OURI MP
A C T
CO-CREATIONMANAGEMENT REPORT 2021

Co-Creation of Positive Impact
with Younger and Future Generations

The world of 2050 will be shaped by the hands of younger and future
generations. We visited Nitobe Bunka Gakuen, located in the Nakano
area of Tokyo where MARUI GROUP was founded, to take pictures ofthe smiling and energetic elementary school students in attendance.
(Thank you to everyone who took part in this fun photo shoot.)PROLOGUE

Co-Creation of Positive Impact
with Younger and Future Generations
MARUI GROUP’s commitment toward the future can be seen in its dedication to co-creating a
positive impact together with younger, and eventually future, generations. The generations towhich we refer include the millennials and Generation Z and Generation Alpha individuals whowill lead the world three decades from now as well as the future generations who have yet to
be born. These younger and future generations are our hope for the future.
How do members of these generations see our current world? What is their view for the
future? Can we preserve a planet on which they can live while expressing themselves freely
and without fear for the future? Motivated by these questions, MARUI GROUP put forth three
impact targets that define a clear path for it to take in the future.
At MARUI GROUP, we believe that corporate value entails creating harmony between the interests and happiness of all of our stakeholders and growing the intersection of these interestsand happiness. We therefore recognize that we must not pursue economic development andprosperity at the expense of future generations. Current generations and future generations
should not be viewed as being at odds. Rather, we must see each other as partners sharing
the same planet. Working together, with everyone contributing their unique strengths, we look
to co-create a happier future.
The younger generations alive today as well as the generations to be born in the future will bea source of values and ideas for producing positive impacts that move society in a better
direction. MARUI GROUP will join hands with younger generations, and eventually with future
generations, as well as with members of current generations who share our ideals to harness
the power of business to build a world that transcends dichotomies and thereby contribute to
the creation of a flourishing and inclusive society that offers happiness to all.
This is MARUI GROUP’s declaration of its quest to co-create positive impacts with younger andfuture generations.

01

CONTENTS CO-CREATION MANAGEMENT REPORT 2021

This is MARUI GROUP’s­declaration ofits quest to co-create
positive impacts
with younger andfuture generations.

04 Message from the President
Hiroshi Aoi, President and Representative Director,
MARUI GROUP CO., LTD.

12 DIALOGUE 01:

Individual Empowerment
Yuta Tsuruoka, CEO and Senior Executive Officer, BASE, Inc.;
Hiroshi Aoi, President and Representative Director,
MARUI GROUP CO., LTD.

18 Our Impact
20 What Is Our Impact?
22 Why Focus on Future Generations?
24 MARUI GROUP’s Direction02

26 IMPACT TARGET 01 

Creating a Future for Future Generations Together

28 DIALOGUE 02: Shaping a Better Future for Future Generations
Saori Iwano, Third-Year High School Student and Member of Fridays For Future Japan, and Peter David Pedersen, Representative Director,
Next Leaders’ Initiative for Sustainability; External Director, MARUI GROUP CO., LTD.

34 Creating a Future for Future Generations Together
36 Contributions to a Decarbonized Society / Fostering of a Circular Culture

40 IMPACT TARGET 02 

Creating Happiness for Individuals

42 DIALOGUE 03: Supporting Everyone’s Happiness and Self-Expression
Prominent Members of Younger Generations Representing Niche Interests and Yasunori Nakagami, Representative Director and CEO,Misaki Capital Inc.; External Director, MARUI GROUP CO., LTD.

48 Creating Happiness for Individuals
50 Support for Pursuing Interests
56 Vegan Baking with 8ablish
58 Assistance for Achieving Self-Actualization
60 DIALOGUE 04: New Businesses Born Out of Ideas from Younger Generations
Student Entrepreneurs and Yusuke Mizuno, Representative Director and CEO, Life is Tech, Inc.

64 DIALOGUE 05: Tell Us What You Love
Students of Nitobe Bunka Gakuen and Yusuke Yamauchi, Chief Crew Member, VIVISTOP NITOBE

68 IMPACT TARGET 03 

Creating Platforms for Co-Creation

70 DIALOGUE 06: Co-Creative Teams Inspiring Industry
MARUI GROUP Co-Creative Team Members and Etsuko Okajima, President & CEO, ProNova Inc.; External Director, MARUI GROUP CO., LTD.

74 Creating Platforms for Co-Creation
76 Acceleration of Co-Creation Platforms

82 Business Model Integrating Retailing, FinTech, and

106 Officer Skill Matrix

Forward-Looking Investments for Achieving

112 Ratings, Awards, and Recognition

Positive Impact

114 Overview of MARUI GROUP

86 Three Impacts, One Commitment
Determining one’s goals, charting a path toward

116 AOI SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION
117 D IALOGUE 08:

Masayoshi Suzuki, Executive Vice President,

 upport for the Future Granted byS
the AOI SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATIONBORDERLESS JAPAN CORPORATION

Former AOI SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION Scholarship Recipient andaccomplishing three impact targets

88 MARUI GROUP’s Governance Focused on
Six Stakeholder Groups
94 D IALOGUE 07:

Broadening Scope of Well-being Activities
Akira Sato, Co-Founder and Representative Partner, Value Create
Inc., and Reiko Kojima, Director, Executive Officer, and CWO

98 Our Favorites

Current AOI SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION Scholarship Recipients

120 Message from the CFO / Investor Relations Information
121 MARUI GROUP Media Sources
122 Editorial Policy
Cautionary Notice regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Performance forecasts and other forward-looking statements contained in this report represent the Group’s best
judgments based on information available at the time of this report’s publication and therefore contain a degreeof uncertainty. It is possible that actual performance could differ materially from these forecasts due to a variety
of factors. Economic conditions, foreign exchange rates, and stock price movements are among the factors that
could have a major impact on performance.

03

Message from the President
Hiroshi Aoi
President and Representative Director
Representative Executive Officer, CEO

VISION ENCAPSULATED IN
IMPACT TARGETS
In May 2021, MARUI GROUP put forth three impact targets. These impact targets represent a new declaration
by MARUI GROUP that clearly delineates the course it will take as a company going forward with eyes to the
future in 2050. Contemplating the happiness MARUI GROUP seeks to create and the expectations of its
stakeholders, President Hiroshi Aoi defines the impact we desire to have as being a combination of what welove, what we are good at, what we can be paid for, and what stakeholders need. In the following message,
President Aoi describes the previously unexplained vision encapsulated in our impact targets.

The question of “what exactly is Hiroshi Aoi made of?” led to the picture on the right, with President Aoi surrounded by books. President Aoi is a bibliophile ofan extraordinary degree, and nothing bothers him more than having his reading time interrupted. He turns to books when he is lost, whether at life or at work,or when he just wants a source of excitement. We have compiled a list of President Aoi’s favorite works, books and otherwise, as well as those that have left
a significant impression on him. If you see any overlap with your favorites, he would love to talk to you about them.
Mushi Toru Ko Dake ga Ikinokoru (Only Children Who Catch Bugs Will Survive), written by Takeshi Yoro, Kiyohiko Ikeda, and Daizaburo Okumoto, published by SHOGAKUKAN Inc.; Tamashi ni Mesu ha
Iranai—Jung Shinrigaku Kogi (The Spirit Needs No Scalpel—Jungian Psychology Course), written by Hayao Kawai and Shuntaro Tanikawa, published by Kodansha Ltd.; Gandhi: A Life, written by Krishna
Kripalani, translated by Tatsuo Morimoto, published by Daisanbunmei-sha INC.; Homo Delphinus: The Dolphin Within Man, written by Jacques Mayol, translated and edited by Kunihiro Seki, published by
Kodansha Ltd.; Kamome no Hi no Dokusho (Reading for Seagull Day), written by Yakei Ozu, published by Tokyo Shiki Shuppan Inc.; Rene Magritte, written by René Passeron, translated by Kunio Iwaya,
Japanese version overseen by Shuzo Takiguchi, published by KAWADE SHOBO SHINSHA, PUBLISHERS; Ryushi Kawabata Cho-Do-Kyo no Nihonga Tokubetsu Ten Botsugo 50-Nen Kinen (Extensive Collectionof Ryushi Kawabata: Japanese Painting—Exhibition Commemorating 50th Anniversary of Passing), compiled by Yamatane Museum of Art, published by the Yamatane Museum of Art; Fukuo Jiden(Autobiography of Yukichi Fukuzawa), written by Yukichi Fukuzawa, revised by Masafumi Tomita, published by Iwanami Shoten, Publishers; The Passion Economy: The New Rules for Thriving in the
Twenty-First Century, written by Adam Davidson, John Murray Publishers Ltd.; Renzoku Shashin de Kiwameru Shorinji Kempo (Shorinji Kempo Investigated through Sequence Photographs), compiled by
SHORINJI KEMPO, published by BASEBALL MAGAZINE SHA Co., Ltd.; The Blue Bird, Maurice Maeterlinck, translated by Daigaku Horiguchi, published by SHINCHOSHA; Zoku-Hyakkien Zuihitsu (More Jottingsfrom the Goblins’ Garden), written by Hyakken Uchida, published by Obunsha Co., Ltd.; The Sign of the Four, written by Arthur Conan Doyle, translated by Ken Nobuhara, published by SHINCHOSHA; You Are,
Therefore, I Am: A Declaration of Dependence, written by Satish Kumar, translated by Osamu Ozeki and Sawato Ozeki, published by Kodansha Ltd.; The Blue Book, written by Ludwig Wittgenstein, translatedby Shozo Omori, commentary by Shigeki Noya, published by Chikumashobo Ltd.; Kigyo Kachi Keiei (Corporate Value Management), written by Kunio Ito, published by Nikkei Business Publications, Inc.;
Leading Quietly: An Unorthodox Guide to Doing the Right Thing, written by Joseph L. Badaracco, translated by Naoko Natsusato, commentary by Yuki Watanabe, overseen by Haruo Takagi, published by
SHOEISHA; Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist, written by Kate Raworth, translated by Atsushi Kurowa, published by KAWADE SHOBO SHINSHA, PUBLISHERS; Peter
Gabriel 1: Car, by Peter Gabriel (Real World Records); Biseibutsu Hanta, Shinkai wo Iku (Microbe Hunter, Journey to the Deep Seas), written by Ken Takai, published by Eastpress; Kazuhiko Fukuoji-Midoriko
Fukuoji no Sekai (The World of Kazuhiko Fukuoji and Midoriko Fukuoji), written by Kazuhiko Fukuoji and Midoriko Fukuoji, published Kazuhiko Fukuoji-Midoriko Fukuoji Ten Jikkou Iinkai; Froth on the
Daydream, written by Boris Paul Vian, translated by Morio Ito, published by Hayakawa Publishing Corporation; Futsubu Kaishi Dai 66 Go (Keio Futsubu School Newsletter No. 66), written by Keio Futsubu
School, published by Keio University; Zhuang Zi, written by Koji Fukunaga, published by CHUOKORON-SHINSHA, INC.; Shinpen Kaze no Matasaburo (New Matasaburo of the Wind), written by Kenji Miyazawa,
published by SHINCHOSHA; Complete Works of Gérard de Nerval V, written by Gérard de Nerval, translated by Shinichi Nakamura, edited by Takeshi Tamura and Yoshihiro Maruyama, overseen by Yasuo
Irisawa, published by Chikumashobo Ltd.; Boku no Daisuki na Aohige (Blue Beard Whom I Love), written by Kaoru Shoji, published by SHINCHOSHA; Kami no Shima—Oki no Shima (Okinoshima—Island of
God), written by Shinya Fujiwara and Abe Ryutaro, published by SHOGAKUKAN Inc.; Shinpen Ginga Tetsudo no Yoru (New Night on the Galactic Railroad), written by Kenji Miyazawa, published by
SHINCHOSHA; Pavarotti, directed by Ron Howard, Polygram Entertainment, LLC; BLUE GIANT 1, written by Shinichi Ishizuka, published by SHOGAKUKAN Inc.; Words Without Music, written by Philip Glass,published by Liveright Publishing Corporation; Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea, written by Jules Verne, translated by Kiyoshi Muramatsu, published by SHINCHOSHA; Kumagusu no Hoshi no Jikan(Time of Kumagusu’s Planet), written by Shinichi Nakazawa, published by Kodansha Ltd.; Rikano Kyoshitsu—SENYA-SENSATSU Edition (Science Classroom, SENYA-SENSATSU Edition), written by Seigo
Matsuoka, published by KADOKAWA GROUP HOLDINGS, INC.; The Moon and the Bonfires, written by Cesare Pavese, translated by Hideaki Kawashima, published by Iwanami Shoten, Publishers; Sculpting intime, written by Andrei Tarkovsky, translated by Hidenaga Otori, published by Kinema Junposha Co., Ltd.; The Dogon, written by Marcel Griaule and Germaine Dieterlen, translated by Shinzo Sakai, publishedby Serica Syobo, Inc.; Operating Manual for Spaceship Earth, written by Richard Buckminster Fuller, translated by Takashi Serizawa, published by Chikumashobo Ltd.; Myoe Shonin Aizoban (Saint Myoe:
Collector’s Edition), written by Masako Shirasu, published by SHINCHOSHA; Togake Ehon Sumikkogurashi Sora Iro no Mainichi (Lizard Picture Book Sumikkogurashi Sky-Colored Days), written and illustrated
by Yuri Yokomizo, published by SHUFU TO SEIKATSU SHA CO., LTD.; Cup tte Nandakke? (What Was a Cup?), written by Ooki Sato, published by DIAMOND, INC.; Sustainable Energy – Without the Hot Air,
written by David J.C. MacKay, translated by Katsunori Muraoka, published by Sangyo Tosho Co., Ltd.; The Fossils of the Burgess Shale, written by Derek E. G. Briggs, translated by Hisashi Suzuki, Mieko
Setoguchi, Keiko Yamaguchi, translation supervised by Terufumi Ono, published by Asakura Publishing Co., Ltd.; Blue, directed by Derek Jarman, distributed by UPLINK CO.; Imi ga Nakereba Suingu wa Nai(It Don’t Mean a Thing, If It Ain’t Got That Swing), written by Haruki Murakami, published by BUNGEISHUNJU LTD.; The Catcher in the Rye, written by J. D. Salinger, translated by Takahashi Nozaki, published by
Hakusuisha Publishing Co., Ltd.; Shinpen Miyazawa Kenji Shishu (New Collection of Poems by Kenji Miyazawa), written by Kenji Miyazawa, edited by Taijiro Amazawa, published by SHINCHOSHA

Please refer to the following website for Book Lounge, a book blog updated on an unscheduled basis by bibliophile Hiroshi Aoi (in Japanese only).
www.to-mare.com/bl/

04

05

Message from the President

Five Years Supported by Stakeholders
Nearly two years have passed since the outbreak of theunmet. I would like to apologize for our failure to live up

COVID-19 pandemic. I would like to extend my sincere

to the expectations of stakeholders. Regardless of thiscondolences to the families and friends of those who

failure, a look back at these five years will reveal that wehave succumbed to the virus and my thoughts andhave accomplished almost all of the goals we put forth atprayers to all those impacted by the pandemic. Our daily

the start of the plan. We completed the transition to fixed-

lives have undergone great change during the pandemic

term rental contracts in the Retailing segment, stabilizing

as we have faced various restrictions impeding our free-earnings. We also began the move toward stores that do

dom of movement and other activities. A virus, a force ofnot sell. In the FinTech segment, meanwhile, we spreadnature beyond human control, has brought society andour network of EPOS card application desks acrossthe economy to a screeching halt. This unprecedented

Japan, allowing us to effectively double our businesssituation has provided us with a chance for introspection.

scale. We also launched a new initiative not envisioned

Many have taken this opportunity to reflect on theirat the start of the medium-term management plan:

own lives or to look to the future, and these acts of intro-

co-creative investments. These investments allowed

spection are gradually transforming the world. I believe

us to forge ahead with investment in and co-creation withthat society is currently undertaking a bold change ofstart-ups while incorporating various new innovations.

course, redirecting its ship toward unknown seas and theAlso, on the environmental, social, and governance (ESG)

paradigm shift that has been spoken of thus far. The

front, we advanced an array of initiatives based on MARUI

pandemic still has no end in sight, and ongoing vigilance

GROUP’s 2050 Vision, which was announced in 2019.

is required. Regardless, I am already confident that

These initiatives have won strong praise, including the No. 1

beyond this pandemic the world will take a course that is

ranking in the global retailing field in the Dow Jonesvery different from the one we have followed up until now.

Sustainability Index.

Amid this great upheaval, MARUI GROUP reached the

Our strong progress over these five years would haveend of its five-year medium-term management plan in

been impossible if not for the support of all of our stake-March 2021. The progress of this plan was smooth

holders, namely, customers, employees, investors,

through to its fourth year. However, the impacts of thebusiness partners, communities and society, and future

COVID-19 pandemic in the plan’s fifth year left our targets

generations. I am truly grateful for your support.

Concept of Ikigai Shaping Impact Targets

06

MARUI GROUP’s journey to the future has only just begun.

primarily focused on business strategies and capital mea-

In May 2021, we unveiled our new medium-term manage-sures. The new plan adds the perspective of our impact

ment plan, which is meant to guide our journey to newalongside these more conventional areas of focus. The

heights. The new plan covers the five years leading up toidea of impact, which refers to the social changes brought

2026. The aspect of this plan that has me the most excitedabout by our activities, has been an area of focus for NPOs

is the incorporation of the new concept of impact targets.

and other agents of the social sector for some time now.

The previous medium-term management plan was

MARUI GROUP is a for-profit company. We therefore haveMessage from the President

Figure 1: C oncept of Ikigai Referenced When
Defining Impact Targets

Figure 2: MARUI GROUP’s Idea of Impact

What we

What we

love

love

PassionMissionWhat we are

Ikigaigood atProfession

What the world

What we areneeds

good at

IMPACT

What stakeholders

need

Vocation

What we can be

What we can be

paid forpaid for

The intersection between the four circles in the diagram above represents Ikigai. This concept places true happiness at the intersection
between our personal happiness and what the world needs.

A major characteristic of MARUI GROUP’s idea of impact is how itemphasizes what stakeholders want above what we love, what we aregood at, and what we can be paid for.

Source: Ikigai diagram, Marc Winn, May 2014

put our own spin on this idea. To explain our spin on thisidea, I would like to have you look at some diagrams.

In tailoring this idea of Ikigai to MARUI GROUP, we
reframed it from the perspective of a company, replacing

One of the diagrams we referenced when considering

the factor of what the world wants with what shareholders

our impact was the Ikigai diagram, which I am quite fond ofwant. This reframing gave form to MARUI GROUP’s idea of(see Figure 1). Ikigai is a Japanese word that refers to one’s

impact (see Figure 2). This idea is similar to the idea of

meaning for living. As shown in this diagram, Ikigai lies atpurpose, which has been gaining a lot of attention recently.

the intersection of four factors: what you love, what you are

However, the idea of purpose refers more to one’s personal

good at, what you can be paid for, and what the world

sense of purpose. Different from this self-centric idea, ourneeds. What is most amazing about this concept of Ikigai

idea of impact is focused on stakeholders, looking at whatis that its placing of true happiness at the intersection

we can do to respond to the needs and wants of stakehold-between our personal happiness and what the world needs

ers. I feel that this focus is more closely matched to MARUI

coincides perfectly with MARUI GROUP’s concept of pro-GROUP’s philosophy and corporate culture.

moting harmony between the interests of different
stakeholders.

In this regard, MARUI GROUP has defined three impact
targets together with six priority measures. The three07

Message from the President

Figure 3: Clear Future Envisioned through Impact Targets
ThemesCreating a future for future
generations together

Priority Measures

Assistance for self-actualization
Creating happiness for individuals
Support for individual preferences

Provision of venues for co-creation
Creating platforms for co-creation

Key Performance Indicators

CO2 emissions reductions:
Realization of a carbon-free society More than 1.0 million tons
Number of individuals provided with circular
lifestyle options:
Creation of a circular economy
More than 1.0 million customers

Facilitation of work styles that aretransparent to both internal andexternal stakeholders

Number of individuals provided with financial
services based on co-creation of creditability:
More than 4.5 million customers
Number of individuals provided with support
for individual preferences:
More than 3.5 million customers
Number of new businesses created:
Aggregate total of 20 or more

Earnings per
share:¥200 or more
Return on equity:
13% or more
Return on
invested capital:
4% or more

Number of co-creative projects with younger
generations:Aggregate total of 150 or more

impact targets are creating a future for future generations

profits and capital efficiency that they expect. Our path

together, creating happiness for individuals, and creating

toward creating this type of monetary value together withplatforms for co-creation (see Figure 3). We have also

the non-monetary value sought by other stakeholders is

identified concrete initiatives to be advanced with regard

our value creation narrative.

to each of the six priority measures (see page 18). Central

Plans for more specific initiatives and targets are cur-to the formulation of these impact targets, measures, andrently being developed by the relevant Group companies

initiatives was the development of a clear value creationand divisions with the goal of unveiling these elements

narrative for increasing stakeholder happiness and inter-within the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022. In otherests. Our impact targets do not entail the de-emphasizing

words, this new medium-term management plan will notof shareholder interests for the sake of the happiness of

be finalized at its start. Rather, we have developed aother stakeholders. No, we must contribute to the inter-framework for this plan, which will be developed flexibly

ests and happiness of all stakeholders. Shareholders are,as an ongoing project while we move forward.

of course, stakeholders, and we must therefore realize theGovernance Focused on Six Stakeholder Groups for Achieving Impact Targets

08

This new medium-term management plan is incredibly

these interests and happiness. Going back to the impact

exciting for us. The reason for this excitement is that the

diagram, we see that our definition of our desired impact,

approach toward management presented by the plan isthe combination of what we love, what we are good at,congruent with the ambitions we have pursued thus far.

what we can be paid for, and what stakeholders need,

Improvement of corporate value is a major managementaligns exactly with our definition of corporate value

priority for MARUI GROUP. To us, corporate value entails(see Figure 4). This means that, for MARUI GROUP, ourcreating harmony between the interests and happiness

desired impact is equivalent to stakeholder value andof all of our stakeholders and growing the intersection ofconsequently corporate value. Our approach towardMessage from the President

management over the coming five years will be one thatmodel, a new governance model being promoted thataligns with these three considerations.

entails actively involving external directors in manage-

Our first step in practicing such management was toment strategy planning and other facets of management.

welcome stakeholders to the Board of Directors, which is

To this end, we have established the Strategy

the very heart of management. Specifically, we appointed

Committee as a new advisory body to the Board of

Mr. Yasunori Nakagami, representative director and CEO

Directors. This committee is chaired by Mr. Nakagami.

of Misaki Capital Inc., as an external director to act as a

Meanwhile, Mr. Pedersen has taken up the position

representative for shareholders while also making sus-of chairman of the Sustainability Committee, where

tainability expert Mr. Peter David Pedersen an external

Dr. Kojima serves as a member. Another member of thedirector. From within the Company, Dr. Reiko Kojima, aSustainability Committee is Ms. Kyoko Ozawa, first chief

company physician and well-being expert, became our

future officer of Euglena Co., Ltd., who serves as a repre-

newest internal director. The corporate governancesentative of future generations. These moves represent

system created by the inclusion of these new directors will

our efforts to practice the principles of stakeholder capi-

move us toward the approach for stakeholder-oriented

talism, an idea that began gaining global attention aroundmanagement that we envision. At the same time, we are2019, as part of corporate management.

also taking steps to incorporate elements of the Board 3.0

Figure 4: Relationship Between Desired Impact, Stakeholder Value, and Corporate Value

Customers
What welove

Business
partners

Investors

What we aregood at

IMPACT

Stakeholder
Value

What stakeholders

needCommunities
and Society

Employees

What we can be

paid forFuture generations

The definition of MARUI GROUP’s desired impact aligns perfectly with the Company’s definition of corporate value as entailing creating harmony
between the interests and happiness of all of its stakeholders and growing the intersection of these interests and happiness, and thus with thedefinition of stakeholder value. MARUI GROUP’s approach toward management over the next five years will be one that aligns with these threeconsiderations.

09Message from the President

True Reason for Prioritizing Ongoing, Long-Term Dividend Increases
Some may wonder why we decided to invite shareholders

the secretariat of the foundation about their plans for theto serve on the Board of Directors as part of practicing

coming year after the cut, they said that the number ofstakeholder-oriented management. One reason for thisnew scholarship recipients in the next fiscal year would

move is something that I touched on earlier: our approachbe less than half of previous years. In my shock, I asked

toward stakeholder management is not one that denies

them why. The response was simple: MARUI GROUP had

the interests of shareholders. Rather, we look to practicehalved its dividend payments. Concern was also voiced

management that emphasizes all stakeholders, including

that, if the low level of dividend payments continued, theshareholders. However, that is not the only reason. We

foundation might be forced to reduce payments to bothalso believe that emphasis on the interests of sharehold-current and new scholarship recipients.

ers will not necessarily lead us to neglect the interests of

I was aghast. This was the first time I was forced toother stakeholders. In fact, it is true that shareholders are

acknowledge exactly how reductions to dividend pay-

not a homogeneous group. People often think of share-

ments impact shareholders and those related to them.

holders as being people among the wealthier classes, but

I thus pledged that, once we had recovered our perfor-

there is actually a wide range of shareholders. For exam-

mance, we would never lower dividend payments again.

ple, pension funds, such as the national Government

Since then, we have continued to prioritize ongoing, long-

Pension Investment Fund as well as the funds of compa-

term dividend increases, raising dividend payments fornies, are also shareholders. The gains generated by thethe nine consecutive years following the recovery ofequity investments of these funds are used to pay theperformance, even in the fiscal year ended March 31,

pensions of people today and will also fund the pensions

2021, during which we were heavily impacted by theof future generations.

COVID-19 pandemic. My commitment to increasing divi-

I would like to take a moment to talk about one suchdend payments is underscored by the difficult realization

shareholder: the AOI SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION (seefrom this experience. Accordingly, we cannot view man-page 116). This public interest foundation was estab-agement based on a dichotomy between shareholder

lished by MARUI GROUP founder Chuji Aoi using stock

interests and social contributions. It is not just scholar-

he personally held, and it is currently our ninth largest

ships that are affected by shareholder interests. The

shareholder. The AOI SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION uses

interests of shareholders are also connected to an

dividend payments from MARUI GROUP to provide

array of social welfare frameworks, including pensions

scholarships totaling ¥120 million to approximately 200

and insurance.

high school and university school students each year. I am

10

In this manner, the interests of shareholders are often

one of the foundation’s councilors. Supported by the

directly linked to the interests of other stakeholders, andstrong performance of MARUI GROUP, we were able tothe interests of shareholders eventually affect the inter-

offer scholarships to 70 new individuals during the fiscal

ests of society, which in turn then have an influence on

year ended March 31, 2021, bringing the number of schol-the interests of shareholders. We therefore look to basearship recipients to a new record high.

our approach toward management on this relationship. I

However, not all of my memories surrounding the AOI

believe that this type of management is a responsibility of

SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION are rosy. MARUI GROUP

a listed company. By accomplishing our immediate goals

found itself facing a management crisis shortly after

and then taking the next step down this path, I hope to

I became president. During this period, we posted two

further facilitate stakeholder-oriented management bylosses, forcing us to cut dividend payments to ¥14 per

inviting representatives of future generations, customers,

share, half the prior level of ¥28 per share. When I asked

and employees to the Board of Directors.

Message from the President

Co-Creation with Younger Generations and New Work Styles
We have embarked on a new journey to achieve our desired

native younger generations if we hope to effectively utilize

impact. The part of this journey that I look most forward tothese technologies.

is joining hands with others who share our philosophy andTo pursue such co-creation with younger generations,also seek the same desired impact. When we join hands

MARUI GROUP must embrace new work styles. This

with such individuals, we engage in the process of co-process should entail broadening our perspective. Rather

creation. MARUI GROUP’s approach toward co-creation

than primarily requiring people to work inside the organi-goes beyond simply passively responding to the requests

zation, we will need to promote more open work stylesof stakeholders; we seek to create the desired impacts bythat allow people to work outside of the Company.

actively working with those who share our ambitions. In theInstead of mainly hiring new graduates, we should recruit

past, we have practiced such co-creation when developing

mid-career individuals and adopt a wider range of employ-

stores and products, and we have recently begun co-cre-ment styles to allow us to secure the ideal members foration with start-ups. Through our co-creative activities withany given project. Such employment styles could include

around 40 start-ups, we are pursuing open innovation, an

contract employees, individuals using us for secondary

approach toward innovation that has been deemed quite

employment, non-traditional temporary employment

difficult, with few success stories to learn from. These

schemes, and long-term internships. We also look toefforts are spearheaded by more than 200 employees

make our work styles such that talented and motivatedassembled to form co-creative teams as part of our com-individuals will be able to assume leadership roles regardlessmitted approach toward co-creation, which is graduallyof their age or numbers of years of service. Ultimately, we

producing results (see page 68).

want to develop work styles that frame collaboration as

An area of focus going forward will be co-creation withyounger generations. If we are to achieve our impact
targets of realization of a carbon-free society and creation

our business in order to pursue co-creation that blurs theboundaries of the Company.
These will not be easy tasks, and we cannot expect

of a circular economy (see page 26), we will no doubt

immediate results. Nevertheless, we are committed toneed to call upon the strength of younger generations,

gradually evolving to give rise to a co-creative ecosystem.

who could be said to be sustainability natives. Moreover,I look forward to co-creating the future together with those

we hope to offer assistance for self-actualization and

who take an interest in our philosophy and desired impact

support for individual preferences as priority measures

after reading Co-Creation Management Report 2021.

for accomplishing our impact targets (see page 40).
Providing this assistance and support will require the use

October 2021

of technologies such as the internet, which lends itself toindividual empowerment, and blockchain, which is driving
the development of an independent and decentralizedsociety. We have to practice co-creation with the digital

President and Representative Director
Representative Executive Officer, CEO

The president’s message from Co-Creation Management Report 2020 can be found below.
We seek to contribute to both interests and happiness, as opposed to sacrificing one for the other. (Fiscal year ended March 31, 2020)
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/en/ir/message/ceo/2020.html

11

INDIVIDUALEMPOWERMENTDIALOGUE 01

YUTA TSURUOKAHIROSHI AOIIndividual Empowerment Made Possible by Digital Technologies
BASE, Inc., CEO Yuta Tsuruoka believes that, when the internet makes the individual and the small teamstronger, the world becomes better. We invited Mr. Tsuruoka to talk with President Aoi, an advocate of promoting individual empowerment together with younger generations, to discuss his view of the world of theinternet and his predictions for the businesses that will shape the future.

This discussion can be viewed in its entirety on the kono yubi to-mare YouTube channel (in Japanese only).
The following is an excerpt.
www.youtube.com/channel/UCCHq6q2aRFTyyEwVOMxHYXA

12

BASE Roppongi office featuring a spectacular skyline view

13

Failure of the Internet Dream,
Start of the Second Act
Aoi: I have really been looking forward to
today. I am excited for the opportunity to
ask you, Mr. Tsuruoka, about BASE, thefuture, and your dreams and visions. For
starters, BASE’s mission is “Payment to
the People, Power to the People.” I thinkmost would agree that the internet wasa technology born with the purpose of
granting power to the people, or, in otherwords, of facilitating individual empowerment. I refer to this as the internet
dream. Today, however, tech giants
like Alphabet Inc.; Amazon.com, Inc.;
Facebook, Inc.; Apple Inc.; and Microsoft
Corporation are monopolizing information and capital on the internet, creating
disparity between the haves and the havenots even in this space and effectively
undermining the potential for individual
empowerment. For this reason, I would
say the first act of the internet dreamhas ended in failure. Regardless, there
is hope for the future as members ofyounger generations, like yourself, areonce again trying to use the internet as
a vessel for granting power to the people.
I see the efforts of your generation as
representing the second act of theinternet dream. What are your thoughts
in this regard?
Tsuruoka: You touch on a very difficult
subject. We cannot deny that the sheer
size of tech giants has robbed the peopleof their power. On the other hand, theinternet offers venues like Instagram
and Twitter, where the individual cangain a strong sense of empowerment.
It is perhaps a structural reality of theinternet that platform holders end up

having the greatest amount of power.
However, it is because of the strength ofplatform holders that everyone is now
allowed to have a voice on the internet.
The power of these voices is such thatit might have even changed the courseof presidential elections in certain countries. From this perspective, you might
say that there was a benefit from tech
giants amassing such power.
Aoi: Social media has definitely played arole in supporting individual empowerment.
Tsuruoka: However, with the tech giants
as large as they are today, we must now
think about how to coexist alongsidesuch massive platforms and how tocreate a space for ourselves outside ofsuch platforms. For this reason, rather
than this second act being about seizing
individual empowerment, it is more
about living alongside mega platforms.
The long tail* area of the empowerment
curve will be the third act of the internet
dream. This area represents potential for
niche products to see consistent
demand over the long term.
Aoi: In other words, we are at the midpoint, the transition period, for realizing
the internet dream.
Tsuruoka: I think that the structure of
BASE is really intuitive. Traditional
e-commerce platforms, like Amazon,
have both demand-side and supply-side
aspects. BASE, meanwhile, only deals
with the supply side, and we are targeting the extreme end of the long tail areaof the empowerment curve. For thedemand side, we will borrow the capabilities of mega platform holders. In thismanner, we are taking advantage of thegood aspects of the prior internet eras,
and we are currently at a point at which

It is people in their teens and 20s that are setting the trends.
This means that I only have another decade during which I canbe active at the front lines of product development.
Yuta Tsuruoka

14

we are half dependent on large platforms and half empowered as individuals. It is possible that the power will
return to large platforms in the future,but it is also possible that the individual
may claim the power.
* The portion of distributions of numbers far from the“head” portion at the center of the distribution

Small is Beautiful
Aoi: I suspect that BASE might be thefirst long tail-oriented e-commerce
platform.
Tsuruoka: You are correct. Total distribution amounts are among the mostimportant indicators for e-commercebusinesses, and it is common for
e-commerce platform holders to seek
large affiliates so that they can becomelarger merchants. However, because wealready have merchants like Rakuten
and Amazon, BASE is able to take adifferent approach. Prior merchants
were not able to commit themselves toserving the long tail end of the curve, but
we can. Committing ourselves in thismanner could be seen as a duty of mygeneration. Moreover, the lack of priorcommitment to this area leaves a gap
open to be filled by our business. This
long tail-oriented approach requires along-term perspective, looking to maximize earnings over 10 or 20 years, as
opposed to achieving the greatest
possible earnings next year. Thisapproach may seem irrational from ashort-term perspective, but its rationale
becomes apparent in the long term.
An underlying principle of this approach
is long-term confidence in the potential
for the internet and for technology. My
generation was raised around the internet and various other technologies. We
grew up amid constantly increasing
internet speeds, rising iPhone specs, andgrowing tech giants. This background is
the source of such long-term confidence. We know the wonders of theinternet age like our backyard, and weare thus able to speak with confidence
about the world that will emerge two to
three decades from now. This

INDIVIDUAL EMPOWERMENT

Yuta Tsuruoka,
CEO and Senior Executive Officer, BASE, Inc.
Born in Oita Prefecture in 1989, Yuta Tsuruoka took part in aninternship program at crowdfunding company CAMPFIRE, Inc.,
while he was still in university. He released the BASE platform in
2012, and some 10,000 shops were opened through this platform
in its first month. BASE, Inc., was established later in 2012 and waslisted on the Mothers section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2019.
thebase.in (in Japanese only)15

To me, the input of younger generations is the future itself.
My interactions with such individuals give me a glimpse of
the future, and this is incredibly exciting.
Hiroshi Aoi

confidence underpins BASE’s long tailstrategy.
Aoi: Your approach means that theusers of our platform will all be operating small businesses. What are yourthoughts regarding such smaller
businesses?
Tsuruoka: We refer to the individuals
who sell products through our platform
as “owners” because they effectively
own their own shop, and we try to avoid
using words like “small business” or“small and medium-sized enterprises.”
I do not have a strong aversion to theterm “small business,” but I do feelstrange referring to our users as “small
and medium-sized.” This is because theterm “small and medium-sized enterprises” implies a desire to get bigger.
BASE’s users, however, do not necessarily desire for their business to get bigger.
We have some users who have nointention of growing their staff above fivemembers, no matter how much sales
may increase, or those that don’t replenish their inventories even if they immediately sell out. In this manner, our users
are committed to their own individual
approaches, a right granted to them asowners. Selling what one wants to sell.
Buying what one wants to buy. Only
accruing as much money as one needs,
and working only when one wants. Thisis a set of values that many will likely
subscribe to going forward. Small businesses offer the benefit of allowing
people to embrace such values. As oursociety becomes a happier place overall,people with diverse values are taking theidea of being “small and medium-sized,”something that was previously viewed
as a weakness, as a strength.
Aoi: This has all been made possible by
the internet. An incredibly influential
economist coined the expression “Small
16

is Beautiful” in a book he wrote around1973. I really liked this idea. However, atthe time, everyone was convinced thatbigger was better, and his words thus
fell on deaf ears. Today, we have finallyreached a point at which the beauty ofthe small is being acknowledged.

