Contribution to Local Communities

RAKUPITA SOUGEI Operation Management System for Social Welfare and Nursing Care Facilities

Daihatsu is committed to providing solutions that are tailored to the needs of customers and local communities.
One of our activities is the RAKUPITA SOUGEI pick-up and drop-off nursing care operational support system for adult nursing care and welfare facilities. Pick-up and drop-off accounts for around 30% of a facility’s operations and causes a psychological burden for around 60% of caregivers. RAKUPITA SOUGEI is a service that helps improve the productivity of nursing care facilities. The system achieves this by using a cloud system and smartphone app to change the traditional method of manual pick-up and drop-off operations and by solving problems that occur before pick-up, during transportation, and after drop-off. This service is already in use at many facilities throughout Japan and helps to satisfy pick-up and drop-off planners, drivers, administrators, users, and their families.
The service has also been publicly recognized, receiving the MaaS & Innovative Business Model Award 2020¹ Grand Prix and the New Business Model Award at the ASPIC IoT/AI/Cloud Awards 2021².

1. An award for innovative products, services, and businesses in the MaaS and other mobility technology fields; revolutionary initiatives and partnerships that have societal significance; and novel attempts to overturn existing transportation and lifestyles
2. An award presented by the ASP-SaaS-AI-IoT Cloud Industry Association (ASPIC) to recognize excellent and socially beneficial cloud services in Japan

Voice from Customers Using RAKUPITA SOUGEI
Lowering the burden on nursing staff and standardizing their work, creating more time for them to spend on care

Goissho Shared Pick-up and Drop-off Service for Social Welfare and Nursing Care Facilities

1. Established to strongly promote Japan’s “Digital Garden City Nation” Concept all over the country and generate momentum toward achieving its implementation, the Digi-den Koshien event invites the submission of initiatives from a wide range of private companies and organizations, awarding the best initiatives with the Prime Minister’s Award.
2. Initiative focused on improving life and society through good design. Defining design as something created by people to fulfill some ideal or purpose, this award commends and recognizes designs of all types found throughout our lives, including products, architecture, software, systems, and services.
3. Award given to companies in the Kansai region which have taken the initiative in tackling DX.

Structure of Goissho

Under its Environmental Action Plan 2030, Daihatsu is taking action with consideration for local production and consumption, and for contribution to local communities with the aim of decarbonizing the energy used at its plants. We are participating in the new collaboration among crop farmers, livestock farmers, and industry promoted by Ryuoh Town², where the Shiga (Ryuoh) Plant is located. Our contribution is to work on methane fermentation technology development using dung from Omi cattle in an effort to create a regional circular and ecological sphere. Generating energy (biogas) from the dung produced when raising Omi cattle, which is an important local industry, and using it for plant operations will support decarbonization. The residue can be returned to farmland as organic fertilizer, thereby creating a regional circular and ecological sphere.
The purpose of biogas is to use it as a carbon neutral fuel in aluminum melting furnaces and power generators.
Proof-of-concept experiments have begun with rice, wheat, and cabbage crops, using compost and liquid fertilizer made from fermentation residues with the aim of eventually using it with many of Ryuoh’s agricultural products. Experiments conducted since 2023 have shown that these composts and liquid fertilizers are just as effective as traditional composts, and future evidential experiments will further expand cultivated land area and methods applied.
In addition, securing power generating functions will contribute to power system resilience for local communities (the ability to withstand disasters). Through these efforts aimed at developing a recycling-oriented, ecosystembased local community, we will continue our efforts to create a sustainable local community.

1. Collaborative initiative among crop farmers, livestock farmers, and industry that aims to achieve sustainable development through the utilization of local organic resources.
2. Collaboration between the cultivation and livestock sides such as by livestock farmers supplying compost to crop farmers that grow rice and vegetables and crop farmers producing feed crops through crop rotation and so on and supplying it to livestock farmers for their livestock.

Outline of the Biogas Project (Local Resource Circulation): Intra-regional Resource Circulation

Reconstruction Assistance for Disaster-affected Areas

Collaborating with the Toyota Group, Daihatsu provides reconstruction assistance to disaster-affected areas as a way to connect more closely with local communities. We began providing company-wide training for disaster volunteer coordinators in November 2024 to prepare for unpredictable disasters that could happen at any time and to quickly and continuously support disaster-affected areas. We will bolster both our “hard” support, like vehicles, and “soft” support as we work to improve our in-house structure to effectively support disaster-affected populations in getting back to their former lives as soon as possible.

Providing Disaster Shelter

* Number of times the facility was provided: Six in total

Donations of Discarded Small Appliances

Group Blood Drives

Dementia Supporter Training Seminar

At Daihatsu, under our mission of “staying close to our customers and enriching their lives,” we have established “dementia supporter training seminars” to cultivate personnel who are capable of tackling local community issues.
This is a face-to-face program, including group work, that aims to give participants a deeper, more accurate understanding of dementia. Participants who take the course will become “supporters” who will rid themselves of prejudice and look with warm understanding on people with dementia and their families, and they are expected to be able to provide support to those they encounter in their own lives. For example, one of the jobs of a dementia supporter is to show deeper understanding in the event that something happens in their own community in the course of daily life, or to provide a helping hand if someone needs it. The course is primarily intended for employees, and to date 22% of all company employees have taken it. Through this initiative, Daihatsu aims to create barrier-free communities and towns for all kinds of people, and to expand the circle of mutual help.

Facility Tours

Daihatsu introduces its car creating approach and initiatives to many local residents and other stakeholders through facility tours. Humobility¹ World is a museum for Daihatsu’s historical materials that is located within the Head (Ikeda) Plant. It is a facility where you can enjoy learning, experience, and discover, and features hands-on exhibitions with the theme of “Thinking about Life, Thinking about Mini-vehicles.” The facility is open to fifth-grade elementary school students on social studies field trips as part of their classes, and also opens to the public on Saturdays. We also conduct social studies tours at our main plants, allowing visitors to observe automobile assembly and inspection line operations. Through these efforts, the public is gaining a broad understanding of the social significance of the automobile industry as well as a deeper understanding of Daihatsu.

1. Humobility: A term combining “human” and “mobility”

Promoting Sports

Daihatsu Track and Field Team

The Daihatsu Track and Field Team was founded in 1988. It aims to inspire and encourage people through the accessible sport of track and field and to contribute to the spread and promotion of sports. The team has produced a number of prominent athletes, including marathon runners selected as representatives at the Olympic Games and the World Athletics Championships. It has achieved excellent results at major competitions in Japan and overseas.
In addition, based on the desire to make the joy of sports accessible to everyone, we set up track and field classes at schools such as elementary schools in Ikeda City, where the Daihatsu head offices are located, and neighboring Kawanishi City, and team members and staff participate and conduct classes as well. The team conveys both the joy of running and Daihatsu’s corporate stance of staying close to customers to children and many other people.

Supporting and Nurturing Children

Daihatsu’s MONODUKURI Experience Classes

Daihatsu employees have visited elementary schools near business sites to hold classes for fifth-grade students on the importance and joy of MONODUKURI since 2015. The classes are hands-on experiences where students can see, touch, and use actual parts and tools in order to experience the principles of the manufacturing process that are difficult to convey using textbooks. We have held classes at over 250 elementary schools per year, with the participation of a cumulative annual total of over 20,000 students.
In addition to elementary schools, we also host hands-on classes for children in local communities around our business sites.