Business opportunity and food education in Japan
Abstract
Purpose
This qualitative research aims to examine through their voices, why Japanese teachers who invited corporate lessons into their classrooms first became involved with business people and how their perceptions towards business may have changed.
Design/methodology/approach
Out of 275 food companies in Japan, three leading companies were selected as cases. Their corporate websites were examined to identify the participating public schools and the teachers who had been recruited to evaluate their experiences with corporate programs.
Findings
Teachers learned about corporate programs through governmental sources and direct mailings from the companies. They were motivated to use corporate lessons because of food education, creative experience-based activity, and a newly created school subject termed “integrated study”, which became a great receptor for corporate programs. This study suggested that corporate lessons positively changed the perceptions of teachers toward the business community.
Research limitations/implications
Because this is a case study, the findings may not be generalized to other situations or other countries. Schools that may have corporate programs but refused to be included on company websites were not counted because this research relied on corporate websites to identify participating schools.
Practical implications
More companies should consider public schools for effective CSR communication channels, and more strategic CSR is imperative to capture the battleground of the “integrated study” market.
Originality/value
No previous study has examined food education as social responsibility activity as meeting the emerging educational needs of the society with a focus on “integrated study” as a receptor for corporate food education lessons in Japan.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Received 17 April 2012 Revised 3 July 201230 August 2012 Accepted 14 October 2012
Citation
Takano, K. (2013), "Business opportunity and food education in Japan", Social Responsibility Journal, Vol. 9 No. 4, pp. 516-533. https://doi.org/10.1108/SRJ-04-2012-0050
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2013, Emerald Group Publishing Limited