Small Businesses Satisfying Personal
Preferences
Tsuruoka: I actually believe small businesses have advantages over large
businesses. For example, when a newmarketing method appears on theinternet, it is individuals who are thefirst to adopt it. Larger businesses
cannot act with such speed.
Aoi: We are truly seeing a reversal invalues. Nowadays, larger businesses
suffer from a lack of flexibility. As aresult, there are some businesses thatstrategically and intentionally maintaintheir small size.
Tsuruoka: The rational advantages ofsmall businesses can be seen in all
aspects of operations. As individuals
now have their own voice, it is becoming
harder for large companies to counter
what has been said using mass media
after the fact. The internet trends overthe past five to 10 years have shown theemergence of a larger number of directto-consumer (D2C) brands. The teams
developing these brands have been
engaged in local skirmishes with othersuch brands, with only the strong
surviving.
Aoi: I believe that the small businessformat is the best format for apparelbusinesses. This is because everyone
has different tastes, physiques, and bodytypes. When the apparel industry was at
its height, it primarily comprised apparel
manufacturers working on sewing

machines in one-room apartments.
When these individuals put their clothes
up for sale in small shops at Maruilocations in Shinjuku or Shibuya, theywould fly off the shelves. This wasduring the so-called DC (Designers andCharacters) brand boom of the 1980s.
When I think about it, I cannot help but
feel that history is repeating itself. The
emergence of D2C brands has broughtthat sense of excitement back to theapparel industry, and I find myself
inspired to support the efforts of suchbrands. As you say, small businesses are
more economically feasible. We arelikely entering into an era in which aspiring entrepreneurs are able to put theirindividuality on full display and transform their preferences into a business.
Tsuruoka: In the past, apparel manufacturers were only able to sell their products to people within a close proximity
to them. Today, however, the internet
and modern technologies allow people
to deliver their products to customers
anywhere in the world. This reality has
lowered the high barrier to entry into theapparel industry as one no longer needs
to have a brick-and-mortar store in aprime location.
Aoi: Businesses used to entail competition between people offering the samethings, but times seem to be changing.
The businesses of the future will likely
see people offering different things
forming networks and working together.
What type of co-creative initiatives doyou hope to promote in the future,
Mr. Tsuruoka?
Tsuruoka: I feel strongly that future
co-creative initiatives will be advanced
through the entire business ecosystems.
All members of the business community
will be prospective partners, and it will
be impossible for one business owner toprovide all the forms of value needed. In
the case of BASE, we called upon MARUIGROUP to establish physical stores. We
were able to take this approach because
the current era is very strongly oriented
in favor of users. Businesses in this era
are only able to prosper to the degree
that they satisfy users. No matter how

INDIVIDUAL EMPOWERMENT

you look at it, co-creation is becoming
the cornerstone of business in thecurrent era.
Aoi: I think I have wrapped my headaround this. In the future, rather than
MARUI GROUP having its business while
also collaborating with BASE as a separate
endeavor, we will come to adopt a perspective that frames collaboration as ourbusiness. Individuals will be the businessowners of the future, and individuals andsmall teams will have a main-stage role inthe business community of the future. ForMARUI GROUP, the value we provide, theco-creation we pursue, will be shaped by
our ability to support such individuals andsmall teams.
Tsuruoka: It is rare for a company of
MARUI GROUP’s size to say that individuals will be on the main stage in the
future. I have incredible respect for thisboldness.

Definitive Reason for Pledging Life toSupporting Younger Generations
Tsuruoka: MARUI GROUP is collaborating with BASE as part of its co-creative
projects with younger generations. Why
are you, Mr. Aoi, so committed tosupporting younger generations? It
seems rare for someone to be so
dedicated in their support for younger
generations.
Aoi: I see myself as a forward-looking
person. I have little interest in the past; itis much more edifying to think about the
future. When I was around 45, I realizedthat the people I interact with and thepeople from whom I sought guidancewere getting younger and younger. To
me, the input of younger generations is
the future itself. My interactions withsuch individuals give me a glimpse of
the future, and this is incredibly exciting.
Tsuruoka: You mean to say that yourcommitment to younger generations is a
product of an earnest curiosity, a desire
to formulate an image of the future?
Aoi: That is one reason, but I haveanother, more definitive, reason. When
my son was in sixth grade, his classconducted a panel discussion on thetheme of “Our Future” during a class thatwas open for viewing by parents. I wasshocked at how depressing the panelists’ visions of the future were. Some
predicted that humanity would bedestroyed by nuclear war, while others
projected extinction due to global

warming. Nonetheless, they said thiswhile laughing. It dawned on me thatthese kids were the same age as Greta
Thunberg. Even though they lived in adifferent country, they would be living
their future in the same era as her. It
then hit me: It is the responsibility of mygeneration to protect the future of thesechildren. At that very moment, I lost myability to pass the buck to others. After
that, I turned 60, and at that time I
pledged to use the rest of my life tosupport younger generations. What doyou, Mr. Tsuruoka, think you can learn
from younger people?
Tsuruoka: Basically, I think that the only
place to find new ideas is from younger
generations. At the very least, this istrue in the IT and technology spheres.
Here, it is people in their teens and 20s
that are setting the trends. This meansthat I only have another decade during
which I can be active at the front linesof product development. It is crucial forthe most important and influential
members of frontline operations to be
young. It is also a must for all members
to share such values in order to spur
their mutual growth.

17

IMPACT TARGET 01

Creating a Future for
Future Generations Together
The first theme examined when considering our desired impact was the future for future
generations. Climate change moves closer to robbing us of our future and destroying the
global environment every minute, and addressing this crisis must take priority above any of
our other desires. In light of this crisis, MARUI GROUP seeks to provide options for contributing to a decarbonized society and fostering circular economies, both elements of a green
recovery. We thereby aim to help preserve a global environment that will allow future generations to live without fear for the future (see page 26).

OUR IM
IMPACT TARGET 03

Creating Platforms for
Realizing our desired impact will require us to create platforms for co-creation.
The society that MARUI GROUP envisions is not something that we canachieve by ourselves; we must build an ecosystem that moves us toward thisgoal through co-creation with individuals who share our ideals. By sharing its
current corporate assets, namely its physical stores, EPOS cards, IT, andemployees, with partners outside of the immediate organization, MARUIGROUP looks to produce innovation through co-creation (see page 68).

18

IMPACT TARGET 02

Creating Happiness for
Individuals
The second theme addressed with regard to our impact was the happiness of individuals.
Our everyday lives have somehow become a burden. We are restricted by what is consideredsocial etiquette, we face feelings of internal conflict as a result of our interpersonal relationships, and we suffer from social disparities that do not reflect differences in abilities. Trappedby the confines of our current society, we all desire to break these chains and create a society
in which every individual is empowered to be themselves. To help move us toward such asociety, MARUI GROUP offers support for individual preferences and self-actualization fromthe perspective of finance, investment, and consumption (see page 40).

PACT

This is MARUI GROUP’s declaration ofits quest to co-create positive impacts withyounger and future generations.

Co-Creation

19

20

Co-Creation of Positive Impact with Younger and Future Generations

WHAT IS OUR IMPACT?
In May 2021, MARUI GROUP announced impact targets based on three themes. Thisannouncement constituted a new declaration by MARUI GROUP that describes the clear
direction it will take as a company to realize the future it envisions for 2050.
Our impact refers to how we change and influence society. Some may wonder why MARUIGROUP decided to emphasize its impact in this manner. We believe that corporate value
entails creating harmony between the interests and happiness of all of our stakeholders andgrowing the intersection of these interests and happiness. MARUI GROUP has defined six
groups of stakeholders, each of which seeks different interests and happiness. Monetaryinterests can include the salaries paid to employees, the dividends issued to shareholders, theprices at which products are sold, and costs for business partners. Each of these monetaryinterests could be seen as being in opposition with the others. Happiness, meanwhile, is not
something that can be measured monetarily. Rather, happiness is a value shared among allof humanity, and there is thus a great deal of overlap between the happiness of individuals in
differing stakeholder groups.
Impact has been framed as a new perspective for gauging interests and, the more difficult,quantifying happiness. Based on this perspective, we have defined three impact targets: creating a future for future generations together, creating happiness for individuals, and creating
platforms for co-creation. These targets were defined based on consideration of how we canbring about meaningful changes for stakeholders and for society as well as the desires of
stakeholders that we are able and eager to fulfill.
By accomplishing these impact targets, MARUI GROUP will harness the power of business tobuild a world that transcends dichotomies and thereby contribute to the creation of a flourishing and inclusive society that offers happiness to all.
Interests and Happiness Sought by Stakeholders (Hypothesis)
Customers

Investors

Business partners
Non-monetary interests(i.e., happiness)

Communities
and Society

Employees

Future generations

Monetary interests

21

22

Co-Creation of Positive Impact with Younger and Future Generations

WHY FOCUS ON
FUTURE GENERATIONS?
MARUI GROUP is unique in its placing future generations among the stakeholder groups itemphasizes. This new stakeholder group was introduced in 2019 when we unveiled MARUIGROUP’s 2050 Vision, our long-term vision for 2050. The introduction of this stakeholder groupwas symbolic of our commitment to help contribute to the realization of a sustainable societythat emphasizes well-being by promoting co-creation with future generations.
In his book, The Good Ancestor: How to Think Long Term in a Short-Term World, Australianborn, U.K.-based philosopher Roman Krznaric describes a need to move away from shortsightedness to adopt a longer-term perspective by posing the question of whether we canbecome “good ancestors.”
This question is more pertinent today than it has ever been in the past. Humanity has grown toa point whereby the impacts of our culture, economy, and lifestyles have surpassed the abilityof the global environment to repair itself, triggering a crisis that threatens our very survival.
The first horseman of this crisis is climate change. It has even been said that climate change
is symbolic of how we are extracting resources from the future.
Recognizing this threat, members of the current generations have launched nation-level campaigns to pursue sustainability. A number of companies have joined this cause, listing theenvironment or the earth among their stakeholders. However, this raises the question, if theearth or the environment is a stakeholder, to whom exactly does that refer?
What we are fighting to protect is not the earth itself, it is the people of the future who will
live on this planet. It could thus be said that the stakeholders whose interests we should
actually be looking to serve are future generations. This is the reason why MARUI GROUP
has chosen to place future generations as the sixth member among the stakeholder groups
on which it focuses.
Rather than preoccupying itself with the question of if it can become a good ancestor, MARUIGROUP is acting based on the commitment that it will be a good ancestor.

23

Customers

Business
partners

Investors

Forward-Looking Investments

Stakeholder
Value

Communities
and Society

Employees

Retailing

FinTechFuture generations

Values—Governance Emphasizing
Six Stakeholder Groups

Vehicle—Business Model Merging Retailing,
FinTech, and Forward-Looking Investments

MARUI GROUP’
Goals for MARUI GROUP
The future direction for MARUI GROUP can be seen in its mission and its vision. These clearly
defined objectives have attracted various partners desiring to engage in co-creation with us. At thesame time, however, we have seen cases in which we have faced difficulty when actually attempting to develop businesses with such individuals, despite their sharing our mission and vision. We
realized that this difficulty was a result of a lack of clarity with regard to our goals.

24

MISSIONIMPACT TARGETS

Contribute to co-creating a flourishingand inclusive society that offers
happiness to all

01 C reating a Future for
Future Generations Together
02 Creating Happiness for Individuals

VISION 2050

03 Creating Platforms for Co-Creation

Harnessing the power of business to build
a world that transcends dichotomies

Direction—Impact Targets

MARUI GROUP’s Goal

S DIRECTION
The decision to define the three impact targets on which we will focus going forward was meant toclearly present the goals toward which MARUI GROUP will work to both internal and external stakeholders. On the following pages, you will find a detailed look at our efforts with regard to each of
our three impact goals—creating a future for future generations together, creating happiness forindividuals, and creating platforms for co-creation.

25

IMPACT TARGET 01
Creating a Future for
Future Generations Together
The first theme examined when considering our desired impact was the future for future generations. Climate change moves closer to robbing us of our future and destroying the global environment every minute, and addressing this crisis must take priority above any of our other desires. In
light of this crisis, MARUI GROUP seeks to provide options for contributing to a decarbonized society and fostering circular economies, both elements of a green recovery. We thereby aim to help
preserve a global environment that will allow future generations to live without fear for the future.

26

27

SHAPING A BETTER FUTURE FOR
FUTURE GENERATIONSDIALOGUE 02

SAORI IWANOPETER DAVID PEDERSEN

Escaping a Restrictive Future by Imagining the Future as a Blank Slate
Saori Iwano is a high school student who shaved her head, parting ways with hair grown down past her shoulders, and wrote an essay on the potential of shaving one’s head to help fight climate change. People havediverse ideals. There is no need to limit the ideal of feminine appeal to having long hair. Peter David Pedersen,
external director at MARUI GROUP and guide in its quest for true sustainability, spoke with Iwano about theideals she espouses.

Saori Iwano
A third-year high school student born in Tokyo in 2003, Saori Iwano is a central
member of the student environmental activist organization Fridays For Future
Japan. This unique Generation Z environmental activist has gained attention for
her research on decentralized energy and her essay on the potential of shaving
one’s head to help fight climate change, which reflected her own experience ofshaving her hair, which had been grown down past her shoulders.
Peter David PedersenPeter David Pedersen was born in Denmark in 1967. He has been involved in theformulation of business, environment, and CSR strategies for major Japanesecompanies, and it was Pedersen who introduced Japan to the concept of Lifestyles
of Health and Sustainability (LOHAS). Today, he is devoting his efforts to fostering
future leaders as the representative director of Next Leaders’ Initiative for
Sustainability while also acting as a professor at Shizenkan University. Pedersen
assumed the position of external director at MARUI GROUP in June 2021.

Start of Environmental Activism Inspired by
Inconsistency of Adults
Pedersen: I have been working with major Japanesecompanies over the past 25 years. I refer to innovation that is not mindful of sustainability as “trash
innovation.” Innovation can create new value, butinnovation that only seeks economic value at thecost of the environment has no place in society.
How do you, Ms. Iwano, view Japanese companies
from your perspective?
Iwano: It depends on the company, but there are a
lot of companies that only think about doing business through existing frameworks, and these companies formulate visions of their future based on
their current state. Japanese companies love theword “innovation.” However, it is also common forthese companies to primarily pursue innovation

28

aimed at sustaining their current systems andbusinesses.
Pedersen: I completely agree. Those working inexisting systems tend to become prisoners of thesesystems, and therefore have their actions limited by
the systems. Based on this perspective, I would liketo talk about your activities. Exactly what type ofactivities have you been engaged in?
Iwano: I have been involved in the activities of thestudent environmental activist organization Fridays
For Future Japan since 2019. These activities arepart of a movement calling for action to combat
climate change. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, weare currently focusing on efforts online and throughother venues that do not involve close contact withothers. One example of these efforts is a call for
action on climate change via social media. We arealso working together with the government and the29SHAPING A BETTER
FUTURE FOR FUTURE
GENERATIONS

corporate sector, sometimes offering advice on
government policies and coordinating with companies at the forefront of climate action. In addition,
we form connections with Asian environmental
activists, contribute to the efforts of the United
Nations Climate Change Conference, and take otherflexible actions related to these efforts.
Pedersen: I was born in Denmark. When I was 10, I
remember taking part in a demonstration protesting
the construction of a nuclear power plant. This
demonstration resulted in Denmark making theswitch to wind power. This experience opened myeyes to the importance of action. What was yourcall to action?
Iwano: When I was in my third year of junior highschool, I listened to Severn Cullis-Suzuki’s legendary
speech at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro about
the day our world will change, which she delivered
when she was only 12. In this memorable speech,
Suzuki illustrates the inconsistency between therighteous action adults expect of us and their own
actions. When I was still chewing on this idea, I
learned that Greta Thunberg had begun her climatechange activism in Sweden. Thunberg had put fortha message casting light on the same issue by
questioning why adults think they can tell us what
not to do while they violate their own creeds andpresent an inconsistent stance through the Paris
Agreement. Her message matched the one of
Suzuki. When I learned of Thunberg’s activities, I
was around the same age as her, 15. This experience, and the recognition of the inconsistency ofadults, was my call to action.

Importance of Younger Generations
Commenting on Company Impact
Pedersen: I understand that you wrote a very
intriguing essay.
Iwano: You’re talking about my paper on how cutting one’s hair can help combat climate change,
right? I shaved my head for that paper. My hair used
to be down past my shoulders.
Pedersen: That is a really clever idea. What were theresults of this experiment?
Iwano: My thesis was that shaving my head would
affect how much water I used to bathe and theamount of gas consumed to heat the water as well as
my usage of a hair dryer. I measured these metrics
using myself as the sample to determine the impact
of shaving my head, and compared the results to30

other options. I found that shaving one’s head has
mid-range benefits for fighting climate change.
Pedersen: It is generally accepted that girls of yourage tend to be interested in things like makeup andfashion. What type of response did you get from thepeople around you when you shaved your head?
Iwano: I get asked that a lot. On the flip side, as
people often come up and ask me about my hairstyle because it is so unusual, this gives me plentyof opportunities to talk to people about our climate
crisis. Also, I don’t think that we need to limit theideal of feminine appeal to having long hair. This is
supposed to be an era in which people can havediverse ideals after all.
Pedersen: That is true. The idea that having long
hair is feminine is an outdated preconception that is
incompatible with the values of diversity. Changing
gears, it is said that there is a need to enlist the aidof companies to realize positive social impacts.
What are your thoughts on this topic?
Iwano: Companies have a very large impact onsociety. It is therefore crucial that we let companies
know what the younger generations are thinking.
Companies tend to formulate visions of how to
generate profits, while younger generations put
forth visions of how to address issues facing society. We should thus combine the visions from thesetwo perspectives to create one overarching vision
for all of society and work together as partners inaccomplishing this vision. There is a book by theJapanese scholar of the history of economic
thought Kohei Saito on the subject of capital theory
for a new era. This book is full of insightful critiquesof contemporary capitalism as well as proposals ofalternative approaches based on the visions ofyounger generations. I have had several opportunities to speak with Mr. Saito, but in his book he does
not explain a clear process toward reaching thestated ideals. I think the nitty-gritty about making
and transitioning to the new systems that will be
required to realize these ideals will need to be handled by companies and others in positions of power.
The role of us younger generations will thus be toshare our visions and to engage with this process.
Pedersen: U.K.-born, U.S.-based futurist Hazel
Henderson speaks of building a love economy incontrast to the existing money economy. In the past,earning money was seen as a pursuit completely
separate from exercising compassion or contributing to society. In recent years, however, we haveseen a rise in companies guided by a social purpose.

We should direct society in what that provides the children of the future, in 2050,
with a blank slate to imagine any future they want. It will be the responsibilityof my generation to pave the road to such a future and to provide the alternatives
to existing options necessary for this future.

Saori Iwano

31

SHAPING A BETTER
FUTURE FOR FUTURE
GENERATIONS

Iwano: I think that the idea of intersectionality*
will become increasingly prominent in the future.
MARUI GROUP values its stakeholders, and I think
the idea of intersectionality aligns well with stakeholder value.
Pedersen: From one perspective, the ideas of amoney economy and love economy overlap in a way
similar to the categories of intersectionality. I think it
would be great if companies were to team up with
NPOs, with each party leveraging their respective
strengths to create a more open environment, andthen eventually if companies were to become more
like NPOs.
Iwano: A successful business is dependent on thepeople involved in the business as well as on consumers and community members. An emphasis on
the interests of these various stakeholders is also
important to decarbonization efforts. I think there isa strong need for MARUI GROUP to exercise

I refer to innovation that is not mindful of sustainability as “trash innovation.”
Innovation can create new value, but innovation that only seeks economic value
at the cost of the environment has no place in society.

Peter David Pedersen

32

leadership in guiding community decarbonization
efforts together with stakeholders by connecting
various styles of consumption and returning thebenefits of these activities to communities.
* An analytical framework that looks at how attributes of a person’s identity,
including race and gender, contribute to discrimination and privilege

Need for New Values Surpassing the Scope ofBusinesses Focused Purely on Resolving Issues
Pedersen: In terms of consumption, I think a change
in perspective, from the prior focus on trade-offs toan emphasis on raising value, will help to realize
sustainability in its truest form. Rather than relying
on trade-offs, by prioritizing the economy to thedetriment of the environment and supply, we should
transform our lifestyles to provide options that
position inclusivity and circularity as the norm. With
this perspective, I look to propose alternative consumption methods and new lifestyles for Japan.

Iwano: Concepts such as sustainability and ethics
have become a normal part of education in Japan,
leading to a rise in awareness on these subjects
among high school students. However, this education is still limited to the idea of resolving social
issues. The option of fair trade only exists due tothe presence of issues of poverty and exploitation.
Similarly, the climate crisis has given rise to theoption of decarbonization. In the future, I think it will
be important for businesses and products to propose new values and offer a path toward embracingthese values, as opposed to simply resolving thecurrent issues we face. By proposing new and better
options, people can make new discoveries and havenew encounters. These possibilities are something
not present in prior issue resolution-oriented
businesses.
Pedersen: MARUI GROUP is a company whosebusiness is founded on stimulating consumption.
For this reason, it will need to change the products
it offers. The question then becomes, how should it
undertake such a change? Ms. Iwano, what are yourthoughts regarding the future of consumption?
Iwano: I don’t shop at stores a lot. Even the clothes
I am wearing today were hand-me-downs from mycousin. The approach of stimulating a desire for
consumption does not seem suited to the comingera. I think there is more potential in promoting
consumption by proposing better options. It
would be great if consumers were able to purchaseitems based on the understanding of what went into
their making, the story of each item, so to say.
Understanding the feelings of the producer createsa kind of synergistic effect for the user that makes
them feel more satisfied with their purchase of theitem in question when they use it.

Diversity in Decision-Making Required for
Inclusive Thinking
Pedersen: MARUI GROUP has defined impact
targets in its new medium-term management plan.
What do you think of this undertaking?
Iwano: I think the involvement of people like you,
Mr. Pedersen, and representatives of various othersectors in decision-making is necessary for inclusive thinking. This is also important for promoting
decarbonization while preventing the emergence of
new social issues as a result of these efforts. For
example, if we were only to focus on a single aspectof the United Nations Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs), we might be able to effectively

resolve the targeted issues, but it is also highly likelythat we would cause a new issue in the process.
This lack of inclusive thinking is a common trait of
the shallow and performative approach toward theSDGs that many companies are adopting. As thestandards of society change, the definition of
impact will also change. It is easy to put forth thegoal of decarbonization, but it is important not torigidly define this goal as an unmoving impact
target. Such rigidity will likely kill the potential of acompany. A more ideal approach would be to incorporate people from diverse backgrounds into theprocess of developing action plans in order to makethese plans more impartial.

Creation of a Blank Slate Society That
Lets Children Imagine Their Own Future
Pedersen: What is your goal for the future,
Ms. Iwano?
Iwano: I want to be involved in the decentralizedenergy cycle. I see potential for the application ofdecentralized blockchain technologies to decisionmaking processes. Blockchain is a promising tool
for realizing transparent and impartial decisionmaking. As far as the future I hope to create, I think
it is important for the future to be like a blank slate.
The future we are able to imagine for ourselves in
the current society is restrictive. What I mean to say
is that we should direct society in what that provides the children of the future, in 2050, with a blankslate to imagine any future they want. Moreover, I
hope that society will be such that the future generation of 2050 will be inspired to create a better
future for the generation that follows them, and that
this generation will do the same, giving birth to aconsistent and virtuous cycle. It will be the responsibility of my generation to pave the road to such afuture and to provide the alternatives to existing
options necessary for this future. For this reason, I
want to work toward this vision in various fields
together with individuals from an array of sectors.
Pedersen: Collaboration with companies shouldbe framed in terms of “with,” as opposed to “for.” I
have been working together with major Japanesecompanies for 25 years. I try to deny the obvious
standing of these companies as I work with them.
This is because I think that creative self-denial isvital to companies. Rather than working “for” thecompanies, I want to work “with” them to build abetter world.

33

IMPACT TARGET 01

Creating a Future for
Future Generations Together
MARUI GROUP seeks to create a future for a wide range of generations, including the younger millennials and Generation
Z and Generation Alpha individuals who will lead the world three decades from now as well as the future generations
who have yet to be born. At MARUI GROUP, we believe that corporate value entails creating harmony between the interests and happiness of all of our stakeholders and growing the intersection of these interests and happiness. We therefore recognize that we must not pursue economic development and prosperity at the expense of future generations.
If we combine our existing assets and experience with the greater stock of wisdom of humanity, we will be capable ofovercoming the crisis presented by climate change through co-creation and thereby reach a future characterized byhappiness and prosperity in the truest sense.

Overall Vision and Key Performance Indicators

Impact Target 01

Priority Measures

Realization of a carbon-free society

Creation of a circular economy

Initiatives

Reduction of emissions from society through co-creation
with customers

Reduction of social waste through co-creation withbusiness partners and customers

Key Performance Indicators(FY2026 Targets)

34

Creating a future for future generations together

CO2 emissions reductions: More than 1.0 million tons
Number of individuals provided with circular lifestyle options: More than 1.0 million customers

WHO?

Members of younger andMembers of current

future generations looking to

generations reevaluatingchange the future

how they live

Individuals sharing
our ideals

WHAT?

Reduction of CO2 emissions contributing toclimate change

Acceleration of contributions to a decarbonized society and fostering of circular economies that are elements of a green recovery

Preservation of a healthy global environment
for current and future generations

HOW?
Supply of easy andconvenient services forswitching to renewable energy

Development and supply of
products that use recycledplastic or plastic alternatives

Provision of options for circularconsumption that does notcontribute to mass production
and waste

Promotion of eco-friendly
lifestyles and co-creative
businesses

OUR IMPACT
Reduction of CO2 emissions

Number of individuals provided withcircular lifestyle options

More than

1.0 million customers
More thanFY2026 Target

1.0 million tons
FY2026 Target

470,000
customers
FY2021

35

CONTRIBUTIONS TO A
DECARBONIZED SOCIETY

Reduction of CO2 emissions

In July 2018, MARUI GROUP joined the RE100 international initiative with membershipfrom companies that have declared targets of sourcing 100% of the electricity used intheir business activities from renewable energy. This move signaled the start of ourefforts to contribute to a decarbonized society through our business activities andtogether with all of our stakeholders.

More than

1.0

million tons

FY2026 Target

Reduction of CO2 Emissions Together with Stakeholders
In December 2018, MARUI GROUP formed a business andcapital alliance with UPDATER, Inc. (formerly Minna-denryoku,Inc.). This energy field start-up company is the first in the world
to use blockchain technology to achieve commercial traceability of electricity. UPDATER uses this technology primarily toprovide its Minna-denryoku service for supplying renewableenergy to companies and households.
Working together with UPDATER and other renewable energy
providers, MARUI GROUP is moving forward with an effort toutilize renewable energy at all of its Marui and Modi stores
across Japan. In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2019, Shinjuku
Marui Main Building was the only location using renewableenergy, but this number has since ballooned to 15 stores andfive offices in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021, resulting in
renewable energy accounting for 52% of all electricity used by
the Group. We aim to increase our usage of renewable energy
to account for 100% of all electricity purchased by the fiscal
year ending March 31, 2031.
UPDATER’s corporate website (in Japanese only)
minden.co.jp/

In addition to embracing renewable energy itself, MARUIGROUP is encouraging customers to switch to renewableenergy to achieve further reductions in CO2 emissions as partof a project launched in September 2020. As one facet of these
efforts, we have introduced the Minna-denryoku EPOS Plan,a plan that makes it easy for holders of MARUI GROUP’s EPOS
cards to switch to renewable energy. We have also begun
issuing Minna-denryoku EPOS Cards. As the first credit cards inJapan to be made of recycled plastic, each Minna-denryoku
EPOS Card issued emits 9.8 grams less CO2 than would be
produced when issuing a conventional credit card.*1 Moreover,¥1,000*2 will be donated to renewable energy generators upon
application to help fund the maintenance and development of
renewable energy generation facilities. We have set the goal ofincreasing the number of EPOS cardholders using the Minnadenryoku service to 500,000 by the fiscal year ending March 31,
2026. MARUI GROUP thereby looks to achieve a reduction in
CO2 emissions of more than one million tons in the aforementioned fiscal year when combining the reductions associatedwith this service with its own CO2 reductions.
*1 Based on data from credit card production companies with which MARUI GROUP has
business relationships*2 Approximately U.S.$9

Road Map to 100% Use of Renewable Energy
Total electricity
consumption
200.1 million kWh
170.0 million kWh

157.3 million kWh*3

100%
70%
52%
Renewable energy
usage rate
0%23%

FY2017(0 stores)

FY2020(8 stores)■ Non-renewable energy

FY2021(15 stores,
5 offices)

FY2026 (Target)(–)

FY2031 (Target)(All stores)■ Renewable energy*3 Total electricity consumption was lower than projected in the fiscal year ended March
31, 2021, as a result of store closures stemming from the impacts of the COVID-19
pandemic.

36

Minna-denryoku EPOS Card, the first credit card in Japan to bemade of recycled plastic
EPOS Net (in Japanese only)
www.eposcard.co.jp/eposnet/index.html
Information on Minna-denryoku EPOS Cards (in Japanese only)
www.eposcard.co.jp/collabo/minden/index.html

Power Plant with Visibility of Producers Created by Community Members
UPDATER currently has contracts with more than 600 power plants through its Minnadenryoku service.* One of these is the Atsugi Community Power Station located in Atsugi
City, Kanagawa Prefecture. This power plant was established through funding by approximately 150 residents of Atsugi City, which was used to install solar panels on a 500-m2
plot of farmland at the Ochiai farm. Approximately 33,300 kWh of electricity are generated
by the power plant each year, which has contributed to a reduction in CO2 emissions of 13.9
tons. Individuals involved with the community power plant have stated that they want tomake renewable energy available to people who want to use it, and that it was this desirethat inspired them to sign up for the Minna-denryoku service, which boasts thoroughtraceability combined with clear visibility of the producers of power.

Community members involved with the
Atsugi Community Power Station* As of July 1, 2021

Comments from Customers Using
the Minna-denryoku EPOS Plan
Reason for Switching

I applied because the processof switching was so easy.

My decision was based on
consideration for theenvironment as well as for
my power bill.

I learned about the service
through the EPOS card app
when I was looking for a powercompany that didn’t use
nuclear power.

I was interested in renewableenergy and wanted to use
power that didn’t hurt theenvironment.

Feelings after Switching
I hope for the success ofrenewable energy generators
across Japan.

I have started thinking more
about the future we will leave
for our children.

I want to do what I can to help
preserve the global
environment.

I have become more
mindful of the environment
in my daily life.

VOICE
I hope to communicate just how easy it is to switch to renewable energy.
It is said that around half of the CO2 emitted from a standard household is from electricity. Accordingly, thebest way for us to contribute to the fight against climate change is to switch to renewable energy for our
household electricity use. Decarbonization is a task that will require us to fundamentally transform society.
However, this transformation will only be possible if individuals also change how they think. The Minnadenryoku EPOS Plan allows users to procure 100% renewable energy at prices that are cheaper than those

Yukito Takamura
Seconded to UPDATER, Inc.
MARUI GROUP CO., LTD.

of major power companies. Users are also able to accrue EPOS points, making this plan beneficial for boththe future and the people using it. I hope to communicate just how easy it is to switch to renewable energy
in order to encourage people to make the switch.

37

FOSTERING OF
A CIRCULAR CULTURE
Raised with a natural motivation to pursue sustainability, members of younger andfuture generations could be thought of as sustainability natives. The values held bysuch sustainability natives are projected to become mainstream going forward. Circular
economies will be imperative to this new era. Here, we will introduce some of MARUIGROUP’s initiatives for creating circular economies and fostering a circular culture.

Number of individuals provided
with circular lifestyle options

More than

1.0

million customers
FY2026 Target

Circular Culture Driven by Sustainability Natives
In 2024, sustainability natives are expected to represent a
majority of the workforce in Japan. This rise indicates a pressing need to move away from prior business models foundedon mass production and mass consumption to supply moresustainable products and services.
One example of a company providing such sustainable
offerings can be seen in Sparty, Inc., which manufacturesand sells the MEDULLA brand of shampoo that it customizes
to each individual customer. Another example would be
FABRIC TOKYO Inc., which offers made-to-order business wear.

MEDULLA store offering scalp diagnosis, fragrance
testing, and other experiences only possible at a physicalstore (Yurakucho Marui)
medulla.co.jp/ (in Japanese only)

FABRIC TOKYO store functioning as a showroom primarily
used for displaying fabric samples and taking
measurements (Shinjuku Marui Main Building)fabric-tokyo.com/ (in Japanese only)

38

MARUI GROUP is developing diverse and unique businesses
together with direct-to-consumer (D2C) companies such asthese. In co-creation with D2C companies, MARUI GROUP’s
brick-and-mortar stores function as a physical platform forproviding personalized experience value. This is one format for
the new stores that do not sell, advocated by MARUI GROUP.
Co-creation with D2C companies and start-up companies will
be a central pillar of our efforts to provide options for circular
economies and sustainable lifestyles going forward.

New Circular Economy Initiatives
iKASA
MARUI GROUP is engaged in co-creation with Nature Innovation Group Co., Ltd., developerof iKASA, Japan’s first umbrella sharing service designed with the goal of reducing the useof cheap plastic umbrellas that are often discarded after a single use. With this service,customers can rent an umbrella when it rains and then return it to the most convenient
location after the rain has stopped. With more than 850 locations across Japan, this service
boasts an aggregate total of more than 200,000 registered users. www.i-kasa.com/ (in Japanese only)

TSUKURUBATSUKURUBA Inc. operates the cowcamo platform for finding, buying, and selling secondhand and renovated residential properties. MARUI GROUP is working together with thiscompany to develop a renovated rental condominium brand and associated business.

tsukuruba.com/en/

MARUI TOCLUS Kichijoji
MARUI TOCLUS Kichijoji is a share house attached to Kichijoji Marui that was developed byrenovating an existing apartment complex. Based on the concept of “living with Marui,” thisshare house offers services that address the concerns of younger generations regarding
living alone and rent payments.
marui-toclus.com/ (in Japanese only)
Photograph by Takumi Ota

VOICE
I will work together with younger generations to reduce the use of cheap plastic umbrellas.
The U22 Support Plan was launched through the iKASA service in June 2021. Targeting youths under 22
across Japan, this plan was developed based on the strong commitment of MARUI GROUP and of Nature
Innovation Group President Shoji Marukawa to support the lifestyles of younger generations. This plan garnered a positive response, with users mentioning how they didn’t need to buy umbrellas at convenience
stores anymore because there was an iKASA at their school campus or expressing their appreciation to

Kyoko Wada
Co-Creation Promotion
Department,
Co-Creation Promotion Division,
Epos Card Co., Ltd.

iKASA and EPOS for saving them from being drenched by sudden downpours. These comments gave me
great joy and convinced me to work together with younger generations to reduce the use of cheap plastic
umbrellas as my first attempt to help resolve social issues through our business.

VOICE
I hope to offer easy access to opportunities to experience circular lifestyles.
MARUI HOME SERVICE is developing its TOCLUS brand of share houses as a new business pillar for supporting members of younger generations living alone. MARUI TOCLUS Kichijoji, our first such share house,
was opened in March 2021. Linked to Kichijoji Marui via a bridge, this living facility proposes a new lifestylein which a store holds a prominent position in one’s everyday life. I hope to offer such easy access toopportunities to experience circular lifestyles through co-creation with business partners and thereby give

Nagisa Muramatsu
Business Planning Section,
TOCLUS Business Department,
MARUI HOME SERVICE Co., Ltd.

customers the chance to engage with our ideals. Moreover, it is my desire to use this share house as thestarting point for an enduring relationship with customers that continues even after they move out andthus contributes to lifetime value.

