIs.

- The third pillar of Coexisting with Society and the Environment is a highly pressing global issue throughout all of society. Could you tell us about the Group’s future direction on this?

President Kojima:We can’t only think about how to face social and environmental challenges —it’s how we take action that is important. Within the global market, progress is already being made toward conserving resources used in packaging and recycling products. The TOMY Group must also change the way things are done from the design stages in order to recycle and effectively use limited resources as much as possible. This will help make it possible to protect the environment so children can smile in play 100 years from now.

To achieve our sustainability vision of becoming friends with children around the world, it’s important for the TOMY Group to come together, and for each employee to gain a deeper understanding of sustainability and CSR, so that they consider what can be done in their own daily work and take action. To make this happen, we have created sustainability and CSR training opportunities for all TOMY Group employees. Going forward, we will aim for our determination to take form in products and services that reach customers and have a positive impact on society.

⁠- In the new medium-term management plan (FY2021-FY2023), Sustainability and CSR initiatives have become one of the six overall strategy pillars. This means that sustainability will be promoted as part of managing the company.
The concept of asobi that has appeared for the first time in the new medium-term management plan also seems to have a link to the material issue of creating new products, services, and IP. Could you tell us about what is embodied in this word?

Director Tomiyama:I believe asobi is a driving force for societal innovation. Any kind of innovation needs to be brought to life before one can know whether it’s the right answer or not. It is a problem-solving activity with a creative marketing perspective, where an answer could never be found in reverse. This activity is called asobi. The TOMY Group has been doing business for many years based on the concept of asobi, both consciously and unconsciously.
Until now, when we actually speak about the TOMY Group’s philosophy or business, it was based on the physical objects known as toys. Yet the value we provide is the excitement, surprise, emotion, and smiles that toys generate, and the creativity to fascinate people. Our creativity is extremely special. You don’t know if a move or an answer is correct until you try it. We’ve been doing it for many years, and know that an answer can’t be found through simple reverse or cumulative calculation. This creative activity is exactly what asobi is.
To reaffirm this, we have placed the concept of asobi at the center of our Group’s value. And in the future, we would like to help build a better society with our creativity—our asobi—in other formats besides just toys. This is why in our new medium-term management plan we have redefined the value we provide as asobi, which is also the concept behind toys.

- What kind of future would the TOMY Group like to see achieved through asobi?

Director Tomiyama:By expanding our business from providing toys to providing asobi, it allows us to support more diverse regions, diverse consumers, and diverse needs and purposes. The approach has wide potential, such as the use of digital technology, and working with platform operators or co-creation partners. Also, by using our expansion into asobi to collaborate more than ever with businesses that have cutting-edge technologies and high added information value in different industries, we should also be able to approach social issues with innovation and ingenuity rather than thinking of things as an extension of what we’ve always done. The TOMY Group will create a better world and a better future through the power of asobi—the excitement, surprise, emotion, and smiles—for everyone from children to adults.