Inclusion Starting from Blind Football

Embracing the shared vision of bringing down the walls between those who can see and those who can't, turning society into a stage on which anyone can shine, Santen, the Japan Blind Football Association (hereinafter, “JBFA”), and the International Blind Football Foundation (hereinafter, “IBF Foundation”) signed a long-term partnership agreement in 2020. This three-party partnership has set three goals: sharing experiences to understand each other's differences and strengths; creating innovation in “seeing”; and improving the quality of life for the visually impaired. To achieve these goals, the three parties launched a VISI-ONE Project in April 2021 and have been engaged in various activities under this project. With blind football as a starting point, we aim to serve as a bridge that leads to the active participation of visually impaired people in various aspects of society, including sports, new occupations, and innovation. 

Santen sends employees both with and without visual impairments to participate in Spo-iku events as players and facilitators, respectively, thereby offering cooperation in livening up the Spo-iku program. JBFA offers elementary and junior and senior high school students an experience-based diversity education program named “Spo-iku,” leveraging various elements of blind football, a Paralympic sport. In this program, all the participating children engage in work of various kinds with their vision blocked with a blindfold, while interacting with visually impaired blind football players. We therefore provide young generations with the opportunity to interact with visually impaired people, with the aim of helping children increase their own understanding of visually impaired people and learn the importance of communication and teamwork.

Santen not only sponsors a program organized by JBFA for visually impaired children and but also supports employees in serving as the supporters of the participants paired with them in this program, helping those children in their lives and experiences during the program period. Blind Football Kids Camps is a two-day sports-camp program for visually impaired children. This program aims to offer visually impaired children the opportunity to try participating in sports, thereby inspiring them to develop sports habits outside of school. At these camps, participating children can find their own abilities and experience their own growth and the joy of playing sports. In addition to facilitating interaction among visually impaired children, this program also aims to enable their parents to interact and share information and know-how with each other. 

Under the long-term partnership "VISI-ONE," Santen, JBFA, and IBF Foundation held the "VISI-ONE Accelerator Program" for creating innovations in "seeing" in 2022. A demo day was held in October 2022 to present the results of the demonstrations of business ideas by six companies selected for this program. 

The company has sponsored international blind football competitions to foster a social mindset for the visually impaired. Santen was the title sponsor of the IBSA Blind Football World Grand Prix in 2020 and 2021" in Shinagawa", and also sponsored "IBSA Blind Football European Championships Division2 in 2021"