39

IMPACT TARGET 02
Creating Happiness for Individuals
The second theme addressed with regard to our impact was the happiness of individuals.
Our everyday lives have somehow become a burden. We are restricted by what is considered social etiquette, we face feelings of internal conflict as a result of our interpersonal
relationships, and we suffer from social disparities that do not reflect differences in abilities. Trapped by the confines of our current society, we all desire to break these chainsand create a society in which every individual is empowered to be themselves. To help
move us toward such a society, MARUI GROUP offers support for individual preferences
and self-actualization from the perspective of finance, investment, and consumption.

40

41

Arata Sekimoto
At only 13 years of age, Arata Sekimoto is already an unrivaled expert on yokai(traditional Japanese mythical creatures). His love of yokai extends beyond his
research to the sale of books and merchandise on yokai. In 2020, he produced
and sold keychains of a yokai known as amabie and used the proceeds fromthese sales to buy 4,000 hygienic masks, which he donated to local physician
associations and healthcare centers. Moreover, he established a company called
Omoi wo Tsukuru (“Shaping Our Sentiments”) when he was in the fifth grade ofelementary school, and he currently oversees this company as president.
egaku.thebase.in/ (in Japanese only)

Yasunori Nakagami
Yasunori Nakagami is the representative director and CEO of Misaki Capital Inc.
and has served as an external director at MARUI GROUP since 2021. He is aself-proclaimed management enthusiast, placing the management of companies
even above eating. Nakagami made his management consulting debut
immediately after graduating from university. He also acts as a long-term
investor dedicated to an emerging Japan based on the belief that management
emphasizing partnership between managers, employees, and shareholders willcontribute to improved corporate value.
www.misaki-capital.com/en/index.html

SUPPORTING EVERYONE’S HAPPINESSAND SELF-EXPRESSIONDIALOGUE 03 

YA S U N O R I N A K A G A M I
A R ATA S E K I M OT O
HIKARIS H O K I TA K A H ATA

Younger Generations Seeking the Pinnacles of Their Passions
The following is a discussion with Arata Sekimoto, a yokai researcher who started his own company while in elementary
school; Hikari, an anime and manga cosplayer active around the world who has experience as an institutional investor andmarkets her own clothing brand; and Shoki Takahata, an RC car lover and world champion racer. These individuals, each seeking the pinnacle of their passions, were met by Yasunori Nakagami, an institutional investor and self-proclaimed management enthusiast who also serves as an external director at MARUI GROUP, who asked them about their respective passions.

42

Shoki Takahata
Shoki Takahata is an unstoppable master of radio-controlled (RC) cars. First
grabbing the “wheel” when he was 10, his storied racing career includes threeconsecutive wins at the Japanese national championship as well as a victoryat the 2019 IFMAR World Championship for 1:8 IC Off-Road Cars, a world championship event held in California. The envy of RC car racers worldwide, this meticulous
craftsman carefully selects the tires and components to be used for each race
based on the course and weather, tuning his racing vehicle with millimeter-level
precision. When not busy with his day job as an office worker, Takahata will
look to broadcast his love of RC cars to the world via social media.

Hikari
Hikari refers to herself as a “financial economist cosplayer” committed toconnecting the world through cosplay. In addition to acting as a fund manager
at financial institutions both in Japan and overseas, she has visited more than
60 countries around the world as a backpacker and sometimes as a guest atoverseas events, and her fans can be found across the globe. The number ofself-made costumes she has worn over her 19-year career as a cosplayer
surpasses 200. In 2017, she started up her own clothing brand centered on
the Japanese view of “cuteness” (kawaii) with plans for overseas expansion.
www.instagram.com/hikari_green/

Yokai, RC Cars, Cosplay, andManagement—To Each Their Own
Passion
Nakagami: We have asked for you to behere today because each of you is amember of the younger generations who
has reached the pinnacle of your passion. I am not young, but I too pursued
the pinnacle of my passion—management. In fact, I see myself as a management enthusiast, and I would place
managing companies even above eating(laughs). After graduating from university, I joined a management consulting
firm. I proceeded to help clients improvetheir management ability to the greatest
degree possible over the next two

decades. I then moved on from consulting to get into investing some 15 years
ago. Previously, I had not dreamed that
I would eventually start my own company. In June 2021, I became an external
director at MARUI GROUP. I am pleased
that we were able to arrange such aforum today at which we can discuss
the dedication we have each committed
to our respective passions. Please startby introducing yourself.
Sekimoto: My name is Arata Sekimotoand I am a yokai researcher. I have loved
books since I was a little kid. My houseis filled with manga, novels, and encyclopedias. Back then, I would often get
hooked on something, like insects ordinosaurs, but would quickly lose

interest later. However, this trend
stopped when I reached yokai. Yokai aresupernatural elements spoken about inthe stories of old. I find the stories ofthese creatures incredibly interesting as
I can sense how they were born out ofpeople imposing their own thinking andimagination on things that happen.
I even created my own yokai encyclopedia when I was in fifth grade, which was
actually published by a major publisher.
Takahata: I am Shoki Takahata, the RC
car racing world champion. I first got
into RC cars when I was 10. Initially, it
was because of my parents’ influence.
We had RC cars at home, and they
asked if I wanted to try them out. I havenever liked losing, and racing, which

43

SUPPORTING EVERYONE’S
HAPPINESS AND SELF-EXPRESSION

Yokai are supernatural elements spoken about in thestories of old. I find the stories of these creatures
incredibly interesting as I can sense how they wereborn out of people imposing their own thinking andimagination on things that happen.

involves receiving a clear numeric rank,thus fit my personality. I also really enjoy
tuning my car in preparation for eachrace. RC car racing entails blazingaround tracks 600 to 700 meters long at
speeds of up to 120 kph, where a difference of a thousandth of a second can be
the difference between winning andlosing. This means that precise tuning is
crucial to ensure the car drives the way
you want it to. A change in how tight one
screw is can alter how a vehicle rolls, orleans, around corners. These kinds ofsmall details are addicting. In 2019,
I won the IFMAR World Championshipfor 1:8 IC Off-Road Cars event held in
California. This competition uses 1:8
scale cars, the largest class of cars in
RC racing. Just like in F1 and otherautomobile races, RC racing involves
teams and sponsors. The world championship takes place once every two years,
and the 2021 championship was scheduled to be held in Japan but was delayed
because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

44

I was looking forward to claiming mysecond consecutive championship win
in my country, so this outcome was a bit
disappointing.
Hikari: Hi, I’m Hikari. I am currently
working at an investment fund, andI have been active as an anime andmanga cosplayer for 19 years. I love
visiting other countries; I have gone on
backpacking trips in 60 countries, allwhile continuing my cosplay activities.
I am the type of person who strives for
perfection in the things I love. When
preparing costumes, I explore various
items, including complex wigs andoutfits, as I try to express various twodimensional characters in three dimensions. I upload the pictures I take inthese costumes onto social media, andthis has gained me a following overseas.
One time when I was invited to an overseas cosplay event, I met people who
said that they started cosplay a decadeago after learning about me. I was evenasked for an autograph for someone

who still had one of my photo books
from 10 years ago. I keep doing cosplay
because I love how sharing my passion
with other cosplayers allows me toconnect with people both in Japan andaround the world.
Takahata: I too have made a lot of
connections and had a wide range ofexperiences due to my love of RC cars.
When I won the world championship,even the rival racers were happy for me.
This experience changed how I see
things: We may be rivals on the track,
but off of it we are all the same RC car
lovers.
Sekimoto: The yokai researchers andfolklore specialists I have come to know
are almost all older than me. Even so, I
can talk with these people for hours, and
it is always a lot of fun. Still, as there are
no yokai lovers my age, I do wish I had
friends my own age who are also interested in yokai.
Nakagami: Hearing your stories, I realized
two things that all four of us have incommon. The first is the need to researchwhat we are passionate about. I candefinitely relate as a management enthusiast. The inability to stop ourselves fromgetting to the bottom of the things welove is an important part of following our
passions. The second thing is the needfor comrades with similar interests. At
first, it is fun to research by ourselves, but
in the end, we want to share our passion
with others to enjoy these activities
together. Everyone feels this way. Talking
with comrades from around the world
allows us to surpass the boundaries ofspace, our age group, and even time.

Ways to Turn One’s Passions
into a Business
Nakagami: I understand both Mr.
Sekimoto and Ms. Hikari have started
your own businesses. Could you pleasetell me a little about your businesses?
Sekimoto: When I was in fifth grade,
I founded Omoi wo Tsukuru and became

the president of this company. I waseven able to acquire a patent throughthis company. This story goes back towhen I was in third grade. Basically,
I wanted to invent something for myhomework assignment over summer
break, and I wanted my invention to besomething that would help people.
I started by asking my mom about theissues she faced. She told me that she
was having problems with how long it
took bath towels to dry after she washedthem. To fix this problem, I invented acylinder that would increase the area ofthe poles used to hang laundry out todry to allow for faster drying of evenlarger items. This was the invention forwhich I took out a patent. They started
selling my invention at ¥100 shops (theequivalent of dollar stores in the UnitedStates) in 2021. This made the decision
to start a company worth it.
Hikari: I started up a clothing brandbased on the Japanese view of “cuteness” that offers clothes people caneither wear on regular occasions or use
as cosplay items. It used to be that one
would have to make their cosplay costumes themselves, which made this avery difficult hobby to get into. I started
out knowing nothing about sewing, but
I learned by doing. To date, I have mademore than 200 costumes. Today, however, one can find low-cost costumes tobuy, which has made cosplay a moreaccessible hobby.
Nakagami: You are both turning yourpassions into businesses. What about
you, Mr. Takahata? Do you have any
interest in starting a business?
Takahata: Right now, I just want to focus
on racing, but I am interested in starting
up a business in the future. I want toprovide services that RC car lovers will
like. A little while ago, the racing community was a lot larger. The Japanesechampionship would see participation
by more than 100 people. Today, theparticipation number is like half that. RC
cars is a hobby that requires a lot of time

I keep doing cosplay because I love how sharing mypassion with other cosplayers allows me to connect
with people both in Japan and around the world.

45

SUPPORTING EVERYONE’S
HAPPINESS AND SELF-EXPRESSION

Right now, I just want to focus on racing, but I am
interested in starting up a business in the future.

and money. As a result, we are losing
many racers to video games, which you
can play from the comfort of your own
home. After I won the world championship, a local TV program asked to do afeature story on me. This story wasbroadcast on YouTube, where it has
been viewed more than a million times.
This reminded me that there are still alot of people who love RC cars.
Nakagami: If you were to start a business, it seems like it might be a goodidea to use your name as your brand.
You are the world champion after all.
Takahata: Thank you for the advice.
Why did you decide to start a business,
Mr. Nakagami?
Nakagami: After spending two decades
helping companies chart a better course
in a management consulting firm, I cameto think that I could become an investor.
I followed this inclination to join theinvestment industry. Starting a businessis something that you cannot do if you
overthink things; the fear of failure willstop you in your tracks.

46

Hikari: I work with some unlisted companies. A lot of companies suffered after
the 2008 financial crisis. Companies
started based on the passions of managers making amazing products, butthere are often times when the managers are more like craftsmen and are notreally good at managing. It is great tohave a passion, but there are many
managers who cannot turn their passion
into corporate value.
Nakagami: During Japan’s period of
rapid economic growth, it was importantto produce the things people wanted inmass quantities to ensure that everyone
could buy them. Today, however, goods
do not sell as much. Also, people don’t
go to stores as often because of the
COVID-19 pandemic. Everyone is looking
for a way to keep their business alive,
but no one has found a good answer.
I think we can see a viable answer in
MARUI GROUP’s approach of supporting
individual preferences. RC cars are notsomething that should be mass-produced
for mass consumption, and there is

probably not a lot of demand for yokai.
Regardless, the niche demand for suchitems is very strong among enthusiasts.
People with niche interests want toimmerse themselves in their interests
and talk with people who share theseinterests as much as possible. A company could probably find success bycatering to such niche demand andreflecting this in their corporate value.

Result of Spreading One’s Passion
Hikari: What I was most impressed withwhen talking with you all today is how
everyone is simply continuing to following their passion, rather than jumping on
the latest bandwagon. Cosplay was not
a common hobby back when I started,and no one could understand my passion. I got a lot of flak from people
around me. Not even my family could
understand. Luckily, I was able to find afew people who could understand, and
we enjoyed our passion together. I justcontinued with my hobby, and eventuallythings like manga, anime, and cosplay,which had been viewed as stuff fornerds, got widespread attention throughthe government’s Cool Japan campaign.
It is not like I was trying to make cosplay
mainstream, I just kept on doing it
because it was what I loved.
Takahata: I can relate. When I started
RC cars at age 10, my friends justthought I was playing with toys, buttoday they are cheering me on. The
same goes for the company I work at.
My coworkers first saw my RC car
racing as a hobby, but I started toreceive a lot of support after I told them
about my victories at the Japanesechampionship and other events. I sometimes have to take days off to go toraces. Luckily, my company understands.
Nakagami: It is true that niche interests
eventually become mainstream as more
and more people become interested inthem. The yokai that Mr. Sekimoto loves
may still be only a small niche, but I am
sure the number of people who shareyour interest will grow if you keep at it.
As these allies increase, you will likely
see more interest among those yourage, and before you know it, yokai will be
gaining attention on a global scale.

Sekimoto: My research has found that
there is an astounding number of legends about yokai and other supernaturalelements in Japan. In other countries, it
is common for monotheist beliefs like
Christianity to be the norm, with othersupernatural elements being relegatedto the domains of demons and fairies.
Japan, however, has a lot of gods, andstories of supernatural elements are
passed down in forms such as legends
about yokai.
Nakagami: Japan is said to have eight
million gods. These gods take the formof trees, mountains, and rivers. Thisbelief system seems to be founded on
the principle that there is not one main
character in life.
Sekimoto: That’s right. Japan evenpresents the belief that words havepower, that everything in this world, evenwords and colors, can be inhabited by aheart, a soul, or a god. There was anancient Shinto tradition of purifying
oneself by washing off any dirt before
presenting oneself before a god. We
continue this tradition today in the formof bathing. I think that there is no othercountry in the world where people bathe
as much as Japan. Such customs may

be unconsciously linked to culture andlessons handed down from the past.
Nakagami: You surprised me with how
knowledgeable you all are. Hearing you
speak of your passions reminded me ofa book about Kenichi Kato, editor of anold manga magazine. It is a criticalbiography of Kato, who published amanga magazine based on the belief
that manga was beneficial to the development of youths. This magazine waspublished as a family business, and it
started the tradition that would become
the Japanese manga of today. In a now
famous apartment building in Tokyo, heprovided then popular manga artist
Osamu Tezuka an apartment to workout of and housed various manga artists
who had not yet found an audience.
This building was a place where a wide
variety of talent was cultivated. What
I want to say is that even something likemanga, which is now a major cultural
cornerstone loved around the world,
started from the passion, the love,of a single editor. Whether it be anime,
cosplay, RC cars, yokai, or somethingelse, when one’s passion spreads, theresult will be more people around theworld becoming happy.

47

IMPACT TARGET 02

Creating Happiness for Individuals
People are plagued by as many instances of suffering as the number of dreams they pursue. However, no one should beforced to give up on their dream or have their dream denied because of the circumstances in which they find themselves.
Every individual has limitless potential, and the optimistic outlook toward this potential that we should all be allowed tofeel is the source of innovation. MARUI GROUP aspires to provide options that allow everyone to embrace their individuality and find happiness regardless of their age, gender, nationality, physical characteristics, or circumstances. In thismanner, we are offering support for individual preferences and self-actualization and helping to accelerate the realizationof a society that allows people to achieve individual empowerment.

Overall Vision and Key Performance Indicators

Creating happiness for individuals

Impact Target 02

Priority Measures

Initiatives

Key Performance Indicators(FY2026 Targets)48

Assistance for self-actualization

Provision of financial services
founded on principle ofco-creation of creditability

Support for
next-generationcompanies

Support for individual preferences

New business creationand co-creative
investments

Development of credit
cards for which cardholders feel a strong
affinity

Number of individuals provided with financial services based on co-creation of creditability:
More than 4.5 million customers
Number of individuals provided with support for individual preferences: More than 3.5 million customers
Number of new businesses created: Aggregate total of 20 or more

WHO?

Individuals with hopes orIndividuals with ideas for

Individuals with interests thatdreams for the futuretransforming the future

fall into one of endless niches

WHAT?
Realization of a society in which everyone
can be themselves and find individual
empowerment

Support for individual preferences andself-actualization from the perspective offinances, investment, and consumption

Utilization of internet, blockchain, andother technologies to accomplish goals

HOW?
Provision of financial
services founded onprinciple of co-creationof creditability forcustomers of all ages,
genders, nationalities, andphysical characteristics

Co-creation with communities through means
such as network andmonetary support for
aspiring entrepreneurs

Development of new
businesses throughinvestment in internaland external ideas forshaping the future

Production of collaboration cards that automatically contribute toassociated organizations

Fostering of communities that draw individuals
with similar interests

OUR IMPACT
Number of individuals provided with financial

Number of individuals provided with support

services based on co-creation of creditability

for individual preferences

More than

4.5 million

Number of new businesses createdMore than

3.5 million

customers

customers

FY2026 Target

FY2026 Target

Aggregate
total of20 or more
FY2026 Target

2.8 million
customers

130,000
customers

FY2021

FY202149

Support for
Pursuing Interests
MARUI GROUP supports individuals with an endless range of interests, including
anime, K-pop, veganism, cosmetics, art, cafes, camping, saunas, and do-it-yourself
projects. The Anime Business Department was established in 2016, primarily with astaff comprising employees who were passionate about anime. The establishment of
this department sparked the emergence of various other employee groups offering
their support for a specific interest. When people with shared interests are able togather together, it creates a positive atmosphere that is conducive to self-actualizationand self-expression. In this section, we would like to talk about the passion employees
devote toward supporting such interests.

ANIME

Anime Boasting Global-Scale Popularity
With global-scale popularity, anime is one of Japan’s most well-known pop culture elements. Anime series
often monopolize the top slots in the popularity rankings of video streaming services, and the impact of anime
on society and industry is growing with each coming year.
MARUI GROUP’s Anime Business Department was established with a staff centered on anime-loving
employees passionate about supporting other anime fans. In addition, Marui stores have been holding anime
events to give fans opportunities to better enjoy their passion. Our anime business sees a never-ending
stream of new ideas for supporting this interest, including planning and selling original goods to help fansbuild their collections of merchandise based on their favorite anime series and the issuing of EPOS cards
bearing anime-inspired designs. We have been witnessing a constant increase in the annual number of fansvisiting event sites and in the number of events themselves, indicating the growth of the population of people
who share this interest and our ideals.
Ratio of Content Collaboration
Cardholders Among All New Cardholders(FY2020)

Content
collaboration
cardholders
16%
Others84%

Event based on increasingly popularTokyo Revengers
Ken Wakui, Kodansha Ltd., Tokyo Revengers Movie Production Committee, 2020

50

Annual Number of Events
FY2017

Approx.
200

Establishment of Anime Business Department

FY2022(Forecast)

FY2026(Target)Event based on highly popular Jujutsu Kaisen
Gege Akutami, Shueisha Inc., Jujutsu Kaisen Production Committee

Approx. 700

Start of digitalcontent events

900

I su ppor tyou

I was able to create a collaboration card based on my favorite anime series!

r int e re s t!
Marina Takao
Sales Section 1,
Anime Business Department
MARUI CO., LTD.

A number of years ago, I visited a comic market event attended by the company that held the copyrights
for my favorite anime series. I spoke with them a little at this event, and this sparked a series of otherconversations that eventually culminated in the creation of a collaboration card based on that series.
After I transferred from the Anime Business Department to a store, I found myself serving a customer
with that card. When they said that they loved the design, it made me super happy. I returned to theAnime Business Department after two years working at the store to find that the department had
branched out to also deal with YouTube, streaming apps, and other digital content. We are now able tosupport the interests of an even wider range of people!

Growing Assortment of Anime Cards Promising toInclude Your Favorite
MARUI GROUP’s anime-related collaboration cards began in2014 with a card based on Otomate, a brand of video games©2021 San-X Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

©2021 San-X Co., Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

©khara, inc.

©naganoaimed at women. In the years that followed, we proceeded todevelop an ever-growing assortment of anime cards ranging
from cards associated with popular anime series, such as
Gintama, Neon Genesis Evangelion, and ONE PIECE, to lesser
known series. We will continue to build upon our lineup ofcollaboration cards so that everyone will be able to find a card
based on their favorite series and have that card occupy apermanent position in their wallet.

I su ppor tyou

I want to support the interests of both players and fans!

r int e re s t!

The Anime Business Department is currently rolling out services aimed at supporting video game players on YouTube and streaming apps as well as their fans. For example, we are holding events at Maruistores that serve as opportunities for players to use to “show off their stuff” and earn a following. Fanscan also build solidarity with their favorite players and other fans by attending such events. This is justone way we are allowing MARUI GROUP’s media to be used as a stage in our efforts to promote cocreation with digital content. I hope to help make MARUI GROUP a platform holder that uses its assets
to support people’s interests in the future.

Kei Ogawa
Sales Section 1,
Anime Business Department
MARUI CO., LTD.

Nearly 300,000 Twitter Followers
The official Marui no Anime Twitter account celebrated thefifth anniversary of its creation with nearly 300,000 followers(as of December 1, 2021), and this number continues to grow.
This Twitter account is used as a venue for providing information on limited-time events at Marui and Modi stores andBirthday event for popular multi-creator
P-Maru Sama held at Marui store© P丸様。

items sold online as well as for conducting campaigns likefandom surveys. Attracting tweets lovingly crafted by fanspushing their favorite series, the account has become abustling hub of activity. Marui no Anime Twitter will continue
to function as a venue for new discoveries and encountersrelated to one’s interests on into the future.
Official Marui no Anime Twitter account(in Japanese only)@marui_anime

First physical location of YouTube anime production
and distribution company Plott Inc.
©Plott Inc. 2021

51

K-POP

K-Pop Enjoying a Passionate Fandom
K-pop is a genre of music that enjoys a passionate fandom around the world. Fans are so dedicated that they
will be seen displaying signs advertising the birthdays and debut anniversaries of their favorite artists, preparing subtitles for television programs in which these artists appear, and otherwise expressing their passion inSouth Korea and countries around the world.
MARUI GROUP has set up a K-pop division with the goal of further catalyzing the immense passion thatfans exert toward this interest. The activities of this division include online community forums and events at
Marui stores.
Brief History of South Korean Media Boom
2004

Broadcast of Winter Sonata debuts in Japan, sparking an explosion in popularity of
Bae Yong-joon and other South Korean actors

2010

Start of K-pop boom led by artists like TVXQ, Big Bang, Girls’ Generation, and Kara2015

BTS claims No. 1 spot on U.S. Billboard 200

2020

Video productions like the film Parasite and the TV drama Itaewon Class gain attention2021

K-pop artists take to the global stage, making frequent appearances on overseas music programs

I su ppor tr int e re s t!

I fell down the K-pop rabbit hole after watching a BTS performance. K-pop fans are quick to move tosupport their favorite artists, and we hold events related to K-pop and South Korean dramas at Maruistores for the benefit of such fans. We have even started an online community called CHOA Comm toprovide a venue for exchanges between fans. This community has recently been working to help out
fans that were unable to attend certain events by having fellow fans post reports of these events. I am
committed to developing fandom businesses that will make fans thankful for the support MARUIGROUP offers for their fandom.

youI hope to make fans thankful for the support MARUI GROUP offers
for their fandom!

Mayu Hinohara
Sales Section 2,
Anime Business Department
MARUI CO., LTD.

Community Website for Linking People’s CHOA (Likes)
CHOA Comm is a community website created to provide a venue throughwhich lovers of South Korean culture can connect with those who share their
passion regardless of time or place. As of December 6, 2021, this thriving
online fan community had around 22,000 registered users enjoying theopportunity to tell others about their recommended South Korean dramas
and dishes or to talk about their favorite K-pop idols and actors.
CHOA Comm community website (in Japanese only)
www.beach.jp/community/CHOA-0101/index
Check out the official CHOA Comm Twitter account for the latest event information.
@choa_0101

Events Designed by Fans to Excite Fans
The most important thing to consider when planning an eventis the emotional response it will produce, and MARUI GROUP
employs a variety of techniques to excite fans at its events.
For example, at an event commemorating the sale of a photo bookof a popular actor, we prepared a tomato prop that resembled
Commemorative photographevent where fans posed withtomato prop resembling
tomato held by actor

52

Space for visitors to write freely about theirfavorite South Korean dramas or K-pop artists

the tomato held by the actor on the book’s cover for fans to use
when taking photographs. For events related to K-pop idols, we
distribute items that are must-haves for birthday events.

Support for
Pursuing Interests

K-COSMETICS
K-Cosmetics at the Leading Edge of Beauty
K-cosmetics* are drawing global interest as they continue to set new trends in the field of cosmetics. The greatest appeal of these cosmetics is the high quality they offer relative to their affordable
price, allowing them to capture the hearts of fans of all genders, ages, and nationalities.
To support this fandom, MARUI GROUP created KOREAJU, a service that offers a lineup ofrecommended K-cosmetic products to allow fans to shop for the product that fits them best withpeace of mind through both physical and e-commerce venues.
* Korean cosmetics

I su ppor t

I want to evolve KOREAJU into a community of K-cosmetics lovers!

y
ou

r in
t e re s t!

K-pop was the gateway through which I fell in love with K-cosmetics. At KOREAJU events, I have had
the joy of chatting with customers about K-pop as I help them pick out cosmetic products, and thesecustomers have mentioned that they wished we did these events all the time. I want to make KOREAJU
more than just a place to buy products; I want to evolve it into a community of K-cosmetics lovers andto help create more fans of South Korea through this community.

Erika Yokoyama
K-Cosmetics Business
Department
okos Co., Ltd.

KOREAJU Lineup Promising Something for Everyone
KOREAJU offers more than 800 K-cosmetic products from 50
brands through its e-commerce website, and we offer new
limited-time KOREAJU sets every month that provide discounts and special bonuses. KOREAJU events are periodicallyheld at physical stores to offer customers an opportunity toshop while actually trying out products.
Event at non-MARUI GROUP store

Top 3 Recommendations from KOREAJU Staff

No. 1 High cost performance face masks

Official KOREAJU website (in Japanese only)
koreaju.0101.co.jp/
Check out the official KOREAJU Instagram
account for information on popularand staff-recommended cosmetic products.
@koreaju_official

No. 2 Eyeshadow available in a wide assortment of types
No. 3 Lip tint that won’t get on your mask

I love seeing customers having fun picking out cosmetics!

y
ou

r in
t e re s t!

I am a member of the KOREAJU Support Team, and I help out with the operation of events and with ourofficial Instagram account. I continued to apply for this position through our internal open application
system until I was eventually chosen, and I have even been selected to staff events twice. I love
K-cosmetics as well as trying out cosmetic products with customers to help them find new likes andmaybe even new favorites. Businesses that support interests allow us employees to use our interests to
spread the interests of customers. I will continue working to deliver higher levels of service so that I canbetter give form to the input and desires of customers.

I su ppor t

Shiori Yamaguchi
KOREAJU Support Team
Women’s Shoes Sales Floor,
Machida MaruiMARUI CO., LTD.

53

New Lifestyle Option of Veganism
Veganism is garnering attention from both the perspectives of environmental preservation and health.
The influence of this lifestyle is spreading, and we have recently seen a rise in brands that do not use leather
products or conduct animal experiments in both the fashion and beauty industries. There might even betimes when you are using a vegan product without even knowing it. Focused on food, the element of thevegan lifestyle that is easiest to incorporate into our everyday lives, our Vegan Business Department is­developing and selling vegan confections that do not use animal products and sharing how to enjoy suchtreats via social media.

I su ppor t

y
ou

r in
t e re s t!
Setsuko Kaneko
Vegan Business Department
okos Co., Ltd.

Support for
Pursuing Interests

VEGANISM

I really get the feeling that we are delivering the joy of choice to our customers.
We launched the vee ga boo vegan confection mail order service in May 2021. Since the start of thisservice, I have been able to see the joy it brings to customers while receiving input expressing this joy,and these outpourings have become my source of motivation. At events, I have seen the eyes of children
with allergies light up when they are told that they can eat anything we offered, and this makes me really
happy. However, I realize that eggs and dairy products are not the only things people can be allergic to;they can have wheat and soy allergies too. We therefore offer a wide variety of vegan brands and foods,
really giving me the feeling that we are delivering the joy of choice to our customers.

Sets Offering the Excitement of Trying Various
Delicious Vegan Confections
Launched in May 2021, vee ga boo is a mail order service
through which users receive sets containing a different
assortment of meticulously selected vegan confections
every month. Each month, users will be treated to confections from three to five different brands, meaning that
Brands rotating on a monthly basis let customers enjoy
new treats every month.

Instagram Account Offering Up-to-the-Minute
Information
Followers of the official vee ga boo Instagram accountwill be treated to up-to-the-minute information on ourmonthly confection sets, recommended brands, andevents. We also arrange live broadcasts with the producers of these brands to give followers a behind-thescenes look at the origins of these brands and the
production of their confections. You can even get
exclusive coupons and other bonuses.
Official vee ga boo Instagram account (in Japanese only)@vee_ga_boo_official

54

everyone is sure to find something they like.
vee ga boo website (in Japanese only)
vee-ga-boo.jp/

EMPOWERMENT

Flagship Shops of Brands
Supporting Individual
Empowerment Opening
at Marui Stores

MARUI GROUP continues co-creation with brand holders that resonate
with our ideal of supporting individual preferences. Here, we will lookat two such companies that have recently opened flagship shops in
Marui stores: DINETTE inc. and BULK HOMME Co., Ltd.
Both of these brands have won strong support from customers forthe high levels of craftsmanship they devote to their exquisite products as well as for the overall narrative associated with these brands.
The flagship shops are steeped in the aesthetic of their respective
brands, and their knowledgeable staff are reliable sources of beauty
advice. Both shops are sure to offer something that you will love.

Brand Offering Items That Women Have Always Wanted
DINETTE is a company charged with a mission of creating ahappier world through the power of women. This company’s
beauty-related social media accounts supply the latest cosmetics information users seek along with insight and othercontent to help users become even more beautiful. Moreover,
DINETTE’s private PHOEBE BEAUTY UP brand has been
shaped by information on user needs acquired through various media venues. This commitment to user needs is the

PHOEBE BEAUTY UP shop providing an environment for
taking photos to post on social media (Yurakucho Marui)reason this brand is loved by so many.
Official PHOEBE BEAUTY UP website (in Japanese only)
phoebebeautyup.com/lp?u=gold
Official DINETTE Instagram account (in Japanese only)@dinette_inc

Empowerment of Men Worldwide throughMen’s Beauty Products
BULK HOMME defines its mission as earning the No. 1 shareof the global men’s skincare market. Inspired by this mission,
BULK HOMME is supporting the lifestyles of men around theworld through men’s beauty products. Expanding into Asia in2017 and then into the United Kingdom and France in 2020,
this company has continued to steadily grow its fan base.
BULK HOMME only offers products with assured quality
verified through a process of repeated inspections. Its physical flagship shop allows customers to try out cosmetic products and feel the actual textures of skin products while talking
with staff members.

BULK HOMME THE STAND shop that uses the latest
technologies to recreate the brand’s aesthetic(Shinjuku Marui Main Building)

Official BULK HOMME website (in Japanese only)
bulk.co.jp/
Report on MARUI GROUP’s employee visit to BULK HOMME THE STAND shop(in Japanese only)
www.to-mare.com/news/2021/bulk-homme.html

VOICE
Our new flagship shop has seen positive reception.
BULK HOMME is a brand founded on the goal of capitalizing on Japan’s acute talent for research anddevelopment on beauty and skincare products to earn fame around the world. We decided to set up shop
in a Marui store after developing a line of cosmetic products for men, as it is important to have a place andservices that allow people to try out products, especially cosmetics. Fortunately, our new flagship shop has
seen positive reception from a wide variety of customers, ranging from those who have previously pur-

Takuya Noguchi

chased our products online to those who had their first experience with our products at the shop.

CEO and Representative Director,
BULK HOMME Co., Ltd.

55

Vegan Baking with
Baking of Vegan Treats That Are Friendly Toward People and the Planet
Vegan foods have recently been drawing attention for reasons other than environmental preservation benefits.
However, the lack of stores dealing in vegan foods in Japan means that they are still not easily available to everyone.
In May 2021, MARUI GROUP launched its vee ga boo service, which delivers meticulously selected vegan treats
to customers on a monthly basis, to make vegan foods feel more accessible. Seeking to further communicate theappeal of vegan treats to a wider range of people, we employed the guidance of EIGHTABLISH INC. (8ablish), a company that supplies products for the vee ga boo service, to hold a baking session in which we made vegan treats thatare friendly toward people and the planet together with children who will help shape the future.

Recipe for Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Muffins(Batch of Six)
A Baking rice flour 
Soy flour 
Almond powder 
Baking powder 

160 g
40 g
50 g
10 g

B Canola oil 
Soy milk 
Maple syrup 

70 g
170 g
80 g

C Chocolate chips 

40 g

1

2

Select toppings based on preference(chocolate chips, almonds, etc.)
Ingredients free of eggs and other animal products

3

Pour soy milk and then maple syrup into the canola oilfrom group B and stir thoroughly

56

4

Pour ingredients from group B into the mixed ingredients from group A and mix with a spatula

Mix ingredients from group A and pass through a sieve5

Add chocolate chips from group C while powdery
texture still remains

6

7

Use spoon to transfer dough to muffin molds withdiameter of 7.0 cm and depth of 3.5 cm, bake in baking
cup as soon as possible after measuring dough volume(muffins will rise less if too much time has passed)8

Add toppings like chocolate chips or almonds

Preheat oven to 180ºC and bake for 30 minutes

A delicious treat isa reward for a job
well done!

Masazumi (age 5) andAko (age 7) enjoyed theirfirst time baking.

8ablishWhat are vegan baked goods?
Vegan baked goods are confections made using only plantderived ingredients and without using honey, eggs, dairy
products, or other animal products. These treats can beenjoyed by children and adults alike, even those with allergies or who have embraced diets that are friendly toward theenvironment.

A video of this vegan baking session is available on MARUI GROUP’s community YouTube
channel (in Japanese only).
www.to-mare.com/ytube/

Established in 2000, 8ablish is a company that provides vegan
confections based on its slogan of UNIVERSAL PLEASURE FOR
EVERYONE. They are committed to providing treats that can beloved universally by people of all ages and that offer peace of mind
for both producers and eaters regardless of the dietary restrictions
they may face based on their physical conditions, religion, or beliefs.
In August 2021, 8ablish opened its latest store in Toyama Prefecture,adding to existing locations in the Minami-Aoyama and Ginza areasof Tokyo.

8ablish website (in Japanese only)
www.8ablish.com/
8ablish online shop (in Japanese only)
8ablish.shop/

Parlor 8ablishvee ga boo service offering a chance to enjoy various vegan confections
Official vee ga boo website (in Japanese only)
vee-ga-boo.jp
Official vee ga boo Instagram account (in Japanese only)
www.instagram.com/vee_ga_boo_official/

57

ASSISTANCE FOR ACHIEVINGSELF-ACTUALIZATIONMARUI GROUP has launched two programs for the purpose of accelerating open innovation andcreating new businesses. These programs are drawing participation from members of younger
generations boasting innovative ideas as well as from young entrepreneurs driven by theirconvictions to build a more prosperous society through business. Through these programs,
MARUI GROUP’s assets and expertise are being used to offer assistance for achieving
self-actualization.

Future Accelerator Gateway Programfor University and Graduate School Students
Together with IT education program operator Life is Tech, Inc., MARUI GROUP
launched the Future Accelerator Gateway program in October 2020. This program
solicits new business ideas from university and graduate school students (or frompeople in the equivalent age range of 18 to 24). Participants whose ideas are selected
form teams with MARUI GROUP employees to refine their business ideas under theguidance of entrepreneur mentors over a period of three months. The mentor for the
first iteration of the program was Life is Tech CEO Yusuke Mizuno, while second iteration participants were mentored by BASE CEO Yuta Tsuruoka and TSUKURUBA CEO
Hiroki Murakami. Presentations were judged by well-known entrepreneurs together
with MARUI GROUP President Hiroshi Aoi. This robust support network aided the
young participants in shaping their passions toward the businesses they envisioned.

