Choosing Job Means “Contributing to People, Society x What Is Exciting for Me” Career Education Class at Yoyogi Junior High School in Tokyo

【Japan】Toray Industries, Inc.

On February 14, 2020, Toray’s Taiju Suzuki, who is currently on a temporary assignment as a manager at Global Creative Lab Tokyo Dept., Fast Retailing Co., Ltd., taught a career education class for the first graders at Shibuya Municipal Yoyogi Junior High School in Tokyo. The lecture was held as part of the Mirai Kyoshitsu (meaning “class for the future” in English) organized by Oyaji Nippon, an NPO working to contribute to the healthy development of children, with the aim of offering students an opportunity to think of their career path in interaction with working members of the society. Toray Group has been implementing career education initiatives as part of its education support activities to nurture people who will shoulder the establishment of a sustainable society and has been cooperating in the project.

Based on the theme of monozurkuri (manufacturing), Suzuki, who is in charge of managing Toray and Uniqlo Co., Ltd.’s joint project at Fast Retailing, taught how Uniqlo products and Toray’s materials are making people’s lives more comfortable and supporting the society by introducing various cases and through quizzes, . At the beginning of the class, Suzuki introduced his own experiences to convey to the students that working is fun so as to encourage those who feel uncertain about the future to have positive ideas about becoming working members of the society. Students then learned through quizzes “what are products?” “where do you start to develop a product?” and “what is the role of a material?” and engaged in a workshop to actually develop a product. In the presentation of ideas, there were many interesting ideas from the perspective of junior high school students and Mirai Kyoshitsu was filled with laughter.

After the lecture, the children gave the following positive comments: “I had worries about becoming a member of the society, but I learned the joy of working,” “I learned that there is a dream-like job in which I can create what I come up with,” and “it was the best class I had ever attended and please do it again.” Their comments gave us a precious opportunity to realize that we, the working members of the society, have to show the young people how energetically we are working to make the future bright and hopeful for the young people.

We will continue to cooperate in career education for Toray employees who are active in various fields.

Note: HEATTECH® is a trademark of Fast Retailing Co., Ltd.