Message from the President
Message from the President
Our goal is to be close to and connect with people and communities worldwide, fostering a society where smiles last forever.
Tomokuni Tsuji
President and CEO
Sanrio Company, Ltd.
Since its founding in 1960, Sanrio has been following its corporate philosophy of Minna Nakayoku (Getting Along Together) through business activities that deliver smiles around the world. Everyone getting along together sounds like something everyone in every country and every age hopes for, but I think Sanrio is unique for making such an aspiration its corporate philosophy.
Over the years, our employees have deepened their understanding and appreciation of this corporate philosophy. Still, the reality is that few of our employees actually feel that they embody this philosophy in their daily work. Recognizing that, upon assuming the position of President in 2020, I worked with employees to examine the Vision, Mission, and Values (VMV) that would guide us in more concretely putting this corporate philosophy into practice, and we officially adopted the VMV in 2021.
Our new vision of “One World, Connecting Smiles.”' expresses our desire to apply our core business philosophy of “getting along together” to “everyone” and to create “a world of smiles” that transcends borders, languages, ages, and genders and forms a circle of happiness that spreads around the world.
In fulfilling our vision, we want to work with a variety of partners to bring even bigger smiles to everyone around the world and connect smiles with smiles. To do this, our aim is to evolve into a global entertainment company that transforms every moment into a smile, is close to all people and societies around the world, protects the global environment, and realizes the development of societies where people's smiles will last forever.
Sustainability-conscious management is essential to fulfilling our vision. In 2023, we identified 10 items of Sanrio Materiality that we consider vital to resolving in the next 10 years. We consider addressing these items as part of our mission to co-create smiles that will continue for generations, and we will use Sanrio's unique capabilities and approach to society to resolve these issues.
We will communicate with people through social contribution activities using the intellectual property of our characters, entertainment, and the Sanrio Nakayoku Project to encourage people, even if just a little, to smile and create positive feelings. At the same time, we will leverage the creative capabilities we have developed and our position in the industry to promote initiatives that will lead to the expansion and growth of the creative industry as a whole, including support for internal and external creators and activities to foster creativity in children.
We recognize the important role that education will take in our materiality measures. Education is essential for human advancement and forms the foundation of communication between people. We believe that if we can apply Sanrio's unique business to education to generate smiles in the education process, then we can contribute to the enrichment of people's lives and happiness.
Sanrio has been very successful at spreading smiles to many people, but we also know that the changing times require that we play a wider role for us to continue our success. Being close to people is Sanrio characters' great strength that we can leverage to address Sanrio Materiality. I believe that bringing our characters to a wider audience will give us a platform for communicating the meaning and importance of sustainability activities.
As we pursue our vision of “One World, Connecting Smiles.” we will encourage everyone to express their thoughts and feelings and continue learning as we do our part to create a society where all people can shine their brightest. As always, we will be an example of a business that acts responsibly to protect the environment and human rights.
Tomokuni Tsuji
President and CEO
Sanrio Company, Ltd.
June 2024