September–Early December

Mid-December–Mid-March

Mid-March

Idea Submission and Screening

Business Plan Formulation

Plan Presentation and Judging• Submission of business idea

• Team meetings for refining business plans•P resentation and proposal of plans
refined over three-month period• Once-a-fortnight mentoring forums•J udging and presentation of awards• Selection of 7–8 teams throughwritten and interview screening• Introduction of MARUI GROUP
employees into 7–8 selected teams

 he passion of younger generations rekindled our spirit ofT
entrepreneurship.
It was amazing watching the students participating in the Future Accelerator
Gateway program put their heads together to come up with their ideas and having
fun while giving their absolute all amid the tense atmosphere on the day of thepresentations. The open-minded, unfettered ideas produced by the participants
were truly stimulating, and it rekindled our spirit of entrepreneurship. I hope that thestudents will remain conscious of the importance of being proactive and initiating
action so that they will not be hesitant to embark on the first step of new ventures.
“Iʼm La Floria” brand of care products for delicate areas, developed by Mellia Inc. (in Japanese only)
im-official.com/

58

Comments from Judges ofFirst Program Iteration

Yuki Hara

Yuki Wada

Representative Director
and CEO
Mellia Inc.

Representative Director
and CEO
Mellia Inc.

Marui Co-Creation Pitch Programfor Start-Up Companies
Marui Co-Creation Pitch is a program for soliciting business ideas from start-up companies created jointly with SAMURAI INCUBATE INC. in February 2021. SAMURAI
INCUBATE conducts venture capital businesses in which it invests and supports thegrowth of relatively young start-up companies and promotes open innovation withlarge companies and municipal and other government agencies. The first Marui
Co-Creation Pitch event saw the proposal of business ideas for 10 companies selectedfrom among 35 applicants via written and interview screening. Each of the proposals
exuded a strong sense of passion and sparked a lively back-and-forth of questions
with judges. In the end, four companies were selected for the grand prize. Co-creationis already underway with some of these companies, like HERALBONY, winner of a grandprize as well as the audience prize, with which we are issuing collaboration cards.

Four Grand Prize Winners
Name

Business Activities

Ellie Inc.

Development of SILKFOOD, a next-generation food product made fromsilkworms

ShareWing,
Co., Ltd.

Operation of OTERA STAY service for staying overnight at temples and
CLOUD HOTEL online service for experiencing pilgrims’ quarters

DATAFLUCT, Inc.

Provision of solutions for resolving corporate and social issues using
data science

HERALBONY

Social measures based on the theme of combining art with disabilities(sale of artworks, fabric art, space production)

HERALBONY EPOS Card Moving Society
Forward with Each PurchaseCommitted to its mission of helping people express their unique color,
HERALBONY is a start-up company that works with artists with disabilities across Japan to create a new culture focused on welfare. MARUIGROUP partnered with this company to launch the HERALBONY EPOS
Card in November 2021 through which 0.1% of every purchase is
HERALBONY EPOS Card

Pop-up shop opened to commemorate
launch of HERALBONY EPOS Card
(Yurakucho Marui)
Photograph by Shinsuke Sugino

donated to welfare facilities via HERALBONY. By using this card, customers are able to donate to art creation, gallery operation, and welfare
facilities when they do their everyday shopping.

yr int e re s t!

MARUI GROUP cannot achieve its vision and mission alone; it will need to create new value throughopen innovation. The Marui Co-Creation Pitch program was born out of this recognition as we searched
for ways to develop a program that could create new businesses through open innovation by combining
the assets and experience of start-ups with those of MARUI GROUP.
We have received a number of unique ideas for co-creation through this program, and I was proud tohelp initiate our first co-creative undertaking through this program. I want to help evolve the Marui
Co-Creation Pitch program so that it can keep producing MARUI GROUP’s crowning co-creation
success stories.

I su ppor tou

I want to help produce MARUI GROUP’s crowning co-creation success stories.

Sho Osawa
New Business Development
Corporate Planning Division
MARUI GROUP CO., LTD.

Behind-the-scenes discussion about Marui Co-Creation Pitch 2021 (in Japanese only)
www.to-mare.com/tf/2021/005.html

59

NEW BUSINESSESBORN OUT OF IDEAS
FROM YOUNGER
GENERATIONSDIALOGUE 04 

K I M I H I R O K AT S U M I
YU S U K E M I Z U N O

YU T O T O M I TA
H I R O YA N A K A M U R A

New Businesses Created from the Ideas ofYounger Generations
Future Accelerator Gateway is a program through which members of younger
generations are invited to propose business ideas with the potential to change thefuture. Those ideas selected are refined over a period of roughly three months
through collaboration with the presidents of start-ups and employees of MARUIGROUP. The first iteration of this program was held over the period from December
2020 to March 2021. We met with two representatives of younger generations
who participated in this iteration of the program to hear about their experiencesin the program, what they learned from it, and the possibilities for the future.

Please refer to the following website for more information on Future Accelerator Gateway 2020 (in Japanese only).
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/future/archive/001.html

60

Futures Shaped by Program
Participants
Nakamura: It has been a while. In Future
Accelerator Gateway, I participated as a
MARUI GROUP mentor in the Allesgoodteam led by Mr. Katsumi. Mr. Mizuno,
meanwhile, attended to all teams, offering valuable input as an entrepreneur
mentor. Today, I wanted to hear about
your perspectives on the program. Let’s
start by introducing ourselves. Would
you like to go first, Mr. Mizuno?
Mizuno: Sure. My name is Yusuke Mizuno.
I started an educational technology
venture company called Life is Tech in2010. This company teaches junior highand high school students about IT andcomputer programming. We are not only
about teaching, though. We have set a
medium-term target of fostering 1.2
million innovators by 2025. By fosteringsuch innovators, we hope to cultivate acapacity to change society and support
people’s happiness. Life is Tech shares
MARUI GROUP’s vision: We want ourbusiness to contribute to a better society
for future generations.
Katsumi: I am Kimihiro Katsumi, CEO of
Allesgood. This company offers

ETHICAL SHUKATSU, a job-hunting
platform designed to introduce companies actively addressing climate change,poverty, and other social issues to students looking to work at such companies.
My decision to start such a company
was based on the struggles I personally
faced finding a job. I had wanted tochoose a company from the perspectiveof social issues, but there was no effective means of searching for such companies at the time. This experience led
to the idea for ETHICAL SHUKATSU. I
like to think I am quick to act, and when
the idea sprung into my head, I immediately registered it as a company. It wasaround that time that I learned of the
Future Accelerator Gateway program,and I jumped on the opportunity.
Nakamura: I understand the ETHICALSHUKATSU platform is already inservice.
Katsumi: It has only been about threemonths since we launched the platform,
and we have just now reached the phaseat which we are identifying and addressing user issues. Our mission is to accelerate the move toward sustainability inindustry, in businesses. Human resources
are a crucial management resource. By

matching companies dedicated toresolving social issues and bettering thefuture with human resources who lookto do the same, we hope to foster innovators who can achieve the desirable
impacts advocated by Mr. Mizuno and
MARUI GROUP.
Mizuno: Your presentation for the Future
Accelerator Gateway program was really
impressive, and you yourself have acertain appeal. At first, you seemed tolack the skills to implement the idea for
ETHICAL SHUKATSU, but the idea itself
was really good as it coincided withthe times.
Katsumi: Thank you. Despite your kindwords, it was not me, but Mr. Tomita’s
team that took first place.

Nakamura: That makes for a goodsegue; Mr. Tomita, would you like tointroduce yourself and explain yourbusiness idea and reason for participating in the Future Accelerator Gateway
program?
Tomita: Yes. My name is Yuto Tomita. I
am looking to develop a textbook distribution service for students who areunable to purchase textbooks due toeconomic reasons. In Japan, there iscurrently a move to digitize junior highand high school textbooks. I see noreason why we can’t do this for university textbooks, and I therefore plan todevelop a service that will allow for
textbooks to be viewed via a smartphone or computer. I found out about

Kimihiro Katsumi
Representative Director and CEO
Allesgood Inc.
Born in 1998, Kimihiro Katsumi founded
Allesgood Inc. in response to issues he saw
with the existing job-hunting process in Japan.
This company operates ETHICAL SHUKATSU,a more social issue-oriented version of a
LinkedIn-type platform designed to introduce
ethical companies seeking to resolve social
issues to talented students.

61

NEW BUSINESSES BORN OUT OF IDEAS
FROM YOUNGER GENERATIONS

Future Accelerator Gateway because my
two teammates and I were working as
mentors for junior high and high school
students at Life is Tech. We decided that
we wanted to try to create something,
and this led to our decision to enter the
program.
Nakamura: How far has your service
come along?
Tomita: At the moment, we are working
with a university accelerator program tobuild connections with publishers. Ourservice is dependent upon the cooperation of the publishers who hold the
copyrights to the books we hope todigitize and distribute. However, there
are many people in publishing who still
are averse to digitizing books. Even if
we are able to launch this service, thefirst issue we will need to address willbe the fact that a large number of students lack the credit cards necessary
to use subscription services. In the
Future Accelerator Gateway program,
we advanced discussion based on theassumption that we would be collaborating with MARUI GROUP. This gave rise to
the ideas of linking the service to EPOS
cards or issuing prepaid cards that could
be used with the service.

Freedom of Youth
Katsumi: Aside from missing out on firstplace, there is something else that reallystuck with me from the program. Twodays before the final presentation, I had
the chance to give a preliminary presentation to Mr. Mizuno. At the same time,
we had already received a contract forour service from a customer, and we hada rough date of when we would start torecord sales. I was therefore sure that
we would get first place. However, Mr.
Mizuno said our preliminary presentation was “boring.”
Mizuno: I don’t recall saying that (everyone laughs).
Nakamura: From my standpoint as amentor, I thought “this is bad.” However,when we looked back at the presentation materials, I could see what you weretalking about. The presentation looked
like one that a major company would do
to try and secure a budget. It really wasboring. The problem could be traced
back to us, the members of the teamfrom MARUI GROUP. Based on our own
preconceptions, we had suggested thatthe presentation be made more logical.
Katsumi: I cannot remember a time
when I have felt more unnerved. Then,
Mr. Mizuno told me that the presentation
just didn’t seem like me. It was then thatit hit me. I had focused so much on
rational explanations that I had inadvertently stripped the passion out of thepresentation. We completely reworked
the presentation over the next two days
to better communicate our passion. This

Yusuke Mizuno
Representative Director and CEO
Life is Tech, Inc.
Yusuke Mizuno was born in Hokkaido in 1982. During
his time at graduate school, Mizuno spent two years
as a part-time physics teacher at a high school. Aftercompleting the graduate program, he joined a humanresource consulting firm. It was in July 2010 that
Mizuno founded Life is Tech, Inc., and this company
formed a capital alliance with MARUI GROUP in 2019.
Through this company he started up Life is Tech!, aprogramming and IT camp and education programfor junior high and high school students that employs
the IT education methods used in Silicon Valley.

62

Yuto Tomita
Born in 1999, Yuto Tomita acted as a programming
mentor at Life is Tech while he was in university. He
established iisa to develop a textbook distribution service
for university students, and he is currently working tocommercialize this service.

experience taught me the importance oflooking forward when we fail.
Mizuno: If you had given up there, you
would have failed as an entrepreneur. I
made a point of speaking my mind withno concern about how you would react
to it. If you cannot respond appropriately
to criticism, you are not cut out to be anentrepreneur. People grow not with time,
but rather through an ongoing processof responding to criticism. You, Mr.
Katsumi, are here today because youwere able to respond appropriately tosuch criticism.
Tomita: I too took a very orthodox
approach toward the program. Luckily,
Mr. Mizuno helped me amend myapproach. There is a law that says digitized books cannot be borrowed or lent,so I was convinced that we would haveto distribute printed books. However,there was no way we could make thatprofitable. After struggling with thisquandary for about a month, Mr. Mizuno
told me that I should try and free myself
of preconceptions. He also suggested
that I start by making a product I could
show publishers. We made this productover the course of two weeks. I wasshocked at how many publishers were
now willing to take us seriously after wecame up with a product.

Nakamura: I was surprised by your swift
ability to transform your idea into an
implementable form. At MARUI GROUP,
it is a shared assumption that developing an app or some other productrequires a significant amount of timeand money.
Mizuno: Students can get it done in two
weeks (laughs). Companies tend to bepredisposed to underestimating theabilities of students, but they are often
impressed when they actually see themin action. A major benefit of youth is the
freedom that allows you to tackle challenges that large companies tend to shy
away from.

IT and Programming Skills That Help
Make Lives Better
Katsumi: IT and digital technologies
have made it easier for a single person,
even a student, to take action to resolve
social issues. ETHICAL SHUKATSU is adigital job-hunting platform that matches
companies with students. If we had tomatch people in the same way without IT
and digital technologies, it would besuper expensive.
Tomita: I agree. Launching a business orservice is something that has been
made much more accessible thanks to
IT and digital technologies. The idea ofjust starting with a prototype is still
applicable today, and it would not be
an exaggeration to say that this type ofthinking changed my life.
Nakamura: The MARUI GROUP employees that took part in Future Accelerator
Gateway as mentors felt the same. We
realized that we too could make something new. In fact, after the program, I
made an app for the new business I
oversee. I surveyed and interviewed
customers while showing this app. The
response was 100% different from theones I was used to getting with paper
proposals.
Mizuno: This is what digital transformation means. People learn programming
to make products, and those products
have the potential to change someone’s
life for the better or to lead to thecreation of more convenient services. In
Japan, information technology will
become a required course for highschool students in April 2022, and it isslated to show up on the shared firstphase university entrance exam in 2025.
This means that a future in which all
students will have basic programming
knowledge when they join the workforce
is not far off. Programming will becomea basic work skill just like English.
Katsumi: The part of participating inFuture Accelerator Gateway I am mostthankful for was the opportunity to hear
about the feelings and success stories
of people who are truly committed tochanging the world like Mr. Mizuno andPresident Aoi. In the future, I hope to use
what I have learned to help junior highand high school students with a similar
drive to chase their ambitions.
Mizuno: I hope you will do just that.
Junior high and high school students are
generally not moved by the words ofadults. This is why Life is Tech employs
mentors in their 20s to teach students.
Rather than being taught by a 40-something with teaching skills, learning fromsomeone in their 20s, who seems cooland relatable, is more valuable in termsof changing a student’s life. This is true
even if the mentor lacks teaching skills.

Hiroya Nakamura
Co-Creative Media and Business Management Officer
D2C & Co. Inc.
Hiroya Nakamura joined MARUI GROUP in 2015, and in
2020, he was charged with overseeing a new business as
the co-creative media and business management officerof D2C & Co. Inc. He has also been involved in the launchand operation of 5PM Journal, Japan’s first D2C brandcuration website (in Japanese only).
5pmjournal.com/

Nakamura: Future Accelerator Gateway
is a program brimming with potential. It
creates businesses that we would havenever imagined. I see the possibility for
us to change the future of MARUIGROUP through synergies with thesebusinesses. I also want to increase thenumber of co-creative partners we haveamong younger generations, like you
two. The more such partners we have,the more force we will have propelling us
toward our desired impact.

63

DIALOGUE 05

TELL US WHAT YOU LOVE
Nitobe Bunka Gakuen, located in the Nakano area of Tokyo where MARUI GROUP was founded, has defined its goal of fostering
happiness creation and is cultivating individuals with the capacity to help resolve social issues. This school also has the facility
VIVISTOP NITOBE, which is a creative space that is not bound by the traditional conventions of schools and that allows teachers andstudents to learn together. VIVISTOP encourages students to freely create based on their interests. In fact, children are able to use
this space to pursue their own interests. VIVISTOP resonates with MARUI GROUP’s goal of developing spaces for co-creation. We sat
down with four students from Nitobe Bunka Gakuen and Yusuke Yamauchi, a teacher at the school and core member behind theoperation of VIVISTOP, to discuss the interests that they are using this space to pursue.

Unstructured Environment to Pursue
One’s Creative Interests
Mr. Yamauchi: I teach art at Nitobe
Bunka Gakuen. After school, I engage increative activities together with students
at VIVISTOP NITOBE. Here, we haveaccess to upcycled materials made from
scraps as well as laser cutters andstate-of-the-art tools. Both adults andkids work together to create whatever
we think is possible in this environment.
At VIVISTOP, we do not tell kids what todo. No, VIVISTOP is a place where
everyone can do what they like andmake what they want.
Hikari: You’re not like other teachers!
You sound just like a regular guy (everyone laughs).
Mr. Yamauchi: You’re right, I’m not reallyteaching anything, am I? Anyways, howabout you all tell us what you are doingat VIVISTOP? Hikari, I saw you painting
a gradation pattern on some paper. It
didn’t seem like you had planned anything ahead, and it was more like youwere just enjoying painting.
Hikari: Yep, I just did it, and it ended up
looking pretty good!
Mr. Yamauchi: That’s amazing. I am
always so impressed at how you justhave this natural understanding, thistalent for making things look good.
Hikari: I put a little water in my paint,
and then dunked this piece of paper in it.
When I pulled it out, it had this pretty
pattern on it. I tried all of the colors I

64

Y
M

r

.

Y

a m a

u

hadn’t used yet and experimented to see
what patterns I would get when I dunked
the paper.
Mr. Yamauchi: Schools give us paper
scraps that they would have normallythrown away, and we see what we cando with them. What we do at VIVISTOP
is more like an extension of play.
Miri: There are a lot of wood scraps at
my school. I am trying to make a swing

c

h

u

s

e

i

set together with two of my friends. I
want to make a swing set because thekids at Nitobe Bunka Preschool andChildcare don’t have swings. I haveasked the preschool if it is okay for me
to make a swing set. I want to make one
with a long seat, like a couch, that you
can relax on. I hope to give it to them asa Christmas present.
Mr. Yamauchi: You might not be done iniThe students are pictured sitting on chairs created at VIVISTOPNITOBE by fifth graders of Nitobe Bunka Gakuen together with adesigner. These chairs were awarded with the Prime Minister’sAward in the 15th Kids Design Awards.

cutter, the machine that cuts wood withlasers, to cut the wood for the pillars andthen ran kite string between the pillars. I
was somehow able to get the balanceright so that the rails are supported
without the bridge falling over.
Mr. Yamauchi: Yusei won first prize in arobot contest the other day.
Yusei: Yep. If I mess up my program, I
can’t fix it by myself. So, I needed to gethelp from Mr. Yamauchi and otherpeople. To tell the truth, I was actuallyaiming for a different prize.
Miri: What was that?
Yusei: The technology award. I justwanted to win some prize. When myname was called, I was like “huh, I won?”(everyone laughs)Mir

Growth through Creativity

i
H

i

k

a

r

i
R

time for Christmas, but you could givethem a model, you know, to show them
what the finished product will look like.
Miri: No way, you can’t swing on a model(laughs).
Ryotaro: I made a car that can move. I
got the idea when I saw Yusei and Mr.
Yamauchi playing with RC cars they had
made, and I wanted to make one too.
Mr. Yamauchi: What is so cool about

y

o

t

a

r

o

Ryotaro’s car is that he programmed it,
built the controller, and made it so thatthe car could be controlled by himself.
Ryotaro: The hardest part was making
the motor. I had to ask other people how
to do things like make holes for thescrews.
Yusei: I love trains, so I made things likea station platform and suspension
bridge from wood. I used the laser

Mr. Yamauchi: Yusei, it has been abouta year since you started coming to
VIVISTOP. What do you think haschanged over this year?
Yusei: Maybe how I use the laser cutter.
I use wood to make stuff like desks andshelves.
Mr. Yamauchi: That’s true. I have seen
you using the laser cutter as well as abunch of other tools, and the range ofthings you make has gotten much larger.
What about you, Ryotaro? You joined us
in the summer, but you seem to havelearned a lot.
Ryotaro: I learned how to use the laser
cutter and the electric saw.

65

TELL US WHAT YOU LOVEMr. Yamauchi: I’ve seen that. The laser
cutter is something you would never use
in class. You were quick to pick that up
and to start using the electric saw, which
I recall you initially putting off until you
were more used to things. Now you arereally good at using them by yourself.
How about you, Hikari?
Hikari: I don’t know. I just do what I want
to do.
Mr. Yamauchi: You are really true to yourfeelings. If you want to do something,
you do it. Miri, you have been with us forabout half a year. Is there anything you
have learned in that time?
Miri: I learned how to use a lot of themachines.
Mr. Yamauchi: Were there any tools or
machines that you wanted to use before
coming here?
Miri: Nope (laughs).
Mr. Yamauchi: So, you didn’t think about
it at all (laughs)? Do you prefer to makethings by yourself, or with others?
Miri: It’s more fun to make things withother people. If I’m by myself, I just think
too much and never get started. If I’m
with my friends, we can talk about what
we’re making while we do it.
Yusei: I think about what I want to makenext at VIVISTOP when I am home, buteverything is a prototype (laughs).
Mr. Yamauchi and other people give me
ideas and advice on things like balanceand stuff while I make things.
Mr. Yamauchi: It is natural to make a lotof mistakes. Not even I know what’sbest. It is probably common for everyone to find themselves scratching theirheads while making things.

66

Space Where You Can Make Anything
You Want
Mr. Yamauchi: What do you all like best
about VIVISTOP?
Ryotaro: I like crafts and how I can makewhatever I want, especially using thelaser cutter!
Hikari: I don’t like to study, but I love artsand crafts, and making pictures. I likehow I can do almost anything I want.
VIVISTOP is a magical place. I comehere at least once a week.
Miri: I want to come to VIVISTOP everyday. If I don’t know how to do something,
I can get help from Mr. Yamauchi andother grown-ups. Even if I make a mistake, they will give me advice on how I
can fix it.
Yusei: I like the freedom, and how I canmake whatever I want. I wish that
VIVISTOP was open from 7 a.m. to
midnight every day, even on weekends(laughs).
Mr. Yamauchi: Until midnight? (laughs)
Miri: I also wish we had a 3D printer.
Ryotaro: Yeah, we need a 3D printer!
Mr. Yamauchi: I will put that on the listof things we need to buy next year. It
sounds like VIVISTOP is a place where
you can give form to your imagination,
where we can make our dreams a reality
together. I am so happy that you all love
VIVISTOP.

I won a robot contest! Even
though I was the one who
wrote the program, it is socomplicated that I think of a
train map when I look at it.
I also like trains and photos.
I even held a photo exhibitionat school.
— Yusei
Fifth GradeI want to make a swing set
and give it to Nitobe Bunka
Preschool and Childcare as a
Christmas present. I haveasked the preschool if it isokay. I hope to make awooden swing set with a longseat, like a couch, that you
can relax on.

I made my first RC car withhelp from kids older than me.
I didn’t know how to write theprogram at first, but I somehow got it running. It washard, but fun.
— Ryotaro
Third Grade— Miri
Fifth GradeI like pretty things. Lately,
I have been having fun pouring ink into water and seeing
the gradations. When I color
the paper scraps I get atschool, they all have different
patterns. I have made somany!
— Hikari
Fourth Grade

67

IMPACT TARGET 03
Creating Platforms for Co-Creation
Realizing our desired impact will require us to create platforms for co-creation. The society thatMARUI GROUP envisions is not something that we can achieve by ourselves; we must build an
ecosystem that moves us toward this goal through co-creation with individuals who share ourideals. By sharing its current corporate assets, namely its physical stores, EPOS cards, IT, andemployees, with partners outside of the immediate organization, MARUI GROUP looks to produce
innovation through co-creation.

68

69

CO-CREATIVE TEAMSINSPIRING INDUSTRY
D I A L O G U E 06 

ETSUKO OKAJIMANOZOMU ABEAYA M I T O R I H ATA
M I Z U K I TA K E N O B U

Potential for Co-Creative Teams to Inspire Industry Transformation
MARUI GROUP conducts forward-looking investments comprising co-creative investments aimed atincorporating external innovation and new business investments for fostering innovation within the
Company. We have assembled 24 co-creative teams, consisting of a total of 212 members, to help
guide the course of such forward-looking investments. These teams are focused predominantly on
co-creation with start-ups. Led by executive officer-level employees, these teams are membered byindividuals from across MARUI GROUP who function as the vanguard for achieving our impact
target of creating platforms for co-creation. These co-creative teams will march forward, claiming
small victories with the goal of eventually inspiring industry transformation. With high expectations,
External Director Etsuko Okajima explores this potential from multiple angles together with members ofco-creative teams.

70Vanguard for Creating Platforms
for Co-Creation
Okajima: There are two facets of MARUIGROUP’s impact target of creating platforms for co-creation. One is building
forums for co-creation using the assets ofexisting businesses. The other is developing work styles that are open to those both
inside and outside of the Company
through means such as open innovation.
Co-creative teams embody both of thesefacets. Today, I would like to hear about
the experiences each of you has had as amember of co-creative teams. Let us
begin with introducing ourselves.
Torihata: I am a member of theTSUKURUBA Business Department atokos, where I am involved in creating
new businesses together with investee
TSUKURUBA Inc. The TSUKURUBA
Business Department used to be a
co-creative team, but it was reorganized
into a full-fledged business department
in April 2021. TSUKURUBA is a company
that offers a secondhand real estate
renovation platform known as
cowcamo. Real estate can be sold,purchased, or rented. In its co-creation
with TSUKURUBA, MARUI GROUP ismainly focused on rental, a field in which
we are also involved. My role in thisundertaking is developing user experiences that better accommodate theperspective of users and promoting digitaltransformation as it relates to real estate.
Abe: I work at M & C SYSTEMS. I am
also a member of the co-creative teamthat works with a start-up called WED, Inc.
Led by Representative Director Soto
Yamauchi, WED is an innovative company that is breaking down previous
norms. This company is developing an
app that uses optical character recognition technologies, which convert text
contained in image data into text data, tophotograph receipts and change theminto money. My co-creative team has
aided in this endeavor by helping
develop billing and sales reporting
systems for tenants.
Takenobu: I am not a MARUI GROUP
employee. Rather, I was seconded to

MARUI GROUP from COUNTERWORKS
Inc., a start-up that is looking to digitizecommercial real estate. I have beenworking at the Tenant Success Office of
MARUI CO., LTD., which is involved in theoperation of Marui and Modi stores, threedays a week since April 2021. MARUI is in
the process of creating stores that do notsell while pursuing impact targets foroffering support for individual preferences.
Together with this company, I am formulating and implementing governance plansthat fundamentally transform the services
offered to tenants. These efforts include
the development of online stores and therevision of contract conditions to make iteasier for tenants to open stores.
Okajima: Thank you. Some call me the“Godmother of Venture Companies,” andI view it as my personal mission toincrease the number of management
professionals across Japan. I have been
an external director at MARUI GROUP
since 2014. In this capacity, I havehelped out with the Co-Creation
Management Academy future leader
development program as well as withother measures for stimulating thepersonal growth of employees and thegrowth of the organization. MARUIGROUP’s strength comes from its cocreation platform, and, as members ofco-creative teams, you are all the vanguard of the creation of this platform.

Small Start-Ups Within MARUI GROUP
Torihata: My participation in co-creative
teams has made me aware of the wide

range of things one can accomplish
even with the limited discretion available
to one in my position. Previously, at
meetings it has been rare for me to beable to assert my own judgment. Now,
however, I enjoy a much wider range ofauthority. The majority of members of
the TSUKURUBA Business Department
are without knowledge of real estate.
Nevertheless, we are able to come up
with ideas from a perspective thatdiffers from real estate based on our
experience with EPOS cards and new
business development. In fact, I would
say that this is a strength.
Okajima: MARUI GROUP has continued
to encourage employees to acquire adiverse range of experience throughinitiatives such as intra-Group profession
changes. It has thereby installed frameworks conducive to the acquisition of
new experiences and the melding ofstrengths. These frameworks are what
helped the TSUKURUBA Business
Department be such an effective bridge
between TSUKURUBA and MARUI GROUP.
Abe: Speaking from my experience with
WED, apparently they primarily dealt withsystems companies before starting
co-creation with MARUI GROUP. Now,
they are able to incorporate our varied
perspectives, related to considerations
such as well-being, sustainability, andfintech, into their approach, which they
say has greatly widened the scope of
their thinking. Moreover, WED has thatsense of momentum we tend to associate with start-ups as well as an eliteteam of individuals boasting a level ofI am motivated by a strong sense ofcommitment to fulfill my mission asa single, unique individual.
Ayami Torihata
TSUKURUBA Business Department,okos Co., Ltd.
(Joined MARUI GROUP CO., LTD., in 2016)

71

CO-CREATIVE TEAMSINSPIRING INDUSTRY

A major advantage of working withstrength similar to that of a certain
pirate squad from a popular manga. As
a member of a co-creative team, I thus
feel like I can apply the might of a large
company to various small actions,effectively capitalizing on all the benefitsof start-ups. I would even go as far as tosay that co-creative teams feel like small
start-ups that exist within MARUI GROUP.
Okajima: Sota Yamauchi, who founded
WED in his teens, has a unique perspective that is not confined by existing
frameworks. If MARUI GROUP is going
to provide a platform for co-creation, it
will be important for it to respect suchotherworldly talents. Mr. Takenobu, fromyour perspective as an outsider at
MARUI GROUP, what do you see as thevalue of co-creation with the Company.
Takenobu: A major advantage of working with MARUI GROUP is the ability toutilize its assets to create greater
value for society. As a start-up,
COUNTERWORKS is able to exercise
its ingenuity targeting a limited scopeof customers and market segments.
MARUI GROUP, meanwhile, has a wellentrenched practice of looking at matters such as how shopping centers will
be affected or how EPOS cards will be
used to generate profits. My involvementwith MARUI GROUP has made me awareof the importance of adopting a multifaceted perspective to pursue an overall

MARUI GROUP is the ability to utilize
its assets to create greater value for society.
Mizuki Takenobu
Seconded to Tenant Success Officeof MARUI CO., LTD.,
from COUNTERWORKS Inc.

balanced approach. MARUI GROUP is
incredibly proficient at achieving such abalance when it comes to expanding
potential demand.

Small Starts for the Peripheries
Leading to Small Victories
Takenobu: Together with MARUI GROUP,
I am looking into ways of transforming
shopping center operation, leasing, andother existing business frameworks.
How are all of you approaching theprocess of transforming existing
businesses within your respective
co-creative teams?
Torihata: When it comes to providing
services for lease properties in the realestate industry, it is common to focus on
the owners of the properties, and toforget about the users. This type ofapproach seems outdated, and I think it
is time for a change. TSUKURUBA is
working to guide the market in the right
direction by starting new businesses

small and gradually building a greater
impact. It is currently in the process oflaying the groundwork for this approach.
Abe: With its optical character recognition technologies for reading receipts via
a smartphone, WED looks to reduce theamount of time used for all tenant
processes by 110,000 hours while
cutting annual delivery center processes
by 20,000 hours. In the past, we haveseen only limited scope applicability forsuch systems. However, co-creation
with WED has opened the door to thepossibility of transforming existing
businesses with these systems.
Proposals that go beyond the boundaries of companies, such as initiatives for
improving productivity or reforming work
styles, can create an opportunity. This
recognition has enabled me to think
about tenant success from a broader
perspective.
Okajima: I think that co-creative teams
have the potential to inspire the transformation of the industries in which they

Co-creative teams are effectively capitalizing on
all the benefits of start-ups. Co-creation
has opened the door to the possibilityof transforming existing businesses.
Nozomu Abe
WED Co-Creative TeamR&D Center, Digital Transformation Department
M & C SYSTEMS CO., LTD.
(Joined MARUI GROUP CO., LTD., in 2017)72

are involved. The union of start-ups and
MARUI GROUP, both of which are unable
to sufficiently promote change by themselves, will allow for the creation ofsmall success models for use in pursuing small victories. These efforts will
eventually snowball to transform industry structures themselves. We havealready seen this happen with the retailing industry. Co-creative teams are one
venue for inspiring such transformation.
It is like we are all working together in aprocess of trial and error aimed atcreating a recipe for success.
Takenobu: The amount of access
MARUI GROUP grants to its existing
businesses is amazing to someone likeme, who is viewing this as an outsider.
COUNTERWORKS is currently developing a store opening support service
called OMEMIE. This service is offered
as a short-term event, and we thus haveto be really frank in our efforts to commercialize this service. To facilitate frank
discussion, MARUI GROUP lets us viewits internal data, and we do the same.
We have sufficient access to MARUIGROUP’s existing businesses throughthis open relationship, and we are able
to change our existing frameworks tomatch. This has had an impressive
influence within COUNTERWORKS.
Okajima: When a large company collaborates with a start-up, the collaborative initiatives tend to be isolated fromthe rest of the company’s operations.
This causes a disconnect with the rest of
the company, meaning that, for better or

What is unique about MARUI GROUP’s
co-creative teams is that they function
more as peripheries to thecentral entity that is the Company.
Etsuko Okajima
External Director, MARUI GROUP CO., LTD.
President & CEO, ProNova Inc.

for worse, the impact on the company as
a whole is limited. What is unique about
MARUI GROUP’s co-creative teams isthat they function more as peripheries tothe central entity that is the Company.
The center can be seen from the peripheries and vice versa. The peripheries
advance a variety of initiatives to achievesmall victories, and the victories of theco-creative teams then drive the transformation of the Company itself.
Takenobu: The co-creative team I am on
is focused on speed, looking to generate
a positive impact as quickly as possible.
We started developing the OMEMIE
store opening support service in April
2021, and it was launched only a month
later. A large company like MARUIGROUP has a lot of organizations, whichmeans it can take longer to kick off a
new initiative. With co-creative teams,
however, when the decision to do something is made, everyone springs into
action. This approach of beginning withsmall starts in the peripheries is part of
the genius of MARUI GROUP.

Exercise of the Corporate Philosophy
Through Co-Creative Teams
Takenobu: Does everyone here enjoy
participating in co-creative teams? Is it
helping with our well-being?
Torihata: I really enjoy it. It makes it feellike I have my own special job that is
only for me. I am motivated by a strong
sense of commitment to fulfill my mission as a single, unique individual. My

first goal is to create a positive impact
within my co-creative team. I want to get
off to a strong start to generate results
and show everyone the excitement of
the wide range options made possible
by partnering with MARUI GROUP.
Abe: The systems development work
I have been involved in previously has
been focused purely on resolving theissues faced by the Company. Getting
involved in new business development,
meanwhile, has greatly expanded thescope and degree of my contributions.
I can make a contribution to the overall
industry, to all of Japan, or even to theentire world. These contributions can bemeasured on timetables of 30 or even
50 years. This greater capacity to contribute is a massive source of motivation. When you belong to a smallorganization like a co-creative team, you
get the sense that nothing will happen if
you don’t do it yourself. This feeling isvery empowering.
Takenobu: Co-creation with MARUIGROUP allows me to escape the confines of my own thinking to engage inwider ranging discussions on topics likenew approaches that could be taken.
This is especially beneficial given the
COVID-19 pandemic. For a start-up, theability to receive support from colleagues committed to the same goals issomething that is greatly appreciated.
Okajima: I am really fond of MARUIGROUP’s corporate philosophy of“equate the development of our people
with the development of our company.”
However, I am also looking at how
industry structures can be transformedin the future to place more emphasis on
well-being. Hearing from you all today
has made me realize that the approachof co-creative teams is an initiative fortransforming industries while at thesame time being a measure for developing human resources. Whether we aretalking about the development of peopleor the development of the Company, it isa truly innovative undertaking.

73

IMPACT TARGET 03

CREATING PLATFORMS FOR
CO-CREATIONMARUI GROUP cannot build the world it envisions by itself; it looks to shape this world through co-creation with stakeholders that share its ideals. Our assets include the physical stores that serve as points of contact with 200 million customers, our base of more than 7 million EPOS cardholders, our some 5,000 employees equipped with customer- andIT-oriented mindsets, and our deeply entrenched corporate culture of co-creation. By sharing these assets with stakeholders, we aim to create platforms for co-creation.

Overall Vision and Key Performance Indicators

Impact Target 03

Priority Measures

Initiatives

Key Performance Indicators(FY2026 Targets)

74

Creating platforms for co-creation

Provision of venues for co-creation

Utilization of stores asvenues for co-creation

Positioning of credit cards
as venues for co-creation

Facilitation of work styles that are transparent toboth internal and external stakeholders

Promotion ofopen innovation

Number of co-creative projects with younger generations:Aggregate total of 150 or more

Cultivation of innovation
organizations

WHO?

