TOMY Group SDGs Friends Logo
*1
The TOMY Group, which has been providing children with
Asobi (play) for 100 years, aims to fulfill its sustainability vision of becoming friends with children around the world.
Children across the world come from diverse backgrounds. For example, they may live in areas that are hotter or colder than Japan, or have different cultures and customs...
How can we become friends with children around the world? In October 2023, we held the TOMY Kids’ Symposium 2023, the second such event (the first of which was held in 2018) in which we seriously discussed social issues and the future with children.
This logo symbolizes our hope to fulfill both a sustainable society and the growth of the TOMY Group by helping diverse people become friends through our products, services, and other business activities, and by taking action hand-in-hand with each other.
Fifteen elementary school participants (grade 3 to 6) discussed about the topics with TOMY staff and CANVAS members, and expressed many opinions.
Their ideas and thoughts will be used to help determine TOMY Group material issues (materiality) for
sustainability from FY2024
to FY2026.*
Here are some of their
ideas and
impressions.
What exactly is a friend? How did you become friends? What kinds of games do you play with your friends? We asked the children to tell us their thoughts about friends.
What exactly is a friend?
- Someone you can trust
- Someone who is fun to be with
- Someone you have things in common with
- Someone you are connected to in mind and body
- Someone you care about
What do you do
with your friends?
- Soccer
- Dodgeball
- Playing tag
- Cops and robbers
- Othello
- Card games
- Video games
- Making our own sugoroku board games
As you can see, the children enjoy doing many different things in various places and at various times, such as playing outside during school breaks and after school, and playing video games over the Internet at their own homes!
The world is getting hotter and hotter due to global warming. As a result, the polar ice caps are melting, seawater is increasing, and land is shrinking in some areas. In addition, heavy rainfall, flooding, and forest fires are also becoming more common.
Japan, too, is now experiencing very hot summer days. The average annual temperature in Japan has been steadily rising while undergoing a series of fluctuations. Seen from a long-term perspective, the average temperature has been rising at a rate of 1.35ºC* per 100 years.
The TOMY Group is promoting Eco Toys, with the aim of creating toys that are kind to the Earth’s environment inspired by our 100 Years to Play! initiative.
*Annual average temperature data for Japan, Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism
- Learn about the language and culture of friends from that country
- Find out what you and your friend both like, and what you have in common
- Take some Japanese toys and play with them together
- Play games that don’t need us to understand each other’s languages (Gesture games, etc. )
There are an estimated 11.6 million people with physical and mental disabilities in Japan. While only a rough figure, that means around 9.2% people have some kind of disability. *
There are many people with different disabilities, including those who use a wheelchair, those with limited hand movement, those with visual and hearing impairments, and those who are highly sensitive to loud noises or bright light.
The TOMY Group is currently developing accessible-design toys that can also be enjoyed by children with visual or hearing disabilities. In addition, we have been promoting universal design initiatives so that as many children as possible can enjoy playing with our toys.
* 2023 White Paper on Persons with Disabilities, Cabinet Office, Government of Japan
*We focused on children in a wheelchair to make the topic easier to grasp.
- Everyone could play together in wheelchairs
- Play games, video games, and other things that don’t need movement!
- Play Othello, Shogi, and other games you can play using your brain
- Give your friends the advantage when playing together
There are many countries where most children don’t have toys.
People in some of these countries and regions have to flee from war and cannot live in safety.
Also, in some countries, children collect and sell trash to earn money or work in factories because their families are hard to make ends meet.
Children in these countries struggle to survive on a daily basis and are unable to go to school. One in six children in the world lives on less than $2.15 a day (about 320 yen). *
*Global Trends in Child Monetary Poverty
According to International Poverty Lines, (UNICEF website)
- Enjoy farming together as if it were a game! (Digging game, a game to see who can carry the crops faster, making things with plant vines)
- Ask my friends to teach me how to grow crops
- Make toys from leftover parts of trees and crops! SDGs!
- Build a den together using large areas of land and nature
By children living on the Moon, it doesn’t mean aliens. Although children have not yet been to the Moon, research is being conducted on how humans can live on the Moon. Convenience stores, houses, food, and schools are commonplace on Earth. Would it be the same for life on the Moon, though?
We know that there is water on the Moon, just like here on Earth. This water could be used to grow crops and produce electricity and other forms of energy.
- Play tag (it would be fun as gravity as the Moon’s gravity is different from the Earth’s!)
- I would show some games and toys from Earth
- Share ideas to live on the Moon and build towns together
- Create a “Moon” version of The Game of Life with the Moon’s features on it
- Chemistry experiments using water from the Moon!
JAXA Licensed ProductsAll responsibility for this product rests with TOMY Company, Ltd.
We intend to use the precious ideas provided by the children at
the symposium to
continue promoting
our activities and fulfill our vision of becoming friends with
children
around the world through Asobi (play).