Co-creative investees andCompanies and individuals

Members of younger genera-

tenants of physical storesthat share our ideals

tions who share our ideals

WHAT?
Provision of MARUI GROUP assets
to co-creative investees

Improvement of satisfaction oftenants of physical stores

Acceleration of co-creation-based
open innovation

Development of work styles andhuman resource systems that aretransparent to both internal andexternal stakeholders

HOW?
Enhancement of systems for easing processof opening
physical stores

Provision of new customer contact points by
issuing EPOS cards andreferring customers

Stimulation of open
­innovation through­co-creative teams

Creation of open humanresource systems
allowing for freedom of
employment to assemble ideal teams

Development of organizations in which talented
and motivated individuals can contribute
regardless of their age or
number of years ofserviceOUR IMPACT
Number of co-creative projects
with younger generations

Aggregate total of

150 or more
FY2026 Target

37
FY202175

CO-CREATION PLATFORMS

Acceleration of Co-Creation Platforms

MARUI GROUP has continued to promote innovation through investment in start-up
companies and co-creation with external partners alongside its internal efforts todevelop new businesses like its anime and securities businesses. To acceleratethese innovation efforts, we established D2C & Co. Inc. in 2020 to support direct-toconsumer (D2C) ecosystems. Also in this year, we assembled co-creative teams tasked
with promoting co-creation with investees. These moves were followed up with thefounding of the business incubation company okos Co., Ltd., in 2021. By reinforcing
our systems for developing co-creation venues, we aim to accelerate the creation of
platforms for co-creation.

Number of co-creative projects
with younger generations:Aggregate total of150

or moreFY2026 Target

Frameworks for Creating Platforms for Co-Creation Encompassing Both Internal and External Partners

MARUI GROUP’s forward-looking investments are comprisingco-creative investments aimed at co-creation with external
partners and new business investments for the purpose ofgenerating innovation within the Company. The Co-Creative
Investment Department plays a central role in selecting target
areas for co-creative investment that account for medium-tolong-term social changes and trends. In accordance with thedefined fields, we seek out start-up companies that can join
MARUI GROUP in shaping its envisioned future in which toinvest. Particular attention is being paid to investments in the
D2C field, which employs new business models entailingbrands forming connections with consumers through directly
operated e-commerce sites and social media. D2C & Co. wasestablished to facilitate efforts in this field, where we are investing in D2C start-up companies, offering services that allow suchcompanies to open physical stores and contract MARUI GROUP
to operate them, and otherwise working to develop a D2C
ecosystem. We have also assembled co-creative teams comprising employees active in various divisions to accelerate
co-creation with investees.
In addition to co-creative investments, we are also investingin new businesses via the platform provided by okos. Throughthese investments, we aim to quickly cultivate and develop new
businesses to generate innovation within the Company. The
possibility of spinning off new business to form independent
subsidiaries after they have achieved a state of profitability is
being examined as a means of growing medium-to-long-term
earnings contributions.
76

These are the frameworks MARUI GROUP is utilizing tocreate platforms for co-creation.

Forward-Looking Investment Business Structure
Forward-Looking
Investments

New Business
Investments

Co-Creative
Investments

Generation ofIncorporation ofinternal innovation

external innovation

okos Co., Ltd.

Co-Creative Investment
Department
D2C & Co. Inc.
Co-creative
teams

Achievement of earnings growth together
with desired impact(Sustainability, well-being, and digital transformation)

Co-Creative Teams Comprising Members from Across MARUI GROUPMARUI GROUP has assembled co-creative teams for the purpose of streamlining the process of starting co-creation withinvestees and to exercise responsibility for producing results.
We currently have 24 co-creative teams with a total of 212
members who are working diligently on a Groupwide basis toaccelerate co-creation with investees and partners. Executive
officers have been appointed as the leaders of each team, andteam members are selected from the division most suited toco-creation with the respective start-up companies, whether
that division be related to investment, retailing, EPOS cards,
distribution, or space production. Each group is responsible for
producing results, and this dedicated approach contributes to
exceptionally quick decision-making.

BASE, Inc.

CAMPFIRE, Inc.

FABRIC TOKYO Inc.

BULK HOMME Co., Ltd.

A-too inc. (Suruga-Ya)

DINETTE inc.

b8ta
Global Trust Networks Co., Ltd.

Mercari, Inc.
Sparty, Inc.
COUNTERWORKS Inc.

24 Co-Creative Teams

GOOD VIBES ONLY inc.
EPARK, inc.

Gojo & Company, Inc.
CROWD CREDIT, Inc.

UPDATER, Inc. (formerly Minna-denryoku, Inc.)

212 Members

Nature Innovation Group Co., Ltd.
Life is Tech, Inc.

Pocket Marche
WED, Inc.
Fracta Inc.

Sumitomo Forestry Co., Ltd.
Note: S ome non-investee partners are included.
Figures are as of October 1, 2021.

VOICE

Co-creative teams have allowed for speedy co-creation because all members see themselves as connected to the project.
I am responsible for co-creation with A-too, the operator of Suruga-Ya, the No. 1 seller of secondhand
hobby items in terms of online sales. Our relationship dates back to 2018, when A-too opened a Suruga-Ya
store in Shinjuku Marui Annex, and then evolved further when we formed a capital and business alliance in2019 and when we launched the SURUGAYA EPOS CARD in 2020. In this way, we are engaged in expansion—in forward-looking co-creation with A-too.
The Suruga-Ya Co-Creative Team was assembled in June 2020, comprising eight members including
myself, who serves as executive officer oversight. Members have been chosen from a variety of divisions,

Masahisa Aoki
Executive Officer,
MARUI GROUP CO., LTD.
CEO, tsumiki Co., Ltd.

including people from retailing and fintech and even those seconded to A-too, and these members areengaged in comprehensive, Groupwide initiatives. In the past, co-creation was advanced with a single division serving as our venue for communication with A-too, but this approach resulted in fragmented initiatives and roundabout communication. The change to co-creative teams, however, has allowed for speedy
co-creation because all members see themselves as connected to the project, like they themselves are
members of A-too. As a result, we have been able to open Suruga-Ya locations in various Marui stores, andthese locations have garnered immense popularity. The number of SURUGAYA EPOS CARDs issued too
has come to rival the average numbers of cards issued by large-scale Marui stores.
Looking ahead, I hope to expand the scope of our co-creation with A-too beyond one-on-one collaboration to include more extensive co-creation practiced with other partners. This, I hope, will lead to the creation of new business models.
77

Innovation through Co-Creation with External Partners
For MARUI GROUP, external start-up companies are more than just business partners; they are partners with which
we seek mutual growth in our quest to maximize the interests and happiness of our stakeholders.

Tenant Success Defined by Mutual GrowthThe interests of stakeholders sometimes appear to be in conflict when viewed from a short-term perspective. However,
MARUI GROUP is confident that it is possible to achieve harmony and expand the intersection between the interests andhappiness of all stakeholders through dialogue and co-creation
advanced over the medium-to-long term. Our ability to commit

ourselves to co-creation management up until today has been
supported by the presence of our tenants. Recognizing theimportance of our tenants, we work to co-create happiness
together with them while pursuing tenant success, which we
define as mutual growth for both tenants and MARUI GROUP.

WED
Joint Development of Process Streamlining System
WED, Inc., operates the ONE receipt purchasing system. Our co-creation with this partner has included thejoint development of a system for streamlining the complicated processes related to generating receipts
and preparing reports that tenants must conduct every day after closing. This system is projected tocontribute to savings of between 60 and 180 work hours for each tenant* while eliminating the need for
20,000 hours of delivery processing and confirmation procedures at delivery centers.
* Figures may vary based on the number of cash registers.

COUNTERWORKS
Services Allowing for Individuals, Small Companies, and Anyone Else to Open a StoreCOUNTERWORKS Inc. provides SHOPCOUNTER, an online service that matches lenders of store and otherspaces with those seeking to rent such spaces. This company’s vision of a world where anyone can makeforays into retail matched that of MARUI GROUP, inspiring us to embark on co-creative ventures with thegoal of democratizing retail.
These venues have included the launch of a store opening support service called OMEMIE. This service,
which was developed swiftly by taking advantage of COUNTERWORKS’ ideas and implementation capabilities, allows anyone to set up shop at a Marui store with ease—in as little as a week. Moreover, the service
provides information on location pricing, facilities, and support so that prospective store openers can choose
the location best for them ahead of time, granting an extra element of peace of mind when making inquiries.
Please refer to the following website for more information on OMEMIE (in Japanese only).
omemie.0101.co.jp/

Process of Opening Stores
Step 1: Inquiry
Fill out form, arrange meeting

Step 2: Negotiations
Confirm location and rent throughonline negotiations

Step 3: Plan Selection
Select store location andsupport package
Complete procedures online

Step 4: Store Opening
Enjoy robust support prior to opening

VOICE
We are working to grow together as partners seeking to democratize retail.
COUNTERWORKS is guided by its vision of free creation with ambitious individuals and its mission of digitizing all commercial real estate to create new forms of commercial infrastructure. These ambitions line up
with the goals of MARUI GROUP, a move that led to our decision to engage in co-creation. MARUI GROUP
seeks to create stores that do not sell and eventful stores based on sustainable business models that bringjoy to customers. By pooling our resources with those of COUNTERWORKS, we hope to make both our

Kana Yamamoto
Tenant Success Office,
MARUI CO., LTD.

visions for the world a reality.
We have learned a lot through co-creation with COUNTERWORKS that encompasses a numberof MARUI GROUP divisions. COUNTERWORKS is not just a business partner, they are a partner inour quest to democratize retail, and I hope that we will be able to grow together in the future.

78

Sharing of MARUI GROUP Assets through Secondment and Operation Contracting
MARUI GROUP is actively sharing its assets with external
partners as part of its efforts to create platforms for co-creation.
One way in which we share assets is through the secondmentof employees to start-up companies. Such secondment allows
employees to gain the forward-looking perspective needed tocreate new businesses while also granting them with the opportunities to make decisions at their own discretion. Moreover,this process helps us incorporate the unique expertise andother intangible assets of partner companies into MARUIGROUP. Another approach toward sharing assets is throughoperation contracting, which allows us to share with partners
assets like our stores and human resources who are wellversed in store operation and customer service as we pursue
mutual growth.

Global Trust Networks

Suruga-Ya

MARUI GROUP has seconded

The Suruga-Ya stores oper-

employees to Global Trust Networks

ated by A-too inc. had previ-Co., Ltd. (GTN), as one of our various

ously enjoyed strong support

joint initiatives with this company,

from certain niche customers.

which have included issuing the first

However, A-too was able to

EPOS card exclusively for nonJapanese residents of Japan. GTN
is currently investing in the develop-

GTN EPOS CARD issued by using
GTN’s database of non-Japaneseindividuals

connect with the new customer demographic ofwomen by opening locations

Suruga-Ya counter where customers can sell
their hobby items, operated by MARUI GROUP
employees at Marui Family Mizonokuchi

ment of new apps and other digital transformation measures while

in Marui stores. Moreover, theworking to expand its network of bases in Asia. Meanwhile, theSURUGAYA EPOS CARD was

range of services offered for non-Japanese individuals is being

launched as physical stores struggled amid the COVID-19 pandemic,

broadened through co-creation with MARUI GROUP.

and we have seen a brisk increase in the numbers of holders of thiscard since its launch. This accomplishment is an example of syner-

Mercarigies being generated with the rise in transactions seen on thesuruga-ya.jp e-commerce website.

Co-creation with Mercari, Inc.,
has involved its opening
Mercari Station, a physicalvenue that offers customers
an easy way to experience its
Mercari service, and contracting the operation of this store
to MARUI GROUP employees.
Mercari Station sees visitation

Mercari Station, Mercari’s first physical location,
operated by MARUI GROUP employees

by current Mercari users as well as by people who have never taken
advantage of the service, thereby helping expand Mercari’s ability toconnect with users offline.

VOICE
The fundamental essence of co-creation should be leveraging our respective strengths tocreate new value.
With a laser-sight focus on profit, President Tsunashige Sugiyama of A-too has sometimes been referred toas a man made for business. When I was seconded to this company, President Sugiyama drilled this focus
on profits into my head with his mantra of “customer satisfaction is the source of profit.” At the same time,
I was facing an issue that, because of a lack of understanding with regard to co-creation, it was not uncom-

Hiroki Yoshida
Seconded to A-too inc.
MARUI GROUP CO., LTD.

mon for our co-creative efforts to boil down to MARUI GROUP dragging its partners down the path it wants
to take. Contrary to this reality, the fundamental essence of co-creation should be partnering with others
who share our ideals and utilizing our respective strengths to create new value and thereby maximize ourearnings. Responding to the diversifying expectations of customers requires companies and their businesses to always be changing and evolving. There is a limit to what a single company can do by itself. It istherefore important to broaden our scope of co-creation and evaluate our partnerships to ensure that weare forming a mutually beneficial, win-win relationship on our quest to maximize the interests and happiness of stakeholders.

79Generation of Internal Innovation
MARUI GROUP has continued to move forward with efforts to produce innovation through co-creation
with external start-up companies. Going forward, we will also seek to foster a corporate culture that is
conducive to the generation of internal innovation by making the organization a fertile breeding groundfor co-creation between various internal divisions.

Cultivation of New Businesses and Internal Entrepreneurs through okos
We established okos with the
purpose of fostering a corporate
culture that is conducive to thegeneration of internal innovation
within MARUI GROUP. Prefaced
on the ideas of creating newthings and starting new ventures, okos is committed to thedevelopment of new businesses. However, this company does
not limit its scope to new businesses; it also looks to swiftly
incubate businesses through co-creative investment whileproviding a platform for cultivating internal entrepreneurs.

It is common for start-up companies to act spontaneously
and produce new innovative ideas, even with limited resources.
Through okos, we offer the support necessary for starting new
businesses or embarking on other entrepreneurial exploits toprovide opportunities to continue chasing one’s ambitions,
without fear of failure, and to build an ever-growing track recordof small victories. This framework allows us to cultivate humanresources with an entrepreneurial spirit while fostering a corporate culture that is conducive to the generation of internalinnovation.

Business Model of okos
Centered on e-commerce, services offered by okos include helping create fans of a given company through websites, social media,
and owned media, and directing these fans to e-commerce venues. Stores are used to complement online media and e-commerce
websites through pop-up stores and events. Meanwhile, fintech services are supplied to provide payment and credit functions for both
physical and e-commerce venues, and okos also supports the recruitment of registered users. In this manner, okos utilizes MARUIGROUP’s stores and fintech services while maintaining a focus on e-commerce, to support the development of unique businessmodels with a high barrier to entry.

E-commerce

Media

StoresFintechStorefronts

Websites, social media,

Pop-up stores, events

Payment and credit functions,owned media(complementary to e-commerce)user recruitment

VOICE
MARUI GROUP’s frameworks for creating new businesses are incredibly unique.
Today, we are seeing members of younger generations around the world propose new ways of thinking,expression, and living. The current era is also more accepting toward individuality and differences. In fact,
I would say that it turns these elements into strengths. This trend seems to gain more steam with eachcoming year. However, members of these younger generations tend to lack experience, connections, andfunds. This is why it is truly remarkable that a company like MARUI GROUP, which is rich in assets andYuichi Kori
External Director, okos Co., Ltd.
Partner, NEXTBLUE, LLP

resources, is acting as a door opener for younger generations. The Company’s efforts to create platforms
for co-creations are truly something that meets the needs of the times.
MARUI GROUP’s frameworks for creating new businesses are incredibly unique. I am particularly
impressed with three elements of these frameworks that form the foundation for developing new businesses:
the utilization of existing assets to create new businesses in a more organic manner; the smooth internal
coordination made possible by an open atmosphere and strong connections between employees from different divisions; and the foresight exercised to identify social trends before rivals. This foundation gives me asense of excitement for MARUI GROUP’s unique approach toward business development. I want okos to be acentral proponent for generating a cycle of creating new businesses, resolving social issues through thesebusinesses, and returning the profits of these efforts to MARUI GROUP. At the same time, I hope that MARUIGROUP employees will create, grow, and strengthen new businesses. This is the future I envision for us.

80

New Work Styles Conducive to Innovation
In creating innovation, the autonomous bottom-up actions of
employees are more important than the top-down commitments of senior management. Developing a corporate culture inwhich employees are moved to such autonomous action is aprocess that requires time to foster the necessary foundations.
In this regard, MARUI GROUP has been developing a culture ofvoluntary participation, in which employees step up to newtasks of their own volition, for more than a decade. The selfdriven, ambitious action of employees serves as a catalyst for
stimulating innovation and is crucial to the accomplishment of
MARUI GROUP’s three impact targets.
Also essential to the accomplishment of our impact targets
will be the moving away from our prior MARUI GROUP-centric
work styles to facilitate work styles that are transparent to bothinternal and external stakeholders. We will, for example, look toutilize individuals using us for secondary employment, nontraditional temporary employment schemes, long-term internships, and other work styles that allow talented and motivatedindividuals to contribute regardless of their age or numbers ofyears of service. The Company will also promote work styles

that frame collaboration as our business through strategic
secondment of employees to start-up companies and theestablishment of co-creative teams. By exploring such newwork styles, we aim to make the organization more conducive
to innovation.

Medium-Term Management Visionary Committee open to voluntary participation byautonomous employees regardless of age or rank (Groupwide project teams are also open
to voluntary participation)

VOICE
I want MARUI GROUP to be a company that promotes co-creation between people.
I think that our frameworks and culture of providing opportunities to anyone who is driven by their own
ambitions is something that is truly unique to MARUI GROUP.
At the same time, I recognize that developing a culture conducive to innovation requires interaction withpeople from outside of the Company, along with opportunities for them to engage with insights and values
with which they are not familiar.

Makoto Ito
Human Resource Development
Section, Personnel Division
MARUI GROUP CO., LTD.

I expect that the advent of co-creative teams will give rise to work styles that transcend the boundaries
of sections, departments, and even companies, and ultimately lead to our framing collaboration as ourbusiness. However, this will require that every employee be able to grow.
MARUI GROUP is supporting the interests of individuals, and I want to extend this approach toward ourwork styles. What I mean is that I think employees should view their work, or MARUI GROUP itself, as a tool
to be used to accomplish their own personal life goals. This would create an overlap between one’s interests and their work and allow them to branch out from there. If we can support the growth of employees by
allowing them to work in this manner, we will no doubt see people from outside of the Company contacting
us because they will want to take part in the project of a specific employee. By cultivating free and unrestrained employees in this way, I hope to foster a culture of co-creation between people, rather than justbetween companies, in a manner that transcends the boundaries of companies.
81

MARUI GROUP’S BUSINESS MODEL
Business Model Integrating Retailing, FinTech, andForward-Looking Investments for Achieving Positive Impact
For MARUI GROUP, corporate value entails creating harmony between the interests and happiness of all of our stakeholders andgrowing the intersection of these interests and happiness. We are therefore committed to improving corporate value and resolvingsocial issues through co-creation with stakeholders in order to have a positive impact on society.
Efforts on this front going forward will be advanced under a new business model that includes the third pillar of forward-looking
investments along the prior pillars of retailing and fintech founded on our core value—the co-creation of creditability. By pursuingsynergies through this business model, we aim to generate value that is greater than the sum of its constituents.

Investment only in businesses that create positive value for the future, an experimental venue
for achieving earnings growth together with desired impacts through innovation

Forward-Looking Investments
Internal new business investment+

Outward co-creative investment

Retailing

FinTech22 physical stores
Reliability of MARUI brand
Annual visits by
200 million customers
Retailing anddistribution staff

More than 7 million
EPOS cardholders
Credit expertise
Stable financial base
IT and system staff

PHILOSOPHY
Continue evolving to better aid our customers
Equate the development of our people with the development of our company

VALUES
Creditability should be built together with customers
Pioneer spirit of creating opportunities

82

MARUI GROUP views retailing as being more inclusive than the one-time transactional
relationships that end with the sale of a product in a store. In our retailing business, we
provide customers with experience value while forging ongoing relationships througha diverse range of contact points formed via the provision of services that address
customer concerns and issues. Our Marui and Modi stores are not focused on thesales of goods and services. Rather, we are transitioning toward the new models of
stores that do not sell and eventful stores by providing the unique value that only
physical stores can through a marriage of online and offline venues.
Our stores are populated by tenants ranging from food vendors and service providers popular among all ages and D2C brands with strong fan bases that primarily sell
their wares online to hobby, anime, entertainment, and sustainability companies.
These tenants use our stores as physical venues for engagement with customers.

RETAILING

Evolution of Physical Stores

Representation of Product Categories on Sales Floor

5
4
3
2
1

MARUI GROUP’S BUSINESS MODEL

Physical Stores Seeing Visitation from 200 Million Customers a YearSales floor:
317,355 m2?
Eventful stores

Apparel44%

Miscellaneous
goods

38%

Food, services, etc.

18%

Sales floor:
310,743 m2

24%Stores that do not sell
Expanded range of food vendors
and service providers
Fixed-term rental contracts

40%

36%

FY2014FY2021

Noteworthy Establishments

HARA8 new food court(Marui Family Mizonokuchi)

VOICE

Masahiro Aono
Senior Executive Officer
In charge of Retailing BusinessPresident and Representative
Director, MARUI CO., LTD.

BULK HOMME THE STAND(Shinjuku Marui Main Building)Tokyo Anime Center in DNP PLAZA SHIBUYA(Shibuya Modi)

PARK by CAMPFIRE(Shibuya Modi)

We are contributing to tenant success through eventful stores.
Tenant success is imperative to a successful retailing business. It is MARUI GROUP’s enduring commitment to co-creation with business partners that has enabled it to survive over the nine decades since its
founding. The responsibility of the Retailing segment does not end when a tenant sets up shop in one of
our stores. No, our responsibility continues until we have ensured the success of that tenant. If a tenantdoes not see their brand become more well-known throughout society and does not grow as a company,
then there was no point in them opening their store. The stores that do not sell and eventful stores
described in the new medium-term management plan are meant to win customer support and thereby­contribute to ongoing earnings growth. In this manner, our impact-related and financial key performanceindicators are not unrelated; they both describe the same path. The only difference is whether this path isdescribed in terms of resolving social issues or achieving economic growth.
If MARUI GROUP was purely a retailing company, we would not be able to create the stores that do notsell and eventful stores we advocate, and contributing to tenant success would thus be impossible. It is
our business model merging retailing, fintech, and forward-looking investments that provides tenants withvalue and that helps grow earnings. It is also this business model that is an indispensable part of achieving
our desired impacts.
83

MARUI GROUP’S BUSINESS MODEL

Lifelong Relationship with Customers Forged through Co-Creation of Creditability
MARUI GROUP sees fintech as a means of promoting financial inclusion to provide
access to financial services, which were previously limited to wealthy individuals, toeveryone, regardless of their age or income, so that they can use the services theyneed when they need them. This vision has inspired us to continue to practice theco-creation of creditability since our founding. Through this approach, we offer younger
people who still have low income credit cards with low credit limits and proceed tobuild creditability with them as they continue to use their card and pay their bills.
Currently, our FinTech segment is advancing a strategy of maximizing its share ofhousehold finances. Under this strategy, we provide services that allow customers to use
their EPOS cards to make recurring payments for rent and utilities and build assets throughsavings and investment. We are also providing a lifestyle app that delivers an incredibly
high-level user experience. The goal of these strategies is to improve lifetime value by
increasing usage amounts while forging long-term relationships with customers.

FINTECH

FinTech Segment Business Foundation

Portion of Card Shopping Transactions Accounted for
by Gold Card Usage (As of March 31, 2021)
Transactions using gold cards
Card Shopping
Transactions

EPOS Cardholders

Partner Facilities

Total Transactions(As of March 31, 2021)(As of October 1, 2021)(As of March 31, 2021)

7 million35¥2.8 trillion¥2.2 trillion¥1.5 trillion

69%

Gold cardholders
2.6 million

Non-contact
payment functions
Made using
recycled plastic(first in Japan)

New EPOS cards

VOICE

Yoshinori Saito
Managing Executive Officer
In charge of FinTech BusinessPresident and Representative
Director, Epos Card Co., Ltd.

84

Click here to register for lifestyle app(in Japanese only).
www.eposcard.co.jp/appli/index.html
Lifestyle app

The next five years will be used for the rebranding necessary for achieving our desired impact.
When we first launched the EPOS card back in 2006, our goal was to provide people with their first credit
card and to ensure that this card had a permanent position in their wallet. For customers, this first card
was to be a lifelong partner. However, at some point, we found ourselves branding these cards based on
the savings they offered. This was the outcome of our efforts to catch up with and eventually surpass
rivals who had been in the market longer than us. For this reason, the five-year period of the new mediumterm management plan will be an important period for rebranding EPOS cards to move away from thisoveremphasis on savings.
One aspect of these rebranding activities is to develop cards that support individual preferences, such as
our anime and other content-related cards. In the future, we look to offer content-related cards that go
beyond anime to provide options for fans of sports, culture, and music. Eventually, the range of options willgrow to include all of the new businesses we are developing through forward-looking investments and thereby
support the countless preferences individuals may hold. At Epos Card, we established the Co-Creation
Promotion Department, and this department has allowed us to assemble co-creative teams for facilitatingeven more extensive collaboration in forward-looking investments. These efforts will no doubt contribute tohigher numbers of EPOS cardholders and to the creation of new brand value for EPOS cards.

FORWARD-LOOKINGINVESTMENTSMARUI GROUP’s approach toward forward-looking investments differs from the standard venture capital approach, which targets investment returns and dividends. We
rather look to achieve earnings growth together with our desired impact.
One type of forward-looking investment is new business investments, through which
we seek to combine retailing and fintech to create business models with a high barrier toentry with a focus on e-commerce storefronts. Co-creative investments, another type of
forward-looking investment, is used to generate synergies with partners for co-creating
the future through investments in and collaboration with start-up companies that share
our ideals and secondment of employees to such companies. Over the past five years,
forward-looking investments have amounted to ¥25.1 billion, of which ¥13.4 billion wasinvested in a total of 31 start-up companies. The internal rate of return (IRR) from theseinvestments comes to 35% exceeding our internal hurdle rate of 10%.*MARUI GROUP’S BUSINESS MODEL

Creation of Innovation to Achieve Earnings Growth Together with Desired Impact* Rate calculated using recent procurement prices for non-listed stocks and based on amounts if listed stocks were to be
sold on September 30, 2021

Forward-Looking Investment Business Structure

31 Investees
Note: Figures represent rate of growth from stock prices at time of acquisition andat recent procurement timing.

Forward-Looking
Investments

New
Business
Investments

Generation ofinternal innovation

Co-Creative
Investments
Co-creative
teams

Incorporation of
external innovation

More than 3 times

3 companies

More than 1.1 times

9 companies

More than 1.0 times

18 companies

Less than 1.0 times

1 company

Achievement of earnings growth while producing desired impact

IRR of 35% exceeding hurdle rate of 10%(Sustainability, well-being, and digital transformation)iKASA

Minna-denryoku

外国人が日本に来てよかったをカタチに ®

VOICEWe aim to evolve MARUI GROUP into an intellectual creation company through co-creation.
MARUI GROUP’s forward-looking investments include co-creative investments and new business investments. Co-creative investments are conducted to incorporate external innovation through collaboration
with start-ups and other partners whereas the purpose of new business investments is to generate innovation within the Company. The vanguard for pursuing success in open innovation through co-creative investments is co-creative teams. These teams are led by executive officers and comprise members selectedfrom throughout the Group who promote collaboration alongside their general business responsibilities to
produce victories of co-creation and thereby heighten the corporate value of investees.
MARUI GROUP is committed to being an entity that customers deem to be necessary by resolving social

Akikazu Aidaissues while growing sustainability. However, there is a limit to the extent to which we can evolve by ourselves.

Senior Executive Officer, CDO(Chief Digital Officer)
In charge of Co-Creative
Investment
Director, okos Co., Ltd.

We therefore intend to utilize our retailing and fintech insight and expertise to engage in co-creation withstart-ups and younger and future generations to achieve earnings growth while producing our desired impact.
We have already begun developing new businesses together with university students—representatives ofyounger generations—and we have embarked on ventures to create new value by resolving social issues
together with start-ups. We aim to evolve MARUI GROUP into an intellectual creation company throughthese co-creation initiatives.

85

I am co-founder of BORDERLESS JAPAN CORPORATION,
a company that only engages in social businesses.
BORDERLESS JAPAN offers a platform that sociallyminded entrepreneurs can use to work toward resolutions to social issues, such as poverty, discriminationand prejudice, and environmental destruction, throughtheir businesses.
I was appointed as sustainability advisor of MARUIGROUP in 2019. I believe my role at the Company is to
identify issues and help illuminate the path MARUIGROUP should take from the perspectives of socialchange and social businesses. To date, President Aoi
and I have discussed a variety of subjects based on
my background.
One topic we have discussed is the formulation of
impact targets. BORDERLESS Group companies definesocial impact, or the degree to which they are contributing to the resolution of social issues, as their mostimportant indicator. This indicator is symbolic of ouroverall business goal of contributing to the realization of
our envisioned society through the resolution of social
issues. All of our colleagues are committed to social
impact and work to guarantee a better impact throughtheir daily activities. I therefore recommended thatMARUI GROUP set its own impact targets based on
the type of society it hopes to realize.
MARUI GROUP agreed, setting three impact targets
in its new medium-term management plan. MARUIGROUP embraces a philosophy focused on inclusion.
This meant that it was important to define indicatorsthat account for its overall business goals, including
those related to social issues. I have high praise for how
the three impact targets were decided based on anearnest examination of the future that MARUI GROUP
envisions. After all, it is crucial for impact targets to be
directly linked to the ideals that one hopes to pursue.

THREE IMPACTS,
ONE COMMITMENT

Determining one’s goals, charting a path toward
accomplishing three impact targets

86

An intuitive understanding of the people you workwith is imperative to achieving impact targets. In otherwords, you have to be able to share their goals and feela connection with them as such. When the efforts offrontline employees contribute to a company’s desired
impact, they will feel a sense of accomplishment knowing that they are helping to realize their envisioned futurethat cannot be measured in numbers like sales andprofit. As a platform holder, MARUI GROUP is working tocreate opportunities that allow diverse individuals totackle new challenges in order to have a positive impact
on society in a variety of ways. It will therefore be important for employees who are passionate and committed
to realizing their envisioned future to maintain an intuitive understanding of those around them and assert
themselves so that they can pursue their ambitions.
Over the next couple of years, management will need tobe patient. Employees should be allowed to experienceand overcome failure through an ongoing process oftrial and error and to work together with their colleagues
to produce one success at a time. I am confident that
this process will make MARUI GROUP into an even more
independent and autonomous organization and eventually evolve the Company into an ecosystem capable ofachieving its envisioned future.

Masayoshi Suzuki
Executive Vice President, BORDERLESS JAPAN CORPORATION
Sustainability Advisor, MARUI GROUP CO., LTD.
Masayoshi Suzuki was born in Yamaguchi Prefecture in 1979. After graduatingfrom a graduate program, Suzuki joined Misumi CO., LTD., at the same time as
Kazunari Taguchi, with whom he would later go on to found BORDERLESS
JAPAN CORPORATION in 2007. As a company that only engages in social
businesses, BORDERLESS JAPAN seeks to contribute to the resolution of social
issues, such as poverty, discrimination and prejudice, and environmental
destruction. As of October 2021, BORDERLESS JAPAN had 43 subsidiaries in
15 countries. Through a unique “one good turn deserves another” system,
43 socially minded entrepreneurs pool their funds and know-how to drive thecontinuous development of social businesses via a social entrepreneurshipplatform. Suzuki became a sustainability advisor to MARUI GROUP in 2019.
www.borderless-global.com

87

MARUI GROUP’s Governance Focused on Six Stakeholder Groups
MARUI GROUP defines corporate value as being produced bycreating harmony between the interests and happiness of all of
its stakeholders and growing the intersection of these interestsand happiness. To coincide with this view, we have begun practicing governance with a focus on our six stakeholder groups.
In June 2021, as the first step of this process, we appointed
two new outside directors—Yasunori Nakagami and Peter David
Pedersen. Also at this time, Reiko Kojima was appointed as aninternal director. We also incorporated elements of the Board
3.0 model, a new governance model being promoted thatentails actively involving external directors in management
strategy planning and other facets of management. Specifically,
MARUI GROUP established the Strategy Committee as a newadvisory body to the Board of Directors tasked with examining
medium-to-long-term business strategies. MARUI GROUP has
also appointed new advisors from younger generations onwhom it will call for advice based on their new perspectives anddiverse values. Through these frameworks, the Company will
accelerate governance focused on six stakeholder groups for the
purpose of achieving its desired impact.

Customers

Business
partners

Investors

Stakeholder Value

Communities
and Society

Employees

Future generations

Members of the New Board of Directors Including Stakeholders
Hiroshi Aoi

Etsuko Okajima

President and Representative Director, Representative Executive Officer
Chairman of Management Committee and Compliance Promotion Board,
Member of Nominating and Compensation Committee, Sustainability
Committee, and Strategy Committee

President & CEO, ProNova Inc.
External Director, Member of Nominating andCompensation Committee and Strategy Committee

Reason for appointment: Hiroshi Aoi has properly overseen the Board of Directors as thechairman and duly performed his supervisory functions with regard to important management decision-making and operational execution as the president and representative
director of the Company since 2005. He has ample business experience and knowledge asa corporate manager and has overseen the overall operation of the Group and performed
his duties properly as the Group representative executive officer. Based on the above
reasons, the Company believes that he can fully perform his functions for facilitating the
medium-to-long-term improvement of the corporate value of the Company.

Yasunori NakagamiPeter David Pedersen

Representative Director and CEO, Misaki Capital Inc.
External Director, Chairman of Strategy Committee,
Member of Nominating and Compensation Committee

Representative Director, Next Leaders’ Initiative for Sustainability
Professor, Shizenkan University
External Director, Chairman of Sustainability Committee

Reason for appointment: Yasunori Nakagami has accumulated a wealth of experience atmanagement consulting firms and investment management companies through which hehas amassed exceptional insight regarding corporate management that emphasizes capital
markets. The Company thus judged that he would be able to contribute to the supervision of
overall management from an independent and objective standpoint as an external director.

Hirotsugu Kato
Director, Managing Executive Officer, and CFO
Chairman of ESG Committee and Insider Trading Prevention Committee,
Member of Management Committee, Sustainability Committee,
Strategy Committee, Compliance Promotion Board,
Public Relations IR Committee, and Internal Control Committee
Reason for appointment: Hirotsugu Kato has overseen finance, investment research,sustainability, and ESG divisions and performed his duties properly as a managing
executive officer of the Company. Based on the above reasons, the Company believes that
he can fully perform his functions for facilitating the medium-to-long-term improvement of
the corporate value of the Company.

88

Reason for appointment: Etsuko Okajima has experience and extensive knowledge incorporate management and is well versed in diversity policy and practices. She has
performed her duties as an external director of the Company from an objective, independent position. The Company believes that she can continue to contribute to the reinforcement of the supervisory function for the management of the Company.

Reason for appointment: Peter David Pedersen has accumulated a wealth of experience atenvironmental and CSR consulting firms through which he has amassed exceptional
insight regarding global-level sustainability management. The Company thus judged that
he would be able to contribute to the supervision of overall management from an independent and objective standpoint as an external director.

Reiko KojimaDirector, Executive Officer, and CWO (Chief Well-being Officer)
General Manager, Wellbeing Promotion Department
Company Physician
Member of Management Committee and Sustainability Committee
Reason for appointment: Reiko Kojima has robust experience as a general physician, aDoctor of Medicine, and a company physician and has properly performed her duties inoverseeing Groupwide well-being divisions as an executive officer. Based on the above
reasons, the Company believes that she can fully perform her functions for facilitating the
medium-to-long-term improvement of the corporate value of the Company.

MARUI GROUP’s Governance Focused on
Six Stakeholder Groups

Appointment of New Advisors from Younger Generations
MARUI GROUP appoints external experts with insight into business strategies and various business areas as advisors. We anticipate
that such advisors will be powerful assets in the establishment of strategies for Groupwide efforts to accomplish the targets of themedium-term management plan and to improve corporate value over the medium-to-long term as we seek to address the rapidlychanging operating environment and an ever-diversifying society. Regular meetings of advisors are held once every two or threemonths, at which the president, pertinent directors, executive officers, and representatives from relevant areas attend; advice is alsosought on specific themes. In December 2021, MARUI GROUP appointed two representatives of younger generations as advisors to
guide it in accommodating the needs of future generations.

Kyoko Ozawa

Sota Watanabe

Sustainability Specialist

Public Blockchain Specialist

Reason for appointment: As the first chief future officerof euglena Co., Ltd., Kyoko Ozawa began offering insight
regarding frameworks that unconsciously drive
consumers to eco-friendly action and the elimination of
products contained in plastic bottles in 2019 from theperspective of future generations. MARUI GROUP thus
judged that she would be able to offer valuable input andadvice for achieving the impact targets described in its
medium-term management plan.

Reason for appointment: After founding STAKETECHNOLOGIES in 2019, Sota Watanabe went on todevelop Japan’s Astar Network public blockchain. With
substantial experience and insight regarding blockchain
technology, MARUI GROUP judged that he would be
able to offer valuable input and advice for promoting
digital transformation based on its medium-term
management plan.

Member of Sustainability Committee
University Freshman

Appointed in
December 2021

CEO, STAKE TECHNOLOGIES PTE. LTD.
Director, Japan Blockchain Association

Appointed in
December 2021

Masakazu Masujima

Partner, Mori Hamada & Matsumoto

Appointed inJuly 2016

Fintech Specialist

Reason for appointment: Masakazu Masujima is a leading expert in the field of fintech with robust insight and experience. MARUI GROUP anticipates that he will offer
proposals of specific growth investment targets, advice and proposals regarding entry into the securities business, and advice on fintech-related laws and regulations foruse in the development of new fintech businesses.

Meyumi Yamada
Director, istyle Inc.

D2C Specialist

Reason for appointment: MARUI GROUP anticipates that Meyumi Yamada will provide up-to-date information on D2C ecosystems and customer success strategies andstimulate meaningful discussion in this regard to drive new value creation in the post-digital world.
Appointed inJuly 2017

Yutaka Matsuo

Professor, Department of Technology Management for Innovation, Artifacts, Center for Engineering, Graduate School of Engineering,
The University of Tokyo

Appointed in
October 2019

Reason for appointment: Yutaka Matsuo possesses a wealth of insight and experience as a leading authority in artificial intelligence (AI) research. In addition, he has
devoted his efforts promoting the use of AI and the cultivation of human resources in this field. One such effort was the establishment of the Japan Deep Learning
Association, an organization tasked with improving the competitiveness of industry in Japan with deep learning. MARUI GROUP anticipates that he will offer valuablesuggestions and advice for utilizing AI to improve corporate value.

Yoshiki Ishikawa

Doctor of Medicine; Preventative Medicine Researcher; Representative Director, Well-being for Planet Earth Foundation

Appointed inJuly 2020

AI Specialist

Well-being Specialist

Reason for appointment: Yoshiki Ishikawa possesses a wealth of experience and broad-ranging insight as a preventative medicine researcher. He is also one of Japan’s
foremost researchers of well-being and the representative director of the Well-being for Planet Earth Foundation. MARUI GROUP anticipates that he will offer valuablesuggestions and advice pertaining to the Company’s management.

Masayoshi Suzuki

Executive Vice President, BORDERLESS JAPAN CORPORATION
Member of Sustainability Committee

Appointed in
January 2019

Tomohiro Miyasaka
Venture Capitalist

Appointed inAugust 2021

Social Specialist

Reason for appointment: Masayoshi Suzuki co-founded BORDERLESS JAPAN, one of the few companies in the world that only engages in social businesses, throughwhich this company has addressed social issues pertaining to poverty, discrimination and prejudice, and the environment. MARUI GROUP anticipates that he will offer
valuable suggestions and advice for resolving social issues to help create a flourishing and inclusive society.

Venture Investment Specialist

Reason for appointment: Tomohiro Miyasaka has been involved in initial public offerings associated with numerous investees including Sansan, Inc.; Mercari, Inc.; Money
Forward, Inc.; RAKSUL INC.; Chatwork Co., Ltd.; and Uzabase, Inc. With this extensive background and robust insight, MARUI GROUP judged that he would be able to offer
valuable input and advice for promoting forward-looking investments and gaining higher levels of trust from stakeholders.

89

MARUI GROUP’s Governance Focused on
Six Stakeholder Groups

Corporate Governance System
Under the new corporate governance system launched in June 2021, the Board of Directors and the Company’s various committees
have been engaging in discussions that are not bound by previous conventions in search of the strategies, organizational structures,and human resources that will be necessary for achieving its three impact goals. One aspect of the new system is the Strategy
Committee, which was established with the goal of discussing and examining MARUI GROUP’s management from the perspectivesof shareholders and other investors. This committee is helping us produce an even greater range of strategic proposals for businesses based on their barriers to entry. Moreover, the Strategy Committee coordinates with the Sustainability Committee to alignour business and sustainability initiatives in order to develop management frameworks directly linked to positive impacts.
Major Agenda Items Discussed at Meetings of the New Board of Directors (June–November 2021)• Discussion themes for the new Board of
Directors• Revision of officer compensation systems• Establishment and revision of committees• Revision and augmentation of membershipof Management Committee and othercommittees• Appointment of new advisors• Revision of regulations related to Board of
Directors and Management Committee• Evaluation of Board of Directors’ effectiveness• Changes to authority delegated to executive
officers• Response to revision to Japan’s Corporate
Governance Code• Revision of MARUI GROUP Corporate
Governance Guidelines• Production and disclosure of officer
skill matrix• Partial revision of internal audit regulations• Status of cross-shareholdings and future
measures• Cancellation of treasury stock• Status of investment projects and holdingof unlisted securities• Transfer of stock listing to Tokyo Stock
Exchange Prime Market• Directives for new business development• Organization and human resource development for post-digital world• Allocation of Co-Creation Management
Academy participants• Issues and future initiatives pertaining to
subsidiaries

New Committee Structures and Purpose
Strategy Committee (Newly Established)
ChairmanSustainability Committee

Yasunori Nakagami, External Director

ChairmanMARUI GROUP is unique in its development of abusiness model merging retailing, fintech, andforward-looking investment. Through the Strategy
Committee, I hope to examine strategies for generating long-term, ongoing profits based on extensive
fact and data analyses in order to find an original
approach that is suited to MARUI GROUP.

Peter David Pedersen, External Director
MARUI GROUP has a close connection to consumers
through its retailing and fintech businesses. I therefore
feel that proposing alternative forms of consumption
and new lifestyles are among our top priorities forsustainability management at MARUI GROUP. In my
capacity as chairman of the Sustainability Committee,
I hope to help MARUI GROUP tackle these priorities.

Coordination

Members

Four directors/officers

Members

Four directors/officers, two advisors

Meeting
frequency

Once every two months

Meeting
frequency

Four times a year

PurposeThe Strategy Committee was established in
November 2021 to discuss and examine strategies
from the perspective of shareholders and otherinvestors in order to formulate strategies for developing businesses with future potential, including thosewith high barriers to participation, and thereby facilitate management emphasizing stakeholders.

PurposeThe Sustainability Committee was established in May
2019 to help promote the integration of sustainability
and management strategies. Sustainability andimpact specialists and members of younger generations were invited to join the committee as MARUIGROUP sought to set impact targets.

Ordinary General Meeting of Shareholders
Appoint / Dismiss

Audit & Supervisory Board

Audit

Appoint / Dismiss

Select /Discharge

Board of Directors

President

Advisory
Committees

ReportNominating and Compensation
Committee
Sustainability Committee
Strategy Committee

Report / Advise
ReportReport / Advise

Instruct

Report / Advise

Management Committee

Compliance Promotion Board
ReportInstructPublic Relations IR Committee, Internal Control Committee, ESG Committee,
Information Security Committee, Safety Control Committee, Insider Trading Prevention Committee

Committee Membershipwww.0101maruigroup.co.jp/pdf/
committee_members_en.pdf

90

MARUI GROUP Corporate Governance Guidelines
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/pdf/
cgg_20210805_en.pdf

MARUI GROUP Corporate Governance Reportwww.0101maruigroup.co.jp/pdf/
cgr_en.pdf

MARUI GROUP’s Governance Focused on
Six Stakeholder Groups

Officer Skill Matrix
MARUI GROUP began disclosing annual officer skill matrixes with the publication of VISION BOOK 2050 in 2019 in order to help
stakeholders gain a more multifaceted understanding of the management skills and personal qualities of the officers that represent
the Company in various business fields. Through discussions by the new Board of Directors held during 2021, it was decided that
there were 14 skills, comprising shared skills and unique skills, that were required for achieving MARUI GROUP’s desired impact
through the advancement of its management and medium-term management plan. Based on this decision, we prepared a new skill
matrix indicating the insight, experience, and skills of MARUI GROUP’s 24 internal and external directors, Audit & Supervisory Board
members, and executive officers (please see page 106).
Shared Skills

Unique Skills

Common skills required for the Board of Directors to appropriately fulfill its function (insight, experience, and skills)

Unique skills necessary for implementing MARUI GROUP’s
medium-term management plan (insight, experience, and skills)

1. Corporate management
2. Management strategy formulation
3. Human resource management
4. Finances
5. Corporate governance6. Risk management
7. Innovation

8. Sustainability

9. Well-being

10. Digital transformation

Unique skills needed for MARUI GROUP’s business strategies(insight, experience, and skills)
11. Retailing 12. Fintech
13. New business development(forward-looking investments)
14. Investments in start-up companies(forward-looking investments)

Transcript of Board of Directors’ Discussion
The following is an abridged transcript of a discussion by the Board“investments in start-up companies” and “new business develop-of Directors regarding the skill matrix that took place across two

ment,” as surrogates for this concept.

meetings held in September and November 2021.

Pedersen: “Innovation” may be a little too broad, but I think that

Nakagami: There is no need for MARUI GROUP’s skill matrix to be“investments in start-up companies” might be too narrow. You could

like those of other companies. MARUI GROUP has its own purpose,talk about the co-creation of businesses.

and its skill matrix should thus focus on the skills that are necessary

Aoi: I think we could use “investments in start-up companies” tofor achieving this purpose. Skills related to the Company’s businessrefer to forward-looking investments and include it in the shared

could include industry experience and insight related to retailingskills category if we want to give it a broader nuance. I hope we canand fintech.

receive more input from you when refining future iterations of our

Okajima: When considering the reasons why Japan’s Corporate

skill matrix.

Governance Code expects companies to disclose skill matrixes,
I think we don’t necessarily need to focus on the areas of expertiseof each officer. Rather, it would probably be better to think about the* The CliftonStrengths® assessment is a framework developed by Gallup, Inc., of the UnitedStates that defines 34 CliftonStrengths® themes created by consolidating some 5,000
behavior and thought patterns. This assessment is used in the human resource development programs of more than 90% of Fortune 500 companies.

contribution everyone makes to the Board of Directors as a forum
for management decisions.
Pedersen: I agree with both of you. The skill matrix should not be
about filling in a template; it should be prepared as a message fromMARUI GROUP.
Aoi: By incorporating your input, I hope to make a skill matrix that
truly represents MARUI GROUP, something that closely resembles
the ideas of purpose and impact that Mr. Nakagami spoke of. I thinkthat we could really make a unique skill matrix by discussing thismatter a little further.
Nakagami: In the past, MARUI GROUP has taken such unique steps
as presenting external evaluations of the officers using frameworks
like CliftonStrengths®.* The effectiveness of a board of directors is
not only determined by the skills of its members, there also has tobe a good match between the thought patterns of these members.
I hope you will continue to release such evaluations in the future.
Innovation is a very broad concept. Accordingly, the skill matrix
could use concrete terms matched to your business strategies, like

Online Board of Directors’ meeting held in September 2021

91

MARUI GROUP’s Governance Focused on
Six Stakeholder Groups

Future Leader Development Program Seeing Involvement from Officers and Advisors
MARUI GROUP unveiled its Co-Creation Management Academy (CMA) future leader
development program in April 2017 with the aim of identifying and cultivating
human resources capable of promoting management innovation. This program isbased on open application by individuals passionate about shaping the future of
MARUI GROUP, and each year 10–20 candidates are selected from among theseambitious volunteers. To date, a total of 62 individuals have participated. Those
selected are submitted to a one-year training curriculum developed under the guidance of external directors to instill in them a management perspective.
In the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022, the fifth year of the program, 12 individuals
were chosen for participation with an average age of 32. Under the guidance ofExternal Director Etsuko Okajima, these individuals are taking part in a one-year curParticipants and instructor for fifth year of CMA program
riculum aimed at cultivating human resources that are able to undertake co-creative
businesses with start-up companies and younger generations. After the completion of this curriculum, they will be seconded to partnercompanies or positioned in strategy or corporate planning positions as we monitor their ongoing development as future leaders.
CMA Program’s Fifth Year Curriculum Road Map
Step 1: Fostering of recognition as manager
Core values(discussions with officers)

Management simulations

Megatrends

Start-up management mentality

Interim presentation (team presentation)

Step 2: Acquisition of necessary management skills through practical exercise
Profit sensing

Digital transformation(user experience, programming)

New business proposal

Discussion with members ofyounger generations

Final presentation (individual presentation)

Principal Instructors and Discussion Counterparties

92

Overall supervision

Etsuko Okajima, External Director

Core values(discussions with officers)

Hiroshi Aoi, President and Representative Director
Masao Nakamura, Senior Managing Executive
Officer
Tomoo Ishii, Senior Managing Executive Officer

Start-up management
mentality

Yuta Tsuruoka, CEO, BASE, Inc.
Taejun Shin, Representative Director & CEO,
Gojo & Company, Inc.
Yosuke Miyama, Representative Director,
Sparty, Inc.

MegatrendsPeter David Pedersen, External Director(Sustainability)
Masayoshi Suzuki, Advisor (Social Impact)
Yoshiki Ishikawa, Advisor (Well-being)

Digital transformation (userexperience, programming)

Yusuke Mizuno, Representative Director and CEO,Life is Tech, Inc.

New business proposal

Kentaro Sakakibara, Representative Director,
SAMURAI INCUBATE INC.

MARUI GROUP’s Governance Focused on
Six Stakeholder Groups

Energization through Well-being and Gender Equality
MARUI GROUP’s goal in emphasizing well-being in management is to make all of its stakeholders happier. Employees are one suchstakeholder, and ensuring that they are healthy and energized is of utmost importance. The World Health Organization (WHO) uses
the word “well-being” in its definition of “health,” which is as follows: “Health is a state of complete physical, mental and social wellbeing and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.” MARUI GROUP aims to allow all of its employees to experience the type ofwell-being talked about in this definition. We believe that when every employee is empowered to utilize their individuality and skills tocontribute to higher corporate value and consequently greater happiness for society, they themselves will also feel happier. This cycleof generating happiness is indispensable to the accomplishment of the impact targets described in MARUI GROUP’s new mediumterm management plan.

VOICE

Yoshiki Ishikawa
Advisor, MARUI GROUP
Doctor of Medicine;
Preventative Medicine Researcher;
Representative Director, Well-being
for Planet Earth Foundation

Women’s Empowerment Indexes

Awareness and corporate culture reforms

MARUI GROUP has establishedGroupwide project teams inwhich any employee can volunteer to participate. One of theseteams is the Well-being
Management Project Team.
This project team is engaged in Fifth-year Well-being Management Project
Team members
discussion of various themes
related to working while maintaining a strong sense of wellbeing. Based on these discussions, the team is formulating andimplementing action plans for achieving our impact targets
through well-being activities. Another well-being-related project
team is the Gender Equality Project Team. MARUI GROUP
recognizes that empowering its female employees in the workplace requires the development of gender-equal work styles.
Developing these work styles is a task that cannot be accomplished by women alone, but rather one that requires reforms to
the thinking of their families and coworkers and of society as awhole. As its first step in promoting these reforms, MARUIGROUP analyzed its degree of success with regard to thewomen’s empowerment indexes it unveiled in 2014. This

information has been used to set new targets to be accomplished by the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026.

Empowerment offemale employees

Resolution of Well-being Issues through Groupwide
Project Teams

Indicator

Goal

FY2021ResultFY2026
TargetRate of elimination of genderpreconceptions (ratio of
employees rejecting preconceptions about gender roles)

Cultivation of a cultureemphasizing well-being throughelimination of preconceptions
about the roles that people ofspecific genders should play inhousework and child-rearing

37%

50%

Ratio of applicable male
employees taking childcare
leave

Promotion of involvement ofboth parents in child-rearing

100%

100%

Ratio of applicable male
employees taking childcare
leave within eight weeks ofchildbirth by partner

Encouragement of men to get
involved in child-rearing from anearly stage

36%

80%

Ratio of applicable male
employees taking childcare
leave for one month or more

Establishment of foundations
for ongoing involvement inchild-rearing by men

9%

20%

Rate of household chore andchild-rearing participation bymale employees

Improvement of rate of
involvement in housework andchild-rearing by men

30%

35%

Ratio of female employees
pursuing upper-level positions

Establishment of foundations
for empowering female
employees

70%

75%

Ratio of female leaders

Expansion of female representation in management

30%

40%

Ratio of female managers

Encouragement of female
employees to participate inmanagement

15%

20%

Ratio of female officers

Encouragement of female
employees to participate insenior management

22%

30%

I am focused on how to measure reductions in the disparity in the use of time between men and women.
Well-being includes both objective and subjective elements. The objective elements can be measured in theform of data on such metrics as the rates of employees undergoing health examinations or taking paid leaveand childcare leave. Subjective elements, meanwhile, include how empowered and motivated one feels intheir work. The world I envision after the COVID-19 pandemic is not just one where we live without masks
and enjoy resumed economic growth. I want a world in which everyone has true well-being, in other words, aworld in which everyone experiences both objective and subjective well-being. In order to effectively promote
well-being, a company must do so from both objective and subjective perspectives.
MARUI GROUP is a company that is truly committed to promoting well-being for both its employees andthe rest of society. Looking at these committed efforts, I am focused on how to measure reductions in the
disparity in the use of time between men and women going forward. For example, women have a tendency
to devote more time to their work and family than men, and therefore spend less time on themselves. It iscurrently common for their husbands and male coworkers to fail to understand this difference between theirideal use of time and the reality of the situation, which has created a gender gap when it comes to well-being.
By sharing this information among people of all genders, and reconciling these disparities, I hope to help
improve contemporary lifestyles. This would help us enjoy the fundamental quality of well-being, which is justthat—being well. I have high expectations for the activities of MARUI GROUP’s Well-being Management
Project Team and Gender Equality Project Team. I hope to see their activities spread throughout theCompany and then into the greater society.
93Akira Sato
Co-Founder and Representative Partner, Value Create Inc.
Akira Sato joined Nomura Securities Co., Ltd., in 1987, where he became
a securities analyst in 1989. He co-founded Value Create Inc. together
with Masahiro Mitomi, a certified public accountant in Japan and theUnited States, in May 2001. Over the years, he has held a number of
positions, which have included being a part-time lecturer at the
Department of Management of Technology of the Tokyo University of
Science and director of WICI Japan. He also held director, outside
director, and corporate auditor positions at overseas asset managementcompanies, Rheos Capital Works Inc., long-term investment firm
Commons Asset Management, Inc., Fuji Pharma Co., Ltd., and othercompanies. In 2016, Sato became general manager of the Investment
Research Department at MARUI GROUP.


Reiko Kojima
Director, Executive Officer, and CWO (Chief Well-being Officer)
Company Physician
General Manager, Wellbeing Promotion Department, MARUI GROUP CO., LTD.
A physician by profession, Reiko Kojima spent roughly 10 years as acompany physician at a major manufacturer. She began working at theoccupational mental health unit of Kitasato University Graduate Schoolof Medical Science in 2006, receiving her Doctor of Medicine in 2010.
Kojima became a company physician at MARUI GROUP in 2011, laterassuming her current positions of director, executive officer, CWO, andgeneral manager of the Wellbeing Promotion Department in 2021.

94

Photographs show Sato and Kojima walking at
the Four Seasons and Waterside Gardens biotope at Nakano Marui.

Broadening Scope of
Well-being Activities
DIALOGUE 07

A K I R A S AT O

REIKO KOJIMA

Potential for Well-being That Extends Outside of the Company
Former leading securities analyst and current investor Akira Sato believes the excitement an organization exhibits is an intangible asset. Joined by Reiko Kojima, CWO, company physician, and proponentof well-being management at MARUI GROUP, he explores the meaning of this statement through an
intellectual examination of topics ranging from the definition of well-being to the Group’s future direction.

Improvement of Well-being through Empowerment
and Excitement
Kojima: The Constitution of the World Health Organization(WHO), which was written in 1946, uses the word “well-being”
in its definition of the word “health.” The full definition of theconstitution is “Health is a state of complete physical, mental
and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or
infirmity.” In 2016, MARUI GROUP started up a Companywide
project team based on the theme of health, which would eventually become the Wellbeing Promotion Project Team. I havebeen sharing the WHO’s concept of well-being with project teammembers since this time. However, the idea of well-being was
not one that was well known in Japan even just a few years ago.
Not until recently did you hear people talking about the subject.
Sato: It is similar to the concept of outcome as it relates to theprocess of creating corporate value. It was only just recently
that people have started to assess outcome for this purpose.
Companies create products as their output, and people havenow begun emphasizing the outcome of that output, such as
the positive impacts they create for society. However, it was
only just five years ago that this idea of outcome would be met
with question marks. Even when I was still an analyst, I did not
believe that quarterly financial results were directly linked tocorporate value. For that reason, I found no excitement in thefinancial explanations at financial results briefings. I was moreinterested in going to factories to talk to engineers and otherfrontline workers. Seeing their enthusiasm gave me a better
sense of the potential outcomes of a given company.
Kojima: Management academic Sumantra Ghoshal explainedthat the competitiveness of a company flows from the front lines.
Sato: Yes. And I wasn’t the only one who felt this way. Many
investors who were focused on the fundamentals also turned
their attention to non-financial factors. I, personally, look at factors
like a company’s strengths, strategies, culture, the differences in
the quality of its human resources, and employee turnover rates.
Kojima: Over the course of two decades, I worked as a company physician at a number of companies. My examinations of
employees revealed that addressing an individual’s healthissues did not necessarily contribute to their happiness. Meanwhile,

people who were motivated to immerse themselves in their workor hobbies had a certain energy to them. This experience convinced me that empowering people and granting them a senseof excitement was a clear route to improving their well-being.

Well-being as Viewed from the Idea of Ecosystems
Kojima: When promoting well-being, selecting appropriate
indicators is something that requires special attention. If we areasked what indicators are linked to improved profitability, ourexplanations become very abstract and roundabout, with nohard, direct link established. There are a lot of elements that
contribute to well-being. It is therefore not as simple as saying,
we launched a Companywide project and it resulted in thisspecific improvement in financial indicators. What are yourthoughts regarding financial indicators for well-being, Mr. Sato?
Sato: There are two factors I would like to touch on in thatregard. The first is technological progress. It has gotten a loteasier to quantify various changes. The pace of technologicalprogress is such that we are substantially closer to the desired
technologies today than we were even just five years ago.
One example of new technology for quantifying well-being is
Happiness Planet, a smartphone app that measures happinessscores. I understand that you have used this app in the past,
Dr. Kojima. We have also recently seen the emergence of websites
like OpenWork, a review and recruitment website that allows
employees to post reviews of their companies. A number ofcurrent and former employees of companies use such websites
to score their employers. Moreover, we are now able to perform
analysis that reveals when a rise in a certain indicator has
contributed to higher sales or stock prices, even after a period
like 18 months. I suspect that we will see an increase in suchtools going forward. The second factor is the idea that, perhaps,
we don’t even need to look at the numbers. What I mean to say
is this, value is not about one-to-one relationships, where asingle action has a direct impact on a single indicator. Rather,value is born out of what is more like an ecosystem. I want totalk with institutional investors about things like the reasons
behind certain decisions or why they chose to emphasize a
specific indicator. I believe that such conversations can give95

a more overarching picture of these subjects. As opposed tofocusing on the mechanics of companies, like how much input
resulted in what output or what something’s absolute value was,I think it would be better to look at companies like ecosystems.
Kojima: I believe that we are currently seeing the spread ofsuch thinking.
Sato: MARUI GROUP advisor Yoshiki Ishikawa speculated thatwell-being should be defined as “when you feel like things aregoing well.” I think he touches on something incredibly insightful. It is important not to break things down too far. One way tolook at this is to think about the forest of Meiji Jingu shrine.
This forest was engineered by forestry expert Seiroku Honda
with a vision for its completion 150 years later. He assembled avariety of trees from across Japan: tall trees, short trees, broadleaf trees, conifer trees. He planted these in an inconsistentpattern while picturing how they would grow in this environment to get an idea of the completed forest that would emerge
150 years later. As a result, the Meiji Jingu forest is a lush andthriving forest today, 100 years after Honda started it. However,if Honda had broken down his view of the forest to look atthings on a lower level, I do not think we would have the forest
we have today. The same goes with finances. What others call“non-financial information,” I call “pre-financial information.” Thisis because I do not think we should look at aspects of a company as being either “financial” or “non-financial.” Rather, I thinkthat these two categories have more of an “and” relationship, as
what is currently “non-financial information” may become an
indicator of future performance if we look far enough down theline. This is why I brought this ampersand-shaped (&) decoration to today’s discussion. “Non-financial” factors like well-being
and impact will eventually have a financial impact. This is why
I refer to information on these factors as “pre-financial information.” Corporate value is predicated on the betterment of society.
For this reason, we should look at the benefits for society,including those that do not immediately translate to corporate
value, as elements of future corporate value. This value is somethingthat cannot be accounted for when you gauge corporate valueon the short time frame of one quarter or one year.

Analogy of Organizations as Bodies
Kojima: I can totally agree with the idea that we should not lookat non-financial information and financial information in termsof an “or” relationship. For example, health issues are somethingusually categorized as non-financial information. The COVID-19
pandemic is a major health issue, but it has also had a massive
impact on the financial performance of companies. Humanrights issues are also something viewed as non-financial. However,as we have witnessed with the Black Lives Matter movement,
human rights issues can also impact a company’s business. As
seen in these relationships, as well as in the recently emerging
concept of dynamic materiality, this is not an “or” relationship.
I think that a good analogy can be made between
96

organizations and people’s bodies. Every cell and every organ
does not only act based on the commands of the brain. They
function with a degree of autonomy based on feedback fromthe organism to work toward its own goal of survival.
Sato: I agree. Cells are at the same time individual organisms
as well as parts of a larger organism. In this manner, there is arelationship between the individual and organization. I think
I have heard something about a person’s bowels having a mindof their own.
Kojima: What you are talking about is the gut–brain connectionin which intestinal flora have a major influence on one’s physicalcondition.
Sato: So, it wasn’t cells, but bacteria.
Kojima: Yes, intestinal flora.
Sato: So, it is bacteria that is the source of the impact. Thereis perhaps something that can be learned by thinking aboutcompanies from that perspective.
Kojima: There is definitely a lot that can be learned. If all organs
fulfilled the same function, there would be no problem withpeople being like slimes. But this is not the case. Livers haveliver cells. Skin has skin cells. Because each cell has its own
characteristics, the collective of these cells that is us is able tofunction as a single human. Cells themselves are always working and being replaced via metabolism. When we think of it like
this, we will see that the human body is definitely the best
analogy for an organization.
Sato: What you are saying resembles the idea of dynamic
equilibrium put forth by Japanese biologist Shinichi Fukuoka. It
would be great if we could link this mechanism to corporate value.

Future Direction for Well-being
Kojima: A lot of Japanese companies still expect employees toleave their values at home, put on their work face, and do what
they are told. If MARUI GROUP can escape these conventions
and show how it can succeed without them, other companies
will be able to use this as an example. This would also move theGroup closer to accomplishing its mission of bringing happiness to its employees.
Sato: One’s physical and mental health as well as their happiness are all related. It is therefore odd to expect one to leave
their values at home. How are conditions for MARUI GROUP
employees in this respect?
Kojima: We still have a long way to go in this regard. MARUIGROUP has been fostering a corporate culture of voluntary
participation for about a decade now, and the ratio of employees
participating in the Company’s various voluntary opportunities
had risen to 80% in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021. Ourcurrent task is to help employees express their personal values
as a lingua franca and to encourage them to share these values
with their colleagues so that everyone can feel joy in their work.
To this end, the Companywide Wellbeing Promotion Project
Team held a purpose workshop for around 200 employees.

Sato’s favorite “&” decoration(Learn its secret in the discussion!)

Project team members mentioned how they hadn’t had any
opportunities previously to think about the overlap between theirpersonal values and their work goals, and 95% of participants
said that the workshop was a beneficial opportunity.
Sato: That is great.
Kojima: MARUI GROUP aims to foster a corporate culture
founded on autonomy, in which employees are able to express
their personal values as a lingua franca and turn their preferences and aptitudes into work.
Sato: What do you think should be MARUI GROUP’s next
step forward?
Kojima: The next step should be to use MARUI GROUP’s initiatives and businesses to promote increased well-being throughout society. In 2020, the Wellbeing Promotion Project Team
partnered with students from Otsuma Nakano Junior & SeniorHigh School, which is located near the MARUI GROUP head
office in Nakano, in an effort to energize the community.
Students and employees prepared more than 1,400 cards
containing messages of appreciation for their families andfriends as well as for healthcare workers. These message cards
were displayed in Nakano Marui, where they could be viewed bycustomers. The employees who took part in this event in aneffort to contribute to the happiness of the community statedthat they also felt more empowered as a result.
Sato: They got joy from seeing the joy their actions brought tomembers of the community.
Kojima: Exactly. Rather than just trying to promote well-being in
the isolated environment that is a company, it is better to try
and bring joy to society, an approach that can also contribute tohigher employee engagement. The Nakano Marui event provedthat people get the most joy by bringing joy to others. This is
one of the reasons MARUI GROUP aims to help employees use
their preferences and aptitudes in their work. For example, by
having employees develop businesses based on their own
interests, whether that be anime, K-pop, or something else, we
can attract customers with similar interests and thereby bringjoy to both customers and the employees. Our well-being initiatives should not be limited to employees, but should rather beadvanced on targeting all stakeholders, including future generations, to bring joy to a wider range of people. This is the direction I think we should take in our well-being management.
Sato: I think the time frame we consider is important. Analysts
tend to only formulate performance forecasts for a two-year
period. However, if you only look to generate earnings on a
two-year basis, it will be tempting to push your employees
forward, even at the expense of their well-being. Conversely,some say that more than 60% of the corporate value of a company can be explained by its cash flows 10 years down the line.
If we take this perspective, the physical and mental health of
employees becomes more important than the earnings of agiven fiscal year or the three-year plan of a company. If employees, and society as a whole, are not healthy, a company will notlast 10 years. Based on this perspective, I think MARUI GROUP
has chosen the right direction.
97

Our favoriteS
As of October 1, 2021

H__Hiroshi Aoi

President and Representative Director, Representative Executive Officer
President and Representative Director, okos Co., Ltd.
Director, D2C & Co. Inc.

I love movies, especially comedies. Luckily, 2021 was a good year for comedies. The
pamphlet I hold is from a 2020 Taiwanese movie called My Missing Valentine that wejust got in Japan in 2021. This is a love story about a woman who is a second too early
and a man who is always a second too late. The fun is seeing the relationship develop
between these two people who live in different worlds. This fantastical story takes
place against a beautiful yet nostalgic backdrop, and even includes some scenes
more akin to science fiction. The happy ending exudes a warm feeling of peace andhappiness. I would also like to mention that this movie got me hooked on Douhua, aTaiwanese snack, over the summer. Its subtle taste brings with it a calming feelingof pleasure.

E__Etsuko Okajima

External Director
President & CEO, ProNova Inc.
Director, euglena Co., Ltd.

I love the act of co-creation through brainstorming with extraordinary people. I always
carry around a miniature whiteboard that I use to map out diverse viewpoints to help
stimulate innovation. My experience of co-creating with my various colleagues at
Harvard Business School transformed my priorities from maximizing, stabilizing,and knowing to updating, changing, and being. Meanwhile, having a child shifted myfocus from predicting the future to shaping the future. I now view my mission as being
to indulge my obsession with seeking out extraordinary individuals, including thoseamong younger generations, to connect with such individuals, provide them with
opportunities, and engage in co-creation. I also hope to continue to draw out the potential of the MARUI GROUP team so that we can create a more exciting future together.

Y__Yasunori Nakagami

External Director
Representative Director and CEO, Misaki Capital Inc.

My favorite words are “hypothesis” and “playfulness.” Hypotheses entail viewing theworld from different angles and thus serves as a source of motivation for changing thefuture. I feel the most excitement when I am hypothesizing in this manner. Surprisingly,
what I find most important when hypothesizing is a playful approach. Examining
something from a new angle can tend to make one get a little too serious, but thetrick to finding the best ideas is to take a playful approach and search freely. I brought
cuff links with me today. Cuff links are generally used in formal occasions and cansometimes be used for extravagance. However, my favorites are the playful cuff links,
like these beach sandal ones, or these tennis rackets, motorcycles, or triangles. I love
to clip on these cuff links when I hypothesize.
98p__Peter David Pedersen

External Director
Professor, Graduate School of Leadership and Innovation, Shizenkan University
Representative Director, Next Leaders’ Initiative for Sustainability

I love things that are based on a cross-generation perspective aimed at enriching
our future, whether these be products, services, businesses, people, or organizations.
I want to support things that can survive and evolve and help create a future that ismore in tune with people. In 1994, I went on an exchange to Schumacher College in
Devon, England. There, I learned from writer and scientist Fritjof Capra about the Gaia
hypothesis, ecology, and the systems theory of life. I also value peace above all else.
It was for this reason that I have devoted my life to ensuring the coexistence and survivability of all living things, including people and especially the future generations,
given their aversion toward conflict. These are areas in which I am incredibly interested. My experience at this school shaped my values and the course I would walkin the future.

H__Hirotsugu Kato

Director, Managing Executive Officer, and CFO
In charge of IR, Finance, Sustainability, and ESG Promotion
Director, MARUI CO., LTD.
Director, tsumiki Co., Ltd.
President and Representative Director, D2C & Co. Inc.
Director, okos Co., Ltd.

I have with me my protein shaker, which I have been using at the gym for five years.
This is the longest I have ever managed to keep going to the gym, and I was able toslim down as a result. To be honest, I have signed up for gyms several times in thepast, but I would always quit within a year. This is because I was not very good at introducing myself to the established community that already existed at these gyms, whichmeant I always felt isolated. My current gym assigns me a personal trainer, which, ofcourse, means that I am exercising more effectively. This also means that I do not haveto feel isolated. After working out, my trainer will ice me down and then give me a massage. This is just pure bliss. My workouts are now an inseparable part of my well-being.

R__Reiko Kojima

Director, Executive Officer, and CWO (Chief Well-being Officer)
General Manager, Wellbeing Promotion Department
Company Physician

My lifework is calling upon my background as a physician to contribute to the wellbeing of society. At graduate school, I researched how to energize people and organizations. Lately, I have been hooked on media related to China’s Records of the Three
Kingdoms. The highly relatable generals and strategists that appear in these stories
show a level of commitment to their goals that is itself empowering to see. When I feeltired, I pop in a DVD and am rejuvenated with a new passion to proceed and a recognition of how happy I am to have the job of making people happy. People should notleave their values at home when they go to work. Rather, they should find a way to­utilize their strengths and individuality in their work. I hope to help create a more
accommodating society in which this will be possible. Recently, I have been having
more opportunities to meet people outside of MARUI GROUP who share this vision,
giving me a sense that the times are changing and are making me even more committed to my work.
©京東方恒和影視文化有限公司(focused on works from Communication University of China)

99

H __Hitoshi Kawai

Audit & Supervisory Board Member (Full time)

A number of years ago, a gust of wind blew over the planters on my veranda. My rosemary shrub, which was the largest among those plants affected, had its trunk split in
two by the impact. This got me a little down in the dumps. It was my fault for nottaking proper care of the plant. The sprig I have with me is from the rosemary shrub
after I managed to revive it. I have continued to care for this shrub since I bought it as asapling at a gardening store on the Boso Peninsula some 20 years ago, and this rosemary shrub is now among the oldest of the more than 70 plants that can be found bothin and around my house. This plant gives me peace with all the flowers it produceseach year while also helping to spice up my meals. In case you haven’t guessed, myhobby is gardening.

N __Nariaki Fuse

Audit & Supervisory Board Member (Full time)

I lived in Hokkaido for three years when I was still in elementary school. It was during
this time that I first played ice hockey, and I have been in love with the sport ever since.
I even kept playing it as a hobby after joining MARUI GROUP. This is the head gear that
I used to wear back in the day. Ice hockey is an incredibly intense sport, with plays only
lasting about a minute or so. Accordingly, teams are always switching out their members, which means that teamwork is much more important than individual talent. It
was from this sport that I learned the value of cooperation and also gained the spiritof dedication that propels me to get things done. Today, MARUI GROUP is united in
exercising its philosophy of co-creation. I look forward to contributing to these efforts
by calling upon my spirit of dedication and what I learned from ice hockey.

t __Takehiko Takagi

External Audit & Supervisory Board Member
Certified Public Tax Accountant

Here is a fountain pen that I have been using for more than two decades. Being stuckat home during the COVID-19 pandemic has given me a chance to reflect on my life.
There is a saying in Japanese that essentially translates to “do what you can and wait
for the heavens to judge.” This sentiment has inspired me to move forward without fear
for what might happen, and I am truly grateful for the environment that has allowed me
to take this approach. I think that acting with sincerity is incredibly important, whether
we are talking about people or about companies. MARUI GROUP shows such sincerity
as it continues to make forward-looking investments based on its co-creation approach,even while feeling the impacts of the pandemic. I too am sincerely committed to helping
the Company achieve its sustainability and well-being goals in my capacity as an
Audit & Supervisory Board member.
100

OUR FAVORITES

Y __Yoko Suzuki

External Audit & Supervisory Board Member
Outside Director and Audit & Supervisory Board Member, Nippon Pigment Co., Ltd.
Member of the Board, Bridgestone Corporation
Auditor, Research Institute of Economy, Trade and Industry
Partner, Suzuki Sogo Law Office

Growing up in the lush nature of Fukuoka City, I have loved the Guri and Gura seriesof books since I was a kid. Wanting to experience the world contained in these books,
I remember asking my mom to make pancakes and then eating these on a picnic. A lotof time has passed since then, and I am now a mom myself. Reading these books withmy children, I am once again moved by seeing the forest creatures happily share theircastella sponge cakes and reuse the shell of a big egg. When making our daily meals,
I try to make sure that I use everything I buy to prevent food loss. Also, like the characters Guri and Gura, I always want to enjoy cooking and the act of eating itself. One of
my hopes in helping build a sustainable society is to ensure that Guri and Gura can beread for generations to come.
Guri and Gura
Written by Rie Nakagawa, illustrated by Yuriko Omura, published by FUKUINKAN
SHOTEN PUBLISHER INC.

M __Masao Nakamura

Senior Managing Executive Officer, and CSO (Chief Security Officer)
In charge of Corporate Planning, Real Estate Operations
President and Representative Director, MARUI HOME SERVICE Co., Ltd.
President and Representative Director,
MARUI HOME SERVICE MANAGEMENT Co., Ltd.
Director, Epos Small Amount and Short Term Insurance Co., Ltd.

I love sitting in my hammock chair, on my veranda, with the sun glinting throughthe trees. As I rock back and forth, and let my head relax, my imagination springs into
action, and I envision fun plans for the future, sometimes for my work, sometimes formy private life. I love the excitement I feel when lost in my mind. My attitude toward
work may make me seem like a pragmatist, but I actually see myself as a romantic.
I am also an optimist, believing that we can do anything as long as we want it bad
enough. I like it when my job is fun. Of course, I have never worked in a job that wasn’t
fun. Maybe I am just the kind of person who finds fun in everything. Right now, I am
filled with excitement for MARUI GROUP’s efforts to co-create value as we shape a
new future that is not confined by the limits of our common sense.

T __Tomoo Ishii

Senior Managing Executive Officer and CHRO (Chief Human Resources Officer)
In charge of General Affairs, Personnel, and Wellness Promotion

People cannot see the future. If you could, you would be some sort of superhuman.
However, if one could see the future, I don’t think it would be any fun. Sure, things
would be easier, but it might actually be depressing for the prophet themselves. The
feelings of joy and excitement we experience are a result of us formulating hypotheses
about uncertain futures and working toward our goals to find success. There is nothing
greater than when your vision for the future matches up with the one of the company
you work at. We may feel a sense of lacking by ourselves, but we can form a strongorganization if we are all aligned toward a single goal. This is the type of organization,
the type of corporate culture, I hope to create. When I think about my future right now,there is a goal that I definitely want to accomplish: Getting beefed up!
101OUR FAVORITES

Y __Yoshinori Saito

Managing Executive Officer
In charge of FinTech BusinessPresident and Representative Director, Epos Card Co., Ltd.
Director, MRI Co., Ltd.
Director, tsumiki Co., Ltd.

When I was in my 20s, an older coworker took me to a well-established bar, where I had
my first encounter with single malt whisky, and I have been a fan of whisky ever since.
The greatest appeal of single malt is the sense of individuality each brand has. The distillery and the number of years of distillation give each whisky its own, clearly defined
personality, characterized by differing colors, fragrances, and tastes. The COVID-19
pandemic has limited my opportunities to drink with friends, but I am still enjoying
experiencing new, unique single malts at home. I take the same approach toward interacting with people in my work and private life as I do to whisky, I value the individualityof every person as I seek to expand my number of acquaintances. After the pandemic,
I hope to go to Scotland with some of my good friends so that we can tour the distilleries there.

M __Masahiro Aono

Senior Executive Officer
In charge of Retailing BusinessPresident and Representative Director, MARUI CO., LTD.

I love to see people’s smiling faces. I made my debut on the sales floor 35 years ago,
but I still remember the smile of a customer thanking me after they had purchased awallet. I was struck; it is so amazing to be able to do a job that makes people smile.
Around two decades ago, I was put in the position of selling yukata, traditional
Japanese garments people often wear to festivals, and it was great seeing all of thesmiling customers off on their way to a summer festival or to go see fireworks. Yukata
definitely look best on smiling people. I continue to wear a yukata every summer. It is
still the smiles of customers that motivate me today in our efforts to develop storesthat do not sell and eventful stores. I also want to make our business partners smile.
And our employees too. In fact, I hope to bring smiles to the faces of all of our stakeholders, including shareholders, communities, and even future generations. My business goal is to make as many people smile as possible, and I cannot forget about
myself when it comes to this.

H __Hajime Sasaki

Senior Executive Officer
In charge of Architecture
President and Representative Director, AIM CREATE CO., LTD.

There are so many things I love: music, books, sports, sake, houses, cars, dogs, et cetera.
However, it is not like I have broad knowledge about all of these things. Rather, I am thetype of person who gets really into specific areas of my wider scope of interests. For
example, I am currently into surfing, and my instructor often tells me to be careful not
to overdo it. When I get into something, I really get into it, and I have to stop myself fromdragging others into whatever I am obsessed with at the moment. Everyone is different,
and I have to respect our differing values after all. I think everyone can understandgetting passionate about something they love. I hope we can make a society in which
everyone is free to passionately devote themselves to whatever it is that they love.
102

A __Akikazu Aida

Senior Executive Officer, CDO (Chief Digital Officer), and General Manager,
Customer Success Division and Corporate Planning Division
In charge of Co-Creative Investment
Director, D2C & Co. Inc.
Director, okos Co., Ltd.

Working out at the gym is what gives me the strength to keep going every day. It goes
without saying that the gym helps me keep in shape. However, it is also an importantelement of my mental health as it offers me an opportunity to feel the joy of testingand surpassing my limits and gives my head a break when I shut out all unnecessary
thoughts to focus on my breathing. I have always been optimistic, forward-looking, andtrue to myself, and using the gym as a mood changer helps me better enjoy the otheraspects of my life. At the same time, I get tired of things easily, and I have a tendency
to seek out new thrills to excess. I also am a people lover, and I find joy in engaging
with different people. I therefore look forward to producing value that is beneficial tosociety through co-creation with a wide variety of people.

M __Masahisa Aoki
Executive Officer
CEO, tsumiki Co., Ltd.

When you want the thrill of speeding along untamed roads, but you just don’t havethe time, there is a small yet consistent group of people who turn to good old radiocontrolled (RC) cars. I think I am pretty good at supporting the interests of others andtaking these interests and turning them into businesses. When making such businesses, I always remember to have fun. Tackling a difficult task is not all fun andgames, but I try to turn a challenge into an opportunity with a higher-than-necessarylevel of smiles. I feel like I am defined by MARUI GROUP’s anime business, which was
still new when I got involved. In this business, the synergy between the interests of
employees and the interests of customers catalyzed rapid growth, and our anime business quickly reached a scale at which it is posting transaction figures in the tens of billions of yen. I am excited about the possibility of co-creating a new world together with
passionate, or perhaps over-passionate, customers and business partners.

Y __Yoshiaki Kogure
Executive Officer
In charge of Audit

Recently, I have been spending all my time golfing, but I have to be honest and say that
I like skiing the best. Skiing is what made me. I joined a ski club in my freshman year
at university, but I had zero ski experience at the time. I remember spending the entire
year preparing for the winter skiing season and devoting so much time to competitions, where I would take part in races that were over in about a minute. I never reallyaccomplished much competitively, but I loved it nonetheless. It was this experiencethat gave me the dedication to see things through. I have with me the skis I used to usesome 40 years ago. I am not using them anymore, but they were too important to me
to throw away. When I see these scratched up, rusty old things, I can’t help but want totake a trip down the slopes. But, I guess I still love golf too.
103

Y __Yuko Ito

Executive Officer
General Manager, Group Design Center and Construction Department
Director, MARUI CO., LTD.
Managing Director, AIM CREATE CO., LTD.

At school, I used to love geography and geometry. I had a lot of fun looking at maps andimagining spaces. This passion led me to visit these spaces to see what they actuallylooked like. Climbing tall mountains rewarded me with a view and feeling of accomplishment that no map can provide, and this thus became my hobby. Later, my love of imagining spaces would drive me to become an architect. I would eventually be involved indeveloping numerous stores for MARUI GROUP. You could even say that I wrote the map
for MARUI GROUP. The digital maps we have today let you experience various spaces
without grabbing a compass or even leaving your home. I am now working to combine
the ideas of the young digital natives who grew up in this world with my ability to invent
spaces in order to create new value.

M __Mayuki Igayama

Executive Officer
President and Representative Director, MOVING CO., LTD.

I have always loved sports, though I have never been very good at them. I have beenplaying sports since I was a kid, starting by playing baseball with my friends andmoving on to basketball, tennis, skiing, and eventually golf. Even now, I will often
spend entire days off playing some kind of sport. As a side effect of this hobby, I havecome to love the feeling of sore muscles and being worn out. But I really hate getting
sunburned. I have been a dedicated user of SPF 50 sunscreen since I was in my 20s.
I used to be the type of person who would get so caught up in my work that I had todo everything by myself. A health incident in my 40s, however, forced me to realize thelimits of individuals and awakened me to the power of co-creation. I am now caught up
in co-creation for realizing MARUI GROUP’s vision.

J __Junko Tsuda

Executive Officer
Director and General Manager, Sales Promotion Department, Epos Card Co., Ltd.

I love to tour various regions to indulge in their local culinary specialties. If you tell mea place has a unique culinary tradition or distinctive ingredients, I will dash to thelocation. I love food so much that I will sometimes, though admittedly rarely, take day
trips to Mie Prefecture when clams are in season. I have been this way for more than
20 years. I also love enjoying drinks that have embraced the local culinary culture. It isa lot of fun to drink and chat with the regulars of an establishment. By being amongpeople with different backgrounds and values, I have the opportunity to talk about
and understand our differences and also to experience that feeling of joy when wefind common ground. I look forward to co-creating with anyone willing to join me.
104

OUR FAVORITES

M __Miyuki Kawara

Executive Officer
Director and Store Manager, Kitasenju Marui, MARUI CO., LTD.

I love fashion. When I was job hunting, I attended an introductory presentation on
MARUI GROUP. I was so happy for the opportunity to be able to go to Tokyo that I wore
a flower dress to the presentation. My love of wearing adventurous outfits continued
even after I joined the Company, with me showing up to work in a long skirt thatdragged along the ground and even pants with a tiger’s face on them. I was enjoying
testing the limits of how far I could go. If you ask me why I love fashion so much,
I would say because it fills me with a feeling of optimism. The things that give one
this feeling will vary from person to person. In fact, the same person may draw
­optimism from different things under different circumstances. I hope to co-create­businesses that give people this sense of optimism. Today, I have brought Ku-chan.
She helps me relax and she has a lot of friends back at home.

T __Tatsuo Niitsu

Executive Officer
Director and General Manager, E-Commerce Business Department, MARUI CO., LTD.
Director, MOVING CO., LTD.
Director, okos Co., Ltd.

I have always been someone who gets completely absorbed in things. When I got
hooked on bicycle races, I watched every race held overseas on cable TV. This spray
I have with me is my own special blend of mint oil that I use to drive away bugs when
I go traveling, my current obsession. My tendency to get absorbed in things is also an
asset to my work. If something bothers me, I will keep at it until I am satisfied. If it everlooks like I am “spacing out,” it is because I am lost in thought. If I were to try to assess
myself objectively, I would say that I cannot help but take an interest in the unique characteristics of every individual. I hope to practice co-creation in which everyone involved
can get absorbed in both unique talents and business models.

T __Takeshi Ebihara

Executive Officer and CIO (Chief Information Officer)
President and Representative Director, M & C SYSTEMS CO., LTD.

I have been a fan of the Yomiuri Giants baseball team since I was a kid. Even right now, I
am curious about what the latest scores and standings are. I was on a baseball teamwhen I was a kid, and this experience taught me the joy of winning as a team, utilizing
our individual strengths while covering for our weaknesses. I found this experience mostworthwhile. However, I always hated when people bunted. I was more interested in scoring big in each inning. This attitude carried over to my work. To date, I have been involvedin numerous systems-related initiatives that were only successfully completed thanks tothe support of our various partners. Going forward, I hope to take full advantage of ourstore and EPOS card infrastructure to score big in co-creation with stakeholders.
105

S
M

K
I
L
A T R I
Officer Skill Matrix

CliftonStrengths®

Reiko Kojima
Director, Executive Officer, and CWO(Chief Well-being Officer)

106

1. Harmony
2. Analytical
3. Responsibility
4. Consistency
5. Individualization

1. Maximizer
2. Learner
3. Arranger
4. Achiever
5. Self-Assurance

Digitaltransformation

Director, Managing Executive Officer,
and CFO

Well-being

Hirotsugu Kato

1. Strategic
2. Input
3. Futuristic
4. Responsibility
5. Connectedness

Sustainability

External Director
Chairman, Sustainability Committee

Innovation

Peter David Pedersen

1. Strategic
2. Activator
3. Ideation
4. Futuristic
5. Command

Risk management

External Director
Chairman, Strategy Committee

Unique Skills
Corporate
governanceYasunori Nakagami

1. Activator
2. Communication
3. Maximizer
4. Individualization
5. Achiever

Finances

External Director

Human resource
management

Etsuko Okajima

1. Futuristic
2. Ideation
3. Learner
4. Belief
5. Individualization

Management
strategy
formulation

President and Representative
Director, Representative Executive
Officer

Shared Skills
Corporate
management

Domain of Overall
Strengths:
Top 5
CliftonStrengths®

Hiroshi Aoi

LXSee page 91 for a discussion by the members of the new Board of Directors regarding therevision of the officer skill matrix.
For information on officer backgrounds, please refer to the following website.
https://www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/en/ci/officer/
For information on CliftonStrengths®, please refer to the following website.
https://www.gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/253715/34-cliftonstrengths-themes.aspx©2021 Gallup, Inc. Unauthorized reproduction and replication is prohibited. Gallup®,
StrengthsFinder®, CliftonStrengthsFinder®, and the names of the 34 CliftonStrengths® aretrademarks of Gallup, Inc.

Investments instart-up companies

New businessdevelopment

FintechRetailing

Basis for Skills

Corporate management: Experience as president and representative director (April 2005 to present)
Management strategy formulation: Involvement in corporate planning since prior to becoming president and representative director and in formulation of medium-term management plans collectively encompassing period spanning from 2014 to 2026 as president and representative director
Finances: Oversight of capital policies as president and representative director
Risk management: Chairman of the Compliance Promotion Board responsible for Groupwide risk management (October 2005 to present)Innovation: Leadership of business model innovation and evolution through measures including transition to fixed-term rental contracts, development of stores that do not sell,
and redefinition of credit card business as fintech businessSustainability/Well-being: Promotion of Groupwide ESG initiatives, including 2019 establishment and disclosure of MARUI GROUP’s 2050 Vision; participation in World Economic
Forum’s Global Future Council on Japan and other sustainability- and well-being-related committees
Digital transformation: Definition of vision for stores for post-digital era and promotion of stores that do not sell, housing tenants like D2C brands and content and subscription
service providers
Retailing/Fintech: Oversight of retailing and fintech businesses as president and representative director
New business development: Leadership of launch of several new business projects through direct oversightInvestments in start-up companies: Involvement in decisions to conduct investments totaling ¥13.4 billion in 31 start-up companies (as of September 30, 2021)
 orporate management: Experience as representative and CEO of GLOBIS Management Bank (July 2005 to May 2007) and president & CEO of ProNova Inc. (June 2007 toCpresent)
Management strategy formulation/Human resource management: Extensive track record as a management consulting expert specializing in management team enhancement
and leader cultivation; involvement in cultivation of future leaders at MARUI GROUP
Finances/Corporate governance: Extensive knowledge regarding finances and corporate governance gained from serving as an outside director at various companies
Innovation: Discussions with managers and support for corporate innovation as part of main businessSustainability: Support for promoting diversity at various companies as part of main business, leadership in promoting empowerment of female employees at MARUI GROUP
Well-being: Leadership exercised in discussions regarding improving corporate value through well-being as first chairperson of a Japanese well-being initiative committee established in 2021
New business development: Establishment of ProNova Inc. in June 2007
Investments in start-up companies: Insight regarding start-up companies gained as advisory board member of committee seeing participation by leaders in start-up company
management
 orporate management: Experience as representative director and CEO of Asuka Corporate Advisory Co., Ltd. (March 2005 to July 2013) and representative director and CEO ofC
Misaki Capital Inc. (October 2013 to present)
Management strategy formulation: Two decades of experience providing management consulting services to a wide range of industries
Finances/Risk management: Insight regarding finances and investment-related risk management gained through years of involvement in investingCorporate governance: Insight related to corporate governance gained as chairman of the Independent Directors Committee of the Japan Association of Corporate Directors(February 2018 to present)Innovation: Establishment of unique investment style by advocating new concept of being an engaged shareholder that works together with companies and their management
New business development: Establishment of Misaki Capital Inc. in October 2013
 orporate management: Experience as CEO of E-Square Inc. (September 2000 to October 2011), representative director of Next Leaders’ Initiative for Sustainability (January 2015
C
to present)
Management strategy formulation: Guidance of strategy formulation for collaboration with new companies and managers focused on environmental initiatives and Lifestyles of
Health and Sustainability (LOHAS) and for related projects in self-established companies and NPOs
Human resource management: Cultivation of future leaders as representative director of Next Leaders’ Initiative for Sustainability
Innovation: Advancement of numerous innovative sustainability initiatives, including introducing Japan to the concept of LOHAS, together with companies, universities, andgovernment agencies
Sustainability/Well-being: Co-founding of CSR and environmental consulting firm E-Square Inc. as start of more than 20-year career as sustainability specialist
New business development: Founding of E-Square Inc., Next Leaders’ Initiative for Sustainability, and various other companies
 orporate management: Experience as president and representative director of D2C & Co. Inc. (January 2020 to present)
CManagement strategy formulation/Corporate governance: Leadership of formulation of medium-term management plans and establishment and evolution of corporate governance systems as general manager of the Corporate Planning Division (April 2013 to March 2017)
Finances: Background centered on finance and accounting divisions dating back to joining MARUI GROUP and experience as CFO (April 2019 to present)
Risk management: Member of the Compliance Promotion Board responsible for Groupwide risk management (October 2015 to present)Innovation: Spearheading of capital measures including promotion of targeted balance sheet from perspective of investors since 2016
Sustainability: Promotion of sustainability initiatives and proactive disclosure as officer in charge of sustainability and ESG promotion (October 2016 to present)Digital transformation: Leadership of Groupwide digital strategies as CDO (October 2017 to March 2019) and senior managing director of M & C SYSTEMS CO., LTD. (April 2018 toMarch 2019)
New business development: Leadership in establishing tsumiki Co., Ltd., a company providing cumulative investment services through EPOS cards
Investments in start-up companies: Involvement in decisions to conduct investments totaling ¥13.4 billion in 31 start-up companies (as of September 30, 2021)
 uman resource management: Leadership in promoting wellness management contributing to improved corporate value as company physician (April 2011 to present)H
Risk management: Promotion of workplace risk management measures including those for prevention of overworking and mental health issues with occupational health andsafety consultant qualifications
Innovation: Promotion of development of highly creative organizations by going beyond scope of duties as company physician to plan Companywide project team and programs
targeting senior management
Sustainability/Well-being: Promotion of wellness management and well-being management through Companywide project team as general manager of Wellbeing Promotion
Department (formerly Health Management Division, April 2014 to present) and CWO (May 2021 to present)

107

CliftonStrengths®

Tomoo Ishii
Senior Managing Executive Officer
and CHRO (Chief Human Resources
Officer)

Yoshinori Saito
Managing Executive Officer

Masahiro Aono
Senior Executive Officer

Hajime Sasaki
Senior Executive Officer

108

1. Individualization
2. Arranger
3. Maximizer
4. Woo5. Communication

1. Analytical
2. Significance
3. Responsibility
4. Restorative
5. Relator

1. Consistency
2. Harmony
3. Analytical
4. Significance
5. Relator

1. Positivity
2. Maximizer
3. Ideation
4. Intellection
5. Woo
1. Maximizer
2. Strategic
3. Ideation
4. Adaptability
5. Relator

Digitaltransformation

Senior Managing Executive Officer
and CSO (Chief Security Officer)

Well-being

Masao Nakamura

1. Positivity
2. Includer
3. Achiever
4. Communication
5. Strategic

Sustainability

External Audit & Supervisory Board
MemberInnovation

Yoko Suzuki

1. Harmony
2. Responsibility
3. Analytical
4. Arranger
5. Deliberative

Risk management

External Audit & Supervisory Board
MemberUnique Skills
Corporate
governance

Takehiko Takagi

1. Arranger
2. Responsibility
3. Analytical
4. Harmony
5. Achiever

Finances

Audit & Supervisory Board Member(Full time)

Human resource
management

Nariaki Fuse

1. Ideation
2. Responsibility
3. Deliberative
4. Strategic
5. Arranger

Management
strategy
formulation

Audit & Supervisory Board Member(Full time)

Corporate
management

Domain of Overall
Strengths:
Top 5
CliftonStrengths®

Hitoshi Kawai

Shared Skills

Investments instart-up companies

New businessdevelopment

FintechRetailing

Basis for Skills

 anagement strategy formulation: Insight into management strategies gained from experience as general manager of the Corporate Planning Division of Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan
M
Stanley Securities Co., Ltd. (January 2013 to September 2014)
Finances: Robust practical experience and insight regarding finances and accounting gained from working at a bankCorporate governance: Practical corporate governance insight related to business partners gained from working at a bank
Risk management: Insight regarding financial and accounting risks gained from working at a bank orporate management: Experience as president and representative director of M & C SYSTEMS CO., LTD. (April 2013 to March 2018)
C
Corporate governance: Leadership of Groupwide IT governance and investment plans as president and representative director of M & C SYSTEMS CO., LTD.
Risk management: Insight regarding information security risks gained through more than 30 years of experience in core systems engineering, development, and operation
Digital transformation: Involvement in formulating systems development frameworks supporting expansion of fintech business as president and representative director of
M & C SYSTEMS CO., LTD.

 inances: Specialized insight and robust experience regarding taxation and accounting gained in positions as chief of Kanazawa Regional Taxation Bureau and president ofF
National Tax College
Corporate governance/Risk management: Qualifications as certified public tax accountant; auditing of taxation and other management risks based on robust experience ascorporate auditor at other companies

 orporate governance/Risk management: Highly specialized insight as attorney; extensive knowledge on corporate legal affairs and legal compliance audits founded on robustCexperience and insight gained as outside director, corporate auditor, etc., at other companies
Retailing: Insight on retailing from perspective of corporate auditor gained in positions as an outside corporate auditor at retailing companies

Corporate management: Experience as president and representative director of MOVING CO., LTD. (April 2010 to March 2011); president and representative director of
MARUI CO., LTD. (April 2011 to March 2016); president and representative director of AIM CREATE CO., LTD. (April 2016 to March 2019); and president and representative directorof MARUI HOME SERVICE Co., Ltd. (April 2021 to present)
Management strategy formulation/Finances/Corporate governance: Experience as general manager of the Corporate Planning Division (March 2008 to March 2011) and officer incharge of corporate planning (April 2019 to present)
Risk management: Oversight of Groupwide risk management as CSO (April 2021 to present)Innovation: Promotion of retailing business structural reforms through transition to fixed-term rental contracts
Retailing: Experience as officer in charge of retailing business (April 2015 to September 2017 and April 2020 to March 2021) and president and representative director of
MARUI CO., LTD.
Fintech: Experience as officer in charge of fintech business (October 2017 to March 2020) orporate management: Experience as president and representative director of MARUI FACILITIES Co., Ltd. (formerly CSC Service Co., Ltd., October 2008 to March 2013) andC
president and representative director of MOVING CO., LTD. (April 2017 to March 2019)
Human resource management: Experience as general manager of the Personnel Division (April 2013 to March 2016), officer in charge of personnel (April 2016 to present), and
CHRO (May 2021 to present)Corporate governance/Risk management: Experience as general manager of the Group Compliance Division (October 2005 to September 2007), general manager of the General
Affairs Division (October 2007 to March 2013), and officer in charge of general affairs (April 2013 to present)
Sustainability: Experience as officer in charge of CSR promotion (September 2007 to March 2013)
Well-being: Experience as CHO (formerly Chief Operating Officer of Healthcare Promotion, April 2015 to May 2021) and officer in charge of wellness promotion(formerly officer in charge of healthcare promotion, April 2015 to present)
Retailing: Experience as deputy store manager in charge of general affairs at Tachikawa Marui (January to December 1999)
 orporate management: Experience as president and representative director of Epos Card Co., Ltd. (April 2016 to present)
CManagement strategy formulation: Establishment of medium-term management plans for the fintech business, collectively encompassing period spanning from 2016 to 2026 aspresident and representative director of Epos Card Co., Ltd.
Finances: Experience as general manager of the Financial Department (July 2008 to March 2011)
Risk management: Insight regarding fintech-specific risks like delinquent debt and information security gained as president and representative director of Epos Card Co., Ltd.
Innovation: Promotion of unique strategy of maximizing share of household finances through expansion of rent guarantee services, etc.
Retailing: Experience as general manager of the Direct Marketing Department (April 2011 to March 2012) and the Demand Survey Department of MARUI CO., LTD.
(April 2012 to March 2013)
Fintech: Experience as president and representative director of Epos Card Co., Ltd., and officer in charge of fintech business (April 2020 to present) orporate management: Experience as president and representative director of MARUI CO., LTD. (July 2020 to present)
CManagement strategy formulation: Establishment of medium-term management plan for the retailing business encompassing period spanning from 2021 to 2026 as president
and representative director of MARUI CO., LTD.
Risk management: Member of the Compliance Promotion Board responsible for Groupwide risk management (April 2016 to March 2017 and October 2019 to present)Innovation: Promotion of retailing business structure reforms through transition to fixed-term rental contracts
Retailing: Experience as president and representative director of MARUI CO., LTD., and officer in charge of retailing business (April 2021 to present)Corporate management: Experience as president and representative director of MARUI CO., LTD. (April 2016 to March 2019), and president and representative director of
Epos Card Co., Ltd. (April 2019 to present)
Management strategy formulation: Establishment of medium-term management plan for the retailing business encompassing period spanning from 2016 to 2020 as president
and representative director of MARUI CO., LTD.
Risk management: Member of the Compliance Promotion Board responsible for Groupwide risk management (October 2014 to present)Innovation/Retailing: Robust retailing experience as president and representative director of MARUI CO., LTD.; promotion of retailing business structure reforms through transition
to fixed-term rental contracts
Sustainability: Promotion of sustainability in the construction field through collaboration with Sumitomo Forestry Co., Ltd., conducted as president and representative director of
AIM CREATE CO., LTD.
Retailing: Experience as officer in charge of retailing and store operation business (April 2015 to March 2016) and president and representative director of MARUI CO., LTD.
Fintech: Experience as director and general manager of the Card Planning Division (October 2007 to September 2009) and director of Epos Card Co., Ltd.
(April 2015 to March 2016)109

CliftonStrengths®

Junko Tsuda
Executive Officer

Miyuki Kawara
Executive Officer

Tatsuo Niitsu
Executive Officer

Takeshi Ebihara
Executive Officer and CIO(Chief Information Officer)

110

1. Analytical
2. Ideation
3. Achiever
4. Arranger
5. Responsibility
1. Maximizer
2. Positivity
3. Arranger
4. Ideation
5. Woo1. Positivity
2. Maximizer
3. Individualization
4. Achiever
5. Responsibility
1. Individualization
2. Ideation
3. Arranger
4. Maximizer
5. Futuristic
1. Harmony
2. Responsibility
3. Positivity
4. Includer
5. Restorative

Digitaltransformation

Executive Officer

Well-being

Mayuki Igayama

1. Discipline
2. Analytical
3. Deliberative
4. Focus
5. Responsibility

Sustainability

Executive Officer

Innovation

Yuko Ito

1. Achiever
2. Responsibility
3. Harmony
4. Arranger
5. Consistency

Risk management

Executive Officer

Unique Skills
Corporate
governanceYoshiaki Kogure

1. Positivity
2. Maximizer
3. Harmony
4. Individualization
5. Includer

Finances

Executive Officer

Human resource
management

Masahisa Aoki

1. Woo2. Achiever
3. Communication
4. Positivity
5. Analytical

Management
strategy
formulation

Senior Executive Officer and CDO(Chief Digital Officer)

Corporate
management

Domain of Overall
Strengths:
Top 5
CliftonStrengths®

Akikazu Aida

Shared Skills

Investments instart-up companies

New businessdevelopment

FintechRetailing

Basis for Skills

 orporate management/Finances/Corporate governance: Experience as general manager of the Corporate Planning Division (April 2017 to present)CRisk management: Member of the Compliance Promotion Board responsible for Groupwide risk management (April 2019 to present)Innovation: Promotion of increased investments in non-tangible assets for creating new businesses and transition to intellectual creation company as general manager of the
Corporate Planning Division and officer in charge of co-creative investment (October 2021 to present)Digital transformation: Oversight of digital transformation strategies as general manager of the Customer Success Division (October 2018 to present) and CDO(April 2021 to present)
Retailing: Experience as deputy store manager of Yurakucho Marui (April 2013 to March 2014) and of Hakata Marui (April 2016 to March 2017)
New business development/Investments in start-up companies: Experience as director of D2C & Co. Inc. (January 2020 to present); director of okos Co., Ltd.
(May 2021 to present); and officer in charge of co-creative investment
 orporate management: Experience as president and representative director of MARUI CO., LTD. (April 2019 to June 2020)
C
Risk management: Member of the Compliance Promotion Board responsible for Groupwide risk management (April 2019 to present)Innovation/New business development: Proposal of anime business; pioneering of MARUI GROUP’s development of new businesses; and growth of anime business and contribution to transformation of retailing business as general manager of Anime Business Department (April 2016 to March 2019) and officer in charge of the anime business(April 2018 to March 2020)
Sustainability: Promotion of reuse and recycling initiatives as chief manager in charge of apparel recycling project (April 2010 to March 2011)
Retailing: Experience as store manager of Shinjuku Marui Annex (April to September 2015) and president and representative director of MARUI CO., LTD.
New business development: Experience as general manager of Co-Creative Investment Department (July 2020 to September 2021) and director of D2C & Co. Inc.
(July 2020 to September 2021)
 orporate management: Experience as president and representative director of MARUI FACILITIES Co., Ltd. (April 2013 to March 2021)
CManagement strategy formulation: Experience as general manager of the Corporate Planning Division (April 2011 to March 2013)
Human resource management: Experience as general manager of the Personnel Division (July 2008 to September 2009)
Finances: Experience as general manager of the Group Financial Department (March 2006 to July 2008)
Risk management: Audits of risks as officer in charge of audit (April 2021 to present) and a corporate auditor at Group companies (April 2021 to present)
Sustainability: Leadership of initiatives for sourcing 100% of electricity from renewable energy as president and representative director of MARUI FACILITIES Co., Ltd.
Retailing: Experience as general manager of the Voi Business Department of MARUI CO., LTD. (October 2009 to March 2011)

Innovation: Leadership of Groupwide design management through open innovation with nendo inc. as general manager of the Group Design Center (April 2018 to present)
Sustainability: Promotion of sustainability in the construction field through collaboration with Sumitomo Forestry Co., Ltd., conducted as director of AIM CREATE CO., LTD.
(April 2012 to present)
Retailing: Experience as director of MARUI CO., LTD. (April 2019 to present) orporate management: Experience as president and representative director of MOVING CO., LTD. (April 2019 to present)CRisk management: Member of the Compliance Promotion Board responsible for Groupwide risk management (April 2016 to March 2017 and April 2019 to present)
Retailing: Experience as director and general manager of the Direct Marketing Department (April 2014 to March 2016) and director and general manager of the Omni-Channel
Retailing Division of MARUI CO., LTD. (April 2016 to March 2019)

Retailing: Experience as director and store manager of Marui Family Shiki (April 2015 to March 2017) and director and store manager of Marui Family Mizonokuchi of
MARUI CO., LTD. (April 2018 to March 2019)
Fintech: Experience as director and general manager of the Cardholder Service Department (April 2019 to September 2020) and director and general manager of the Sales
Promotion Department of Epos Card Co., Ltd. (October 2020 to present) ustainability: Experience as general manager of the CSR Promotion Department (April 2012 to March 2015)
S
Retailing: Experience as director and store manager of Marui Family Mizonokuchi (April 2019 to March 2021) and director and store manager of Kitasenju Marui of
MARUI CO., LTD. (April 2021 to present)
Fintech: Experience as director and general manager of the Collaboration Card Business Department (April 2015 to March 2016) and director and general manager of the Sales
Promotion Department of Epos Card Co., Ltd. (April 2016 to March 2018)

 igital transformation: Promotion of collaboration with artificial intelligence technology companies as director of okos Co., Ltd. (April 2021 to present)DRetailing: Experience as director and general manager of Sales Planning Division (April 2019 to March 2021), and director and general manager of the E-Commerce Business
Department of MARUI CO., LTD. (April 2021 to present)
Fintech: Experience as director of Epos Card Co., Ltd. (April 2016 to March 2019)
New business development: Robust experience in new business development gained as leader of multiple new business projects

 orporate management: Experience as president and representative director of M & C SYSTEMS CO., LTD. (April 2021 to present)CRisk management: Oversight of information security risk management as CIO (April 2021 to present) and president and representative director of M & C SYSTEMS CO., LTD.
Digital transformation: Experience as director and general manager of the Digital Transformation Promotion Department of M & C SYSTEMS CO., LTD. (April 2019 to March 2021)
and CDO (April 2019 to March 2021)
Fintech: Experience as general manager of the Systems Department (April 2014 to March 2018) and director of Epos Card Co., Ltd. (April 2018 to March 2021)

111

RATINGS, AWARDS, AND RECOGNITIONMARUI GROUP established the IR Department in October 2015 and then the ESG Promotion Department
in October 2016 to enhance communication with institutional investors and information disclosure.
We have also identified the promotion of diversity and wellness (healthcare) management as key measures
under the medium-term management plan with the aim of improving corporate value.

More detailed information on these and other awards andrecognition can be found on the Company’s corporate website.
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/en/ci/award/index.html

Global Socially Responsible Investment Indexes

MARUI GROUP has been selected for inclusion in the Dow Jones
Sustainability World Index for the third consecutive year, also claiming
the No. 1 spot in the retailing industry, and has also been included in the
Dow Jones Sustainability Asia Pacific Index for four consecutive years.

In RobecoSAM Sustainability Yearbook 2021, a compilation of companies
displaying excellence in terms of ESG initiatives and information disclosure,
MARUI GROUP was included in the Gold Class, building on its record ofinclusion in the Bronze Class in 2019 and the Silver Class in 2020.

MARUI GROUP has been included in the FTSE4Good Index Series,*1 a series
of indexes arranged by FTSE Russell that comprise companies meeting
evaluation standards pertaining to ESG factors, for five consecutive years.

MARUI GROUP was included in the MSCI ESG Leaders Indexes,*2 an ESG stockindex with high global recognition.

MARUI GROUP was selected for inclusion in the SOMPO
Sustainability Index for four consecutive years. This index
is compiled by Sompo Asset Management Co., Ltd., andused in its SOMPO Sustainable Investment Fund, whichprioritizes ESG ratings by investigation firms.

112

Four ESG Indexes Utilized by theGovernment Pension Investment FundMARUI GROUP has been included in the FTSE Blossom Japan Index for
five consecutive years. This ESG index is meant to reflect the performanceof Japanese companies that meet various ESG-related requirements, andindustry is therefore not considered when selecting companies for inclusion.

MARUI GROUP was included in the MSCI Japan ESG Select Leaders Index*2
for the fifth consecutive year. This ESG index comprises Japanese companies with relatively high MSCI ESG Ratings in each industry selected fromamong the top 700 companies in terms of market capitalization after
excluding those companies with the lowest MSCI ESG Rating of CCC.

For five consecutive years, MARUI GROUP has been included in the MSCIJapan Empowering Women Index,*2 an ESG index for Japanese stocks
consisting of companies that exhibit gender diversity excellence in eachindustry, based on the Global Industry Classification Standard, selected fromamong the top 700 companies in terms of market capitalization.

For the fourth consecutive year, MARUI GROUP was included in the S&P/JPX
Carbon Efficient Index, which comprises companies included in the Tokyo
Stock Price Index selected through a process that entails overweighting or
underweighting companies in reflection of their disclosure of environmental
information and their carbon efficiency (carbon emissions per unit of revenue).

JPX-Nikkei Index 400
MARUI GROUP was included in the JPX-Nikkei Index 400, a stock price index
composed of companies with high appeal for investors that meet requirements of global investment standards, such as efficient use of capital andinvestor-focused management perspectives.

MARUI GROUP’s new greenhouse gas emissions reduction targets, which were established in September 2019,
have received certification from Science Based Targets,indicating that these targets are effective for keeping
global warming below 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels.

MARUI GROUP was chosen for inclusion in the Nadeshiko
Brand for the fourth consecutive year based on theevaluation of its efforts in supporting two-income households by helping both men and women succeed. These
efforts include official Groupwide initiatives and thepromotion of inclusion in the workplace.

In 2020, MARUI GROUP CO., LTD., was included in the
Climate A-List, which represents the highest evaluation
offered by CDP, for the third consecutive year in reflectionof its endorsement of the recommendations of the TCFD
and other initiatives to address climate change andpractice information disclosure of a level that is high evenviewed from a global perspective.

The Eruboshi certification system is a program throughwhich companies engaged in superior activities based on
the Act on the Promotion of Female Participation andCareer Advancement in the Workplace are recognized by
the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. In 2020,MARUI GROUP was presented with a three-star rating.

STOXX Climate Change Leaders Index
MARUI GROUP was selected for inclusion in the STOXX Climate Change
Leaders Index in 2019 and 2020. This index is one of a series of low-carbon
indexes developed in 2016 and the world’s first index to focus on inclusion ofcompanies featured on CDP’s Climate A-List.

MARUI GROUP was awarded with the highest rating ofgold in the PRIDE INDEX for the fifth consecutive year.
Our receipt of this recognition was based on our schemeof providing regular LGBTQ sensitivity training in video
format and our communication of initiatives related toindividuals and connections through the Inclusion Rally
section of MARUI GROUP’s community site.

MARUI GROUP received the highest rank of A in theDevelopment Bank of Japan Inc.’s DBJ Environmentally
Rated Loan Program based on the high evaluation of its
various initiatives for accomplishing its 2050 Vision.

CWO Dr. Reiko Kojima received the inclusion award in the2021 Forbes JAPAN WOMEN AWARD, a program sponsored by Forbes JAPAN designed to recognize women
forging their own path as well as companies fostering
female leaders and professionals.

ESG Finance Awards Japan is a program developed by
Japan’s Ministry of the Environment for the purpose ofevaluating and recognizing companies engaging in ESG
finance and environmental sustainability management
initiatives. In 2021, MARUI GROUP was the only retailer toreceive a bronze award in the environmentally sustainable
company category of this award program.

MARUI GROUP was ranked 1st in the retail category in the2021 Awards for Excellence in Corporate Disclosure
presented by the Securities Analysts Association ofJapan. This ranking was a reflection of the Company’sefforts to enhance and promote non-financial disclosureof ESG and other information and to practice engagement
for improving corporate value.

MARUI GROUP received an award of excellence in thespecial renewable energy proliferation category of theGreen Purchasing Award program out of reflection of its
contributions to the expansion of green purchasing
markets through initiatives such as the introduction ofrenewable energy and the issuance of the first green
bonds to be offered by a Japanese retailer.

Recognition as Excellent Integrated Report
MARUI GROUP’s co-creation management reports have been recognized as
excellent integrated reports for five consecutive years by institutions towhich the Government Pension Investment Fund outsources the management of domestic securities. Reasons for the selection of Co-Creation
Management Report 2020 include the high evaluation of its outstanding
disclosure regarding stakeholders.

MARUI GROUP was included in the Health & Productivity
Stock Selection for the fourth consecutive year in 2021,
recognizing it as a company that is strategically addressing employee health and productivity management issues
based on a management perspective. The Company was
rated highly for its wellness management initiatives.

*1 FTSE Russell (the trading name of FTSE International Limited and Frank Russell Company) confirms thatMARUI GROUP CO., LTD. has been independently assessed according to the FTSE4Good criteria, and has
satisfied the requirements to become a constituent of the FTSE4Good Index Series. Created by the global
index provider FTSE Russell, the FTSE4Good Index Series is designed to measure the performance ofcompanies demonstrating strong Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) practices. The FTSE4Good
indices are used by a wide variety of market participants to create and assess responsible investment funds
and other products.
*2 THE INCLUSION OF MARUI GROUP CO., LTD. IN ANY MSCI INDEX, AND THE USE OF MSCI LOGOS,
TRADEMARKS, SERVICE MARKS OR INDEX NAMES HEREIN, DO NOT CONSTITUTE A SPONSORSHIP,
ENDORSEMENT OR PROMOTION OF MARUI GROUP CO., LTD. BY MSCI OR ANY OF ITS AFFILIATES. THE
MSCI INDEXES ARE THE EXCLUSIVE PROPERTY OF MSCI. MSCI AND THE MSCI INDEX NAMES AND LOGOSARE TRADEMARKS OR SERVICE MARKS OF MSCI OR ITS AFFILIATES.

113

Overview of MARUI GROUP
As of March 31, 2021

Company Overview

Major Shareholders

Name

MARUI GROUP CO., LTD.

Head office3-2, Nakano 4-chome, Nakano-ku,
Tokyo 164-8701, Japan

Date of foundation

February 17, 1931

Date of establishment

March 30, 1937

Capital¥35,920 million

Business activities

Corporate planning and management forGroup companies engaged in Retailingsegment and FinTech segment

Number of employees

4,855(Group total, excludes temporary employees)

Stock Information
Stock listing
Securities code

Tokyo Stock Exchange, First Section(Loan margin trading issues)
8252

Number of authorized shares 1,400,000,000
Number of commonshares issued*1

223,660,417

Number of shareholders

31,838*1 Number of common shares issued includes 8,704,000 shares of treasury stock,equivalent to 3.9% of the total number of shares of common stock issued.

Number of shares *2 Percentage of total(Thousands
shares issued *3 *4(%)
of shares)

Name

The Master Trust Bank of Japan, Ltd.
(Trust Account)

35,329

16.4

Custody Bank of Japan, Ltd.
(Trust Account)

17,443

8.1

Misaki Engagement Master Fund
(Standing Proxy: The Hongkong andShanghai Banking Corporation Limited)

6,911

3.2

Aoi Real Estate Co., Ltd.

6,019

2.8

MUFG Bank, Ltd.

5,808

2.7

Custody Bank of Japan, Ltd.
(Trust Account 7)

4,955

2.3

TOHO CO., LTD.

3,779

1.8

Custody Bank of Japan, Ltd.
(Securities Investment Trust Account)

3,404

1.6

The AOI SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION

3,247

1.5

JP MORGAN CHASE BANK 385781(Standing Proxy: Mizuho Bank, Ltd.)

3,095

1.4

*2 The Company holds 8,704,000 shares of treasury stock, which are excluded from theabove principal shareholders. The number of shares of treasury stock excludes shares
held by the Officer Compensation BIP Trust and Stock Benefit ESOP Trust.
*3 Percentage of shareholding is calculated based on the total number of shares issued
and outstanding, excluding treasury stock of 8,704,000 shares.
*4 The calculation for the percentage of shareholding includes 545,000 shares held by the
Officer Compensation BIP Trust and Stock Benefit ESOP Trust.

Corporate Data
MARUI GROUP CO., LTD. and Its Consolidated Subsidiaries

Total Group transactions (Millions of yen)*

FY2017FY2018FY2019FY2020

FY2021*8

2,919,231

1,933,685

2,189,374

2,539,631

2,903,713

Retailing (Millions of yen)326,327

328,486

337,006

320,119229,207

FinTech (Millions of yen)

1,723,254

1,972,482

2,310,635

2,678,839

2,760,432

Operating income (Millions of yen)

31,25336,365

41,18441,944

15,310Net income attributable to owners of parent (Millions of yen)

18,72420,90725,341

25,396

2,327

Earnings per share (Yen)

5

80.24

93.18

115.99117.58

10.86

Return on equity (%)

6.7

7.6

9.1

8.8

0.8

Return on invested capital (%)

3.1

3.3

3.7

3.7

1.4

EPOS cardholders (including Akai Card) (Ten thousands of members)

636

657

688

720

709

Ratio of active cardholders (%)

65.3

65.9

65.9

65.5

63.0

Ratio of bad debt write-offs (%)

1.45

1.60

1.80

1.88

2.09

Total number of employees

5,732

5,548

5,326

5,130

4,855

Ratio of female employees (%)

45.1

44.4

43.9

44.8

44.1

Ratio of female managers (%)

10.0

11.2

12.6

13.3

14.5

Ratio of applicable male employees acquiring childcare leave (%)

74

84

100

100

100

Rate of renewable energy use (%)*6

0

0

1.1

23.0

52.1

GHG emissions (Scope 1) (t-CO2)*7

14,92013,818

15,10913,956

11,090GHG emissions (Scope 2) (t-CO2)*7

103,264

99,28696,232

67,91637,858GHG emissions (Scope 3) (t-CO2)*7

489,439412,256

399,926

352,640

256,682*5 The “Eliminations” item, which is used to deduct card shopping transactions from figures for the Retailing segment, has been omitted.
*6 Figures represent rates of renewable energy use for MARUI GROUP stores and offices.
*7 Scope 1 and Scope 2 represent greenhouse gas emissions from the Group. Scope 3 represents greenhouse gas emissions from areas including raw material procurement, transportation, anduse by customers. Third-party verification has been received from the Japan Quality Assurance Organization for greenhouse gas emissions figures since the fiscal year ended March 31, 2017.
*8 The Company began applying the Accounting Standard for Revenue Recognition (ASBJ Statement No. 29, March 31, 2020) effective April 1, 2021. Figures for the fiscal year ended March 31,
2021, have not been restated to reflect this change.

114

MARUI GROUP Store Network
As of October 1, 2021

Marui and Modi stores: 22

Hokkaido

EPOS card application centers(outside of Marui and Modi stores): 35
Aomori
Tochigi

Kumagaya

Niigata
Gifu

Soka
Shiki

Hyogo

Kashiwa

Akishima

Yamaguchi

Kitasenju
Kokubunji Kichijoji Nakano Shinjuku

Tokyo

Ueno

Marunouchi
Yurakucho

Shizuoka

MachidaNagasaki
Ebina

Aichi

Oita

Kumamoto

Mizonokuchi

Chiba
Kinshicho

Tokyo
Inage

Shinurayasu

Chiharadai

Kanagawa

Osaka

MiyazakiKagoshima

OdawaraTotsuka

Saga

Shinjuku Marui Main Building

Tsukuba

Shobu

Omiya

Shiga
Fukuoka

Ibaraki

Saitama

Yurakucho Marui

Yokohama
Yokosuka

Shibuya Modi

EPOS card application center

Marui and Modi Stores
Name

Tokyo

Kanagawa

Sales floorarea (m2)Transactions(Billions of yen)

Kitasenju Marui35,300290

Shinjuku Marui*930,590141

Transactions(Billions of yen)

Name

Sales floorarea (m2)

Marui Family Shiki

18,90092

SaitamaOmiya Marui

13,97047(FY2021)(FY2021)

Yurakucho Marui

18,500105

Soka Marui

16,53038

Machida Location*9

21,270104

Chiba

Kashiwa Location*9

18,81057

Ueno Marui

16,39073

Shizuoka

Shizuoka Location*9

5,540

18

Marui Kinshicho

22,99096

Osaka

Namba Marui17,00066

Kokubunji Marui

14,30090

Hyogo

Kobe Marui

6,940

38

Shibuya Location*9

14,09037

Fukuoka

Hakata Marui

15,00057

Nakano Marui

4,950

54

Marui Kichijoji

11,95042
175

Marui Family Mizonokuchi

32,260Totsuka Modi

16,58069

Marui Family Ebina

19,50067

Marui City Yokohama

16,77069*9 “Shinjuku Marui” refers to Shinjuku Marui Main Building, Shinjuku Marui Annex, andShinjuku Marui Men. “Machida Location,” “Shibuya Location,” and “Kashiwa Location”
refer to both the Marui and Modi stores located at these sites. Shizuoka Marui wasclosed on March 28, 2021, and only Shizuoka Modi remains accordingly.

115

Please refer to the following website for details on
scholarship application requirements and methods(in Japanese only).
www.aoishohgakukai.or.jp/business/index.html

Activities of the AOI SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATIONThe AOI SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION was established in 1973
through a personal investment by MARUI GROUP founder
Chuji Aoi based on his desire to foster talented individuals toserve society. Scholarships offered by the foundation entail nofees, and there is no need to pay back money received, which israre in Japan. This decision was made based on Chuji Aoi’s belief
that, as companies received their earnings from society, they
have a duty to return some of these earnings to society, and hishope to use his personal assets to help better society. The activitiesof this foundation are fully funded by the dividends received fromits holdings of MARUI GROUP stock.
The activities of the AOI SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION include
offering high school and university scholarships, presenting the
Aoi Global Research Award, and supporting professional networking. Scholarship recipients are able to choose the highschool or university of their choice to pursue self-actualization
along their desired path.

History of the AOI SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION
1973

Established as an incorporated foundation after receiving
approval from the Ministry of Education

1974

Decided first 26 scholarship recipients (11 high school
students, 15 university students)

2012

Approved as a public interest incorporated foundation by
the prime minister; commenced advanced application
system for university scholarships open to students in lastyear of high school

2014

Established Aoi Global Research Award program andpresented first awards to three graduate school students

2015

Commenced new high school scholarship program

Accomplishments to Date
In 2021, the 48th year since the establishment of the
AOI SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION, the number of students
graduating on scholarships from the foundation was 1,588 andthe total amount of scholarships paid surpassed ¥2,000 million.
In the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022, the foundation plans
to make scholarship payments totaling ¥131 million to 197
individuals, both figures representing record highs.
One characteristic of the AOI SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION isthat it arranges a gathering for current and former scholarship
recipients once a year. In this manner, the foundation seeks toprovide opportunities for growth through monetary scholarshippayments as well as through opportunities to network withpeople of the same age and with graduates of the program.

Annual gathering of current and former scholarship recipients providing a forum fordiscussion and networking

Numbers of Recipients and Amounts of Scholarship Payments (After Transition to Public Interest Incorporated Foundation)
FY2014

Total scholarship recipients
Scholarship payments(Thousands of yen)
New recipients

FY2015FY2016FY2017FY2018FY2019FY2020

FY2021

FY2022

66

67

73

98

119

123

148

189

197

33,84042,06044,74055,06072,90073,80091,040123,320

131,000(Forecast)

14

21

26

38

40

40

55

70

61

University students

13

20

19

22

31

28

41

61

52

High school students

1

1

7

16

9

12

14

9

9

AOI SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION by the Numbers
Aggregate program graduates(since establishment)

116

1,588

Aggregate scholarship payments(since establishment)¥2,010 million

DI ALO GUE 0 8

Support for the Future Granted by the AOI SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATIONThe AOI SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION has continued to support the growth of future generations for nearly 50 years since its establishment. The foundation’s scholarship activities are closely linked to MARUI GROUP’s management approach, which entails a focus onshareholders and other stakeholders and its impacts as it accelerates co-creation with younger generations. The following is a chronicle of a discussion between three scholarship recipients, current recipients Daisuke Sasaki and Anna Tode, and former recipient andcurrent screening committee member Yumiko Horie, during which they talked about memories associated with the foundation as well as
about their future dreams.

Yumiko Horie

Former Scholarship Recipient

Representative Director, Posse Nippon

Daisuke Sasaki

Current Scholarship Recipient

University Junior

Anna Tode

Current Scholarship Recipient

University Junior

Encounter with the AOI SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION
Horie: Hi, I’m Yumiko Horie. It’s nice to meet you. I received ascholarship from the AOI SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION up until
I graduated from university in 1998. I will be joining today’s
discussion as a former scholarship recipient. After graduating,I spent 12 years working at a newspaper before going back toschool in my late 30s, at a graduate school in London. I laterwent on to work at United Nations organizations and NGOsand eventually started my own company. I am also a memberof the foundation’s screening committee. Could you please
each introduce yourself and explain some of the goals you areworking toward in your studies?

Sasaki: Hi, I’m Daisuke Sasaki and I am currently researching
AI and other information technologies as a junior at university.
I hope to find an area of engineering that interests me so that
I can apply AI and other methodologies to that field.
Tode: Hi, I’m Anna Tode and I am also a junior at university. I am
studying the structures and functions of animals and plants
based on their genes, DNA, and genetics. In addition, I havebeen looking into proteins and amino acids. I am also concerned about environmental issues. After choosing to take partin the Miss Earth Japan 2020 pageant, an event promoting
awareness on environmental issues, I was selected to be theJapanese delegate to the international Miss Earth pageant, so
I have been engaged in activities on this front as well.

117

Support for the Future Granted by the AOI SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION

Horie: The foundation has been unable to hold gatherings forscholarship recipients recently as a result of the COVID-19
pandemic. However, we have still been receiving twice-annual
newsletters, and I am always sure to read these. I knew about
your activities, Ms. Tode, as they are sometimes covered in the
newsletters. There are a lot of scholarship foundations inJapan. What made you two choose the AOI SCHOLARSHIPFOUNDATION?
Sasaki: I was born and raised in Iwate Prefecture, whichmeans that living alone in Tokyo while going to school would
require a lot of money. I applied for the scholarship of the AOISCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION as there were no fees attachedand no requirements to pay back the money received and also
because the amounts of payments were higher than other
scholarships. It is not uncommon for people moving to Tokyo
for school to spend a lot of their time at part-time jobs. I am
happy that I don’t need to do this and can instead devote mytime to my studies or to other interests.
Tode: I have a twin sister, which means that tuition costs aredouble for my parents. This is why I decided to look for a scholarship. I remember spending a lot of time writing the application
essay. When I was a freshman, I devoted a good portion of mytime to doing things you can only do while you are still at school,
like joining clubs and working part-time. As such, there was aperiod when I found it difficult to focus on my classes. However,when I think about the AOI SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION, I am
reminded of why I chose to go to university. This is just how
important the foundation is to me.
Horie: I also remember being inspired by the AOI SCHOLARSHIPFOUNDATION when I was still in school. We would listen to
speeches from people of high social standing, like the foundation director, at gatherings. These speeches reminded me of theneed to give it my all in my studies.

Future Dreams of Scholarship Recipients
Horie: As I mentioned when introducing myself, I run my own
company. When making the decision to leave the newspaper
where I had worked for 12 years, I consulted two associates
who had entered into the scholarship program before me. Yes,
the AOI SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION was just that important a
presence to me. I graduated nearly a quarter of a century ago,but you two are still at school, preparing to start your careers.
Is there anything you want to accomplish while you are still inschool? Also, what are your dreams for the future?
Tode: I became involved in beach and trash cleanup activities
through the Miss Earth Japan pageant. This experience filled
me with a desire to engage in similar activities with my friends. I

118

therefore want to create opportunities for younger generations
to become more involved in environmental activities, perhaps
by using social media. Also, I hope that one day I will be able tostart my own business, like you, Ms. Horie.
Sasaki: I plan to go to graduate school. I don’t necessarily needa Ph.D., but I want to get a master’s degree before joining theworkforce. In the future, I hope to use what I learned in theengineering program to develop products that are used bypeople throughout society. It would be most gratifying if I wereable to accomplish this dream.
Horie: I see that you both have dreams for the future, and thatyou are both studying hard to make these dreams a reality.
When you have been working for a long time, you start torealize the importance of the positivity, health, and senseof appreciation that the foundation director often speaks of.
I hope you will keep such ideas in mind going forward. Tochange topics, we are currently in a time of great change, due
in part to the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic. What are
your thoughts on this topic?
Sasaki: I try to think of the potential for new innovations toemerge as a result of the great changes we are seeing as apositive development for me. If I am ever in the position ofcreating something new during such a period of change insociety, I will make sure to develop products that respond to
those changes. To whatever degree possible, I will try to takeadvantage of these changes to entrench what I have made insociety on a fundamental level.
Tode: Participation in a beauty pageant usually requires one tospend several months overseas, a situation that would havemade it difficult for me to keep up with my studies. As an odd
benefit of the COVID-19 pandemic, the pageant judging was
performed online when I participated, which allowed me to join
without taking time off from school. The pandemic also triggered an increase in the number of events by NGOs and otherorganizations that allowed for remote exchange with people
from outside of Japan. I was thus able to interact with people
from around the world to an even greater degree. Change is notalways a bad thing, and I therefore look to focus on the positive
outcomes of change.
Horie: You two did a really good job of casting light on thepossibilities unlocked by taking a positive view toward change
and using it for the benefit of your future. Ms. Tode talked
about her interest in exchanges with people from around theworld. When you are young, working overseas or taking othersuch concrete action is a very effective way to broaden yourhorizons. However, this is not the only way. Regardless of
where you are working, if you keep tackling new challenges
and gain enough experience, you will naturally come to gainSupport for the Future Granted by the AOI SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATIONa broader perspective. This is something we should remember,especially as the COVID-19 pandemic limits our ability to taketrips overseas.

Hopes and Dreams for Future Generations
Horie: What do you both expect of companies going forward?
Sasaki: Society is changing, and this means that companies
need to change too. In recent years, we have seen companies
put forth bold slogans, like “resolving issues on a global scale,”and back these with grandiose advertisements. However, thesecompanies often fail to change their work environments or
employee treatment to match the implied virtue of these slogans. Before companies try to address the SDGs, they probably
should focus on improving the conditions for their employees. I
understand that MARUI GROUP has always viewed employees
as family members. That type of sentiment is what we needtoday. As a student, I hope that we will see an increase in thenumber of companies that offer strong support to their employees, and I want to work at such a company in the future.
Tode: I have a lot of interest in addressing social issues. In fact,
I was involved in activities related to the SDGs, sustainability,and ethics as part of my participation in the Miss Earth Japan
pageant. As Mr. Sasaki says, there are a lot of companies
whose efforts don’t go any further than their words. I

understand that companies have to turn a profit, but I still want
to see more companies that are truly devoted to sustainability
and the accomplishment of the SDGs.
Horie: As an entrepreneur, I aspire to create an organization inwhich all employees are able to fully exercise their talents. The
director of the AOI SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION has long said
that the 21st century is an era of authenticity. I agree that this isa time in which the authentic can assert itself as such. The
foundation does not just offer monetary aid; it also provides
opportunities and other support. I hope to help shape thecoming era together with you and the other foundation scholarship recipients.
Tode: I feel the same. It is important to call upon the aid ofothers through the foundation. The world will keep changing. I
therefore want future scholarship recipients to seek the aid ofothers while tackling new challenges. They should always
remember to enjoy themselves as they do this.
Sasaki: No matter what one is doing, they always need to takethe first step by themselves. The same goes with scholarships.
You have to research them yourself, but this research will likely
reveal that there are more organizations offering help than one
would have imagined. In the future, I will look to be quick intaking such first steps, and I hope that members of future
generations will do the same.

119

MESSAGE FROM THE CFO
Let me begin by apologizing for our failure to accomplish our targets for all of our key performanceindicators (KPIs) in the fiscal year ended March 31, 2021, the final year of the previous medium-term
management plan. Reasons for this failure include the heavy impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on theperformance of the retailing and fintech businesses as well as a misjudgment in our interest repayment
forecast for the fintech business made at the stage of formulating the plan. Regardless, we were prettymuch on track when it came to our KPIs in the fourth year of the five-year plan. As this shows, the main
measures of the plan progressed more or less as expected and with a certain degree of success when
you don’t consider the aforementioned reasons for failure. Specific successes included stable earnings
generated in the retailing business following the transition to fixed-term rental contracts as well as
earnings growth in the fintech business as a result of our nationwide expansion and our strategy of
maximizing the share of EPOS card payments in relation to household finances. We also transitioned toan optimal capital structure in which return on invested capital (ROIC) consistently exceeds weighted
average cost of capital (WACC) through our capital measures. Meanwhile, our overall excellence in termsof sustainability initiatives earned us a spot on the global Dow Jones Sustainability World Index for thethird consecutive year.
Based on these outcomes of the previous medium-term management plan, as well as the changes
we have seen in the social climate and in the operating environment, MARUI GROUP formulated a new
medium-term management plan, which was unveiled in May 2021. This plan is meant to cover the
fiscal years ending March 31, 2022 to 2026, the first five years of our longer plan for the next decade.
Over the next decade, we expect to see three major changes in the operating environment. The firstis replacement of the current work-age generation with younger generations. The second is the transition from the introduction of digital technologies to their full-scale deployment. The third is a long-term
shift from tangible to intangible assets.
We will furnish a swift response to these changes as we seek to ensure that the targets of the new
medium-term management plan are met. I hope we can look forward to your ongoing support as wemarch ahead on this journey.
The previous medium-term management plan primarily employed financial KPIs, like earnings per
share, return on equity, and ROIC. However, we realized that creating the value MARUI GROUP pursues
would be impossible if we merely focused on financial KPIs. For this reason, the new medium-term
management plan includes impact targets along with associated KPIs.
This plan thus comprises business strategies, capital measures, and impact targets. In Co-Creation
Management Report 2021, we chose to focus on our impact targets. If you want more information on
our business strategies, capital measures, and other financial matters, I invite you to refer to thefollowing resources.

Investor Relations Information
Medium-Term Management Plan Medium-term management plan-related materials
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/en/ir/management/plan.html

Corporate Governance 
MARUI GROUP Code of Conduct and policies
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/en/sustainability/theme04/
risk.html
MARUI GROUP Corporate Governance Guidelines
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/pdf/cgg_20210805_en.pdf
Corporate Governance Reportwww.0101maruigroup.co.jp/pdf/cgr_en.pdf
Corporate officer backgrounds and reasons for appointment
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/en/ci/officer/
Committee members
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/pdf/committee_members_en.pdfShareholder return policies
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/en/ir/stock/dividend.html
Shareholder benefits (in Japanese only)www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/ir/stock/benefit/
Basic internal control policy (in Japanese only)www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/ci/pdf/statement/int_control.pdf

120

Mailing list registration (in Japanese only)
Risk management
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/en/sustainability/theme04/
risk.html

Financial and ESG Information 
Financial results summaries
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/en/ir/lib/brief.html
Annual securities reports
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/en/ir/lib/sec.html
FACT BOOKs (supplementary financial materials)
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/en/ir/lib/fact.html
Monthly performance forecasts
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/en/ir/lib/monthly.html
ESG DATA BOOKs
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/en/sustainability/lib/
databook.html
GRI and ISO 26000 applicability tables
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/en/sustainability/lib/gri.html
Investors guides
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/en/ir/lib/guide.html
Financial results briefings and videos
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/en/ir/lib/result.html
MARUI IR DAY materials and videos
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/en/ir/lib/irday.html

Hirotsugu Kato
Director, Managing Executive Officer,
and CFOIn charge of IR, Finance, Sustainability,
and ESG Promotion
Director, MARUI CO., LTD.
Director, tsumiki Co., Ltd.
President and Representative Director,
D2C & Co. Inc.
Director, okos Co., Ltd.

www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/ir/infomail/reg.html

Investor Relations website
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/en/ir/
Sustainability website
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/en/sustainability/
Initiatives related to the TCFD
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/en/sustainability/
vision2050/3business_02.html

Awards and Recognition www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/en/ci/award/

Publications 
Co-creation management reports
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/en/ir/lib/i-report.html
VISION BOOK 2050 and co-creation sustainability reports
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/en/sustainability/lib/
s-report.html
Co-creation wellness reports (in Japanese only)www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/sustainability/lib/w-report.
html
Convocation notices for Ordinary General Meetings ofShareholders
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/en/ir/stock/meeting.html
Co-creation newsletters (shareholders newsletters,in Japanese only)www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/ir/lib/report.html

MARUI GROUP Media Sources (All content is available in Japanese only.)
Talk Forum

Yubi News

This section showcases discussions with individuals at theforefronts of their respective fields that are sure to provide
hints at what the future holds.

Check out this section for information on MARUI GROUP’s
ESG activities and events.

Forum examining the future of MARUI GROUP together
with younger employees
www.to-mare.com/tf/2021/006.html

Event in Shinjuku for communicating advancements inmen’s beauty to the world
www.to-mare.com/news/2021/post-52.html

MARUI GROUP Community SiteMARUI GROUP’s community site—kono yubi to-mare—is an open forum
in which anyone, regardless of theirage, gender, or nationality, can come toponder the various issues of all sizes
that surround us and take part inforward-looking discussions. We also
provide up-to-the-minute information
about our websites, updates on
seminars, and glimpses into the daily
activities of the editorial department
through our official Twitter account.
MARUI GROUP’s community site—kono yubi to-marewww.to-mare.com/

Book Lounge

Official YouTube Channel

Bibliophile President Aoi introduces books that are
particularly noteworthy from among the wide selection ofbooks he reads. With recommendations ranging frombusiness books to comics, there is something for every
reader.

The official kono yubi to-mare YouTube channel is a sourcefor video content produced together with MARUI GROUP
employees. Here, you can catch a glimpse of ourapproaches toward the future of MARUI GROUP, our values,
and our daily lives.

Future View
This section contains summaries and videos of thelectures by external lecturers conducted at MARUI GROUP.
We invite you to learn about the future course of MARUIGROUP through these lectures.

kono yubi to-mare Twitter accounttwitter.com/maruigroupkono yubi to-mare YouTube channel
www.youtube.com/channel/
UCCHq6q2aRFTyyEwVOMxHYXA

Inclusion Rally
MARUI GROUP seeks to help a diverse range of people
form wide-reaching and equal relationships. This section
rallies the voices of leaders in various fields throughdiscussions and other contributions based on the themesof equality (individuality, respect for individuality, humanrights) and engagement (connections, outreach, trust).

Marui Store Website
www.0101.co.jp.e.ex.hp.transer.com/global/
en.html?from=01_pc_appinfo_head_logo

EPOS Net (in Japanese only)www.eposcard.co.jp/index.html

Source for fun videos including everything from cooking
videos to date plans

Store and Brand Information

We offer daily updates containing exclusive information
for customers and the latest brands supported by
MARUI GROUP.

Marui Shopping App
www.0101.co.jp.e.ex.hp.transer.com/appinfo/

EPOS Card Official App (in Japanese only)www.eposcard.co.jp/appli/index.html

121

EDITORIAL POLICY

Editorial Policy

MARUI GROUP has been publishing co-creation management reports and co-creation sustainability reports as tools
for stakeholder engagement since 2015. Another such tool is VISION BOOK 2050. These management strategy
reports are forged over a process of more than 40 planning meetings a year led by President Hiroshi Aoi. For our pastco-creation management reports, we have referenced the International Integrated Reporting Framework released by
the International Integrated Reporting Council, Ito Report 2.0, and the Guidance for Integrated Corporate Disclosure andCompany-Investor Dialogue for Collaborative Value Creation: ESG Integration, Non-Financial Information Disclosure, andIntangible Assets into Investment. The concepts have been utilized to prepare integrated reports that present thefinancial and pre-financial information that supports the exercise of MARUI GROUP’s management philosophy as wellas the ongoing growth of the Company.
This most recent co-creation management report was reinvented in conjunction with the announcement of three
impact targets in MARUI GROUP’s new medium-term management plan, which is slated to conclude with the fiscal
year ending March 31, 2026. This new report serves as a unique form of owned media designed to give stakeholdersa vivid opportunity to engage with MARUI GROUP’s vision.

Overview of Planning Process (Period: March–December 2021, 17 meetings) 

Attendees
President Hiroshi Aoi; CFO Hirotsugu Kato; representatives from the Corporate Planning Division, the IR Department,
the Financial Department, the Sustainability Department, the ESG Promotion Department, the Wellbeing Promotion
Department, the General Affairs Department, the Investment Research Department, and EDGE INTERNATIONAL, INC.
Guest Attendees• Takaaki Umada, Director, FoundX, Division of University Corporate Relations, The University of Tokyo (Impact Expert)• Yoshiki Ishikawa, Representative Director of Well-being for Planet Earth Foundation (Well-being Expert)
Major Discussion Themes• Results of surveys of investors, experts, andemployees• Directives for second phase of co-creation management reports• Media venues viable for engagement with six groups ofstakeholders• MARUI GROUP’s targeted values and desired impacts• Presence and definition of future generations within
MARUI GROUP• Potential for kono yubi to-mare community site as amedia venue•G oals of forward-looking investments and differencesfrom conventional investments• Individual empowerment and small businesses•G oals of governance focused on six stakeholder
groups•S ustainability and well-being, interests and motivation•S hareholder return policies, relationship between the
AOI SCHOLARSHIP FOUNDATION and shareholder
returns• Indicators and scope of officer skill matrix

Afterword

Thank you for reading Co-Creation Management Report 2021 to its end.
MARUI GROUP began publishing co-creation management reports in 2015 to function as a communication tool for
facilitating engagement with stakeholders and promoting understanding with regard to the Company’s management
and businesses. Six years have passed since we issued our first co-creation management report, and each of thesereports has been met with strong praise from stakeholders. The fiscal year ending March 31, 2022, represents aturning point as this is the year in which we kicked off our new medium-term management plan. We therefore took
this as an opportunity to evolve our reports to be more than just a tool for sharing single-year information on financial
results and business activities. We wanted to develop these reports into a form of media that will give stakeholders avivid opportunity to engage with MARUI GROUP. With this goal in mind, the Groupwide project team that is a characteristic of our report-making processes began our longest production period to date with the question of how todifferentiate our reports from standard integrated reports.
The ensuing process of ongoing discussion culminated in the creation of a report focused on younger and future
generations and on MARUI GROUP’s desired impact. We thus devoted the pages of this report to discussing thefuture visions of MARUI GROUP and of its co-creation partners, the processes that led us to hold these visions, andother previously untold stories replete with the individuality of all of the parties involved. I suspect that many of ourreaders will notice how different this report feels in comparison to our previous reports. However, we also recognizethat there is still a lot of room for us to continue to evolve. We therefore hope to further evolve our co-creation management reports based on the insight gained through our conversations with stakeholders. Our co-creation reports
are tools, or platforms, for engaging with stakeholders and thereby broadening the scope of our co-creation activities.
MARUI GROUP is committed to engaging in future-oriented co-creation activities with as many stakeholders as
possible. I look forward to your ongoing support of MARUI GROUP.

Yukiko Udaka

General Manager, Public Relations Office,General Affairs Department, MARUI GROUP CO., LTD.
koho-ml@0101.co.jp
122

QR codes used in this report are registered trademarks of
DENSO WAVE INCORPORATED.

MARUI GROUP’s vision for the world of 2050
is one in which all dichotomies have been transcended toallow future generations
and all other individuals to live happily and as themselves.
Realizing this vision will require that
we engage in co-creation with MARUI GROUP
employees as well as with customers, business partners,
communities and society, investors, and the future generations thatwill shape the future.
We invite everyone who shares our vision for the future and forhappiness to join us in creating a positive impact on society.

LET’S JOIN HANDS
CO - CREATION

Co-Creation Management Reports
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/en/ir/lib/i-report.html
Annually published communication tool offering a condensed
look at MARUI GROUP’s present and future

VISION BOOK 2050
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/en/sustainability/lib/s-report.html
Report published in March 2019 declaring MARUI GROUP’s vision
for the world of 2050

MARUI GROUP Corporate Video—The Future (in Japanese only)
www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WQZCdHfxno&t=2s
Corporate video explaining the positive impact thatMARUI GROUP hopes to produce through co-creation
with stakeholders
Contact
Public Relations Office, General Affairs Department
MARUI GROUP CO., LTD.
Tel: 03-3384-0101 (Receptionist) Email: koho-ml@0101.co.jp
Other contacts
www.0101maruigroup.co.jp/en/question.html

123Publication date: February 2022

Publisher: Co-Creation Management Promotion Project Team, MARUI GROUP CO., LTD.

Planning and production: EDGE INTERNATIONAL, INC.

CO-CREATION

Printed in Japan