Football x old people = ? What answer would you write in this formula? Suntory Wellness Co., Ltd. signed a supporting corporate contract with the J.League in December 2021. Many people may know the name of the company from various health foods such as “Sesamin EX” and “Kurozu Garlic”. One of the social projects Suntory Wellness is working on is “Be supporters!” The project started in December 2020, with the aim of helping people who usually have many opportunities to be supported, such as the elderly and people with dementia, to become supporters of clubs and communities by becoming supporters of paddy field football clubs. Currently, four J clubs sympathize with the project and participate in it: Katale Toyama, Renofa Yamaguchi, Kawasaki Frontale and Vissel Kobe. And about 1,000 elderly supporters were born. All older people can do is support them freely. Nevertheless, this “Be supporters!” First, I would like to present a single example of its effect. Sachiko Kurosaki (82) had symptoms of depression and hallucinations due to dementia, but became a “flare” from Toyama’s Yohei Ohno. A staff member at the facility commented, “It looks like my nursing level has gone from 3 to 1.” When Ohno visited the facility, he forgot his cane and rushed over to Ohno. Tadashi Yamamoto (94) suffers from high blood pressure and usually makes a lot of negative remarks. However, if you take the initiative and start cheering with “Be Supporters!”, your blood pressure will stabilize the day after your support. Also, there are many reports of people becoming more energetic and many examples of shy older people who didn’t join the group but became friends through the support. The presence of a ‘favourite’ player created excitement for the seniors, and by supporting the home team, a sense of connection and unity was created. The impetus behind this project was Naoto Okinaka, President of Suntory Wellness in 2020. Mr. Okinaka, who scored “Iemon” at Suntory and was chosen as President of Suntory Wellness, heard about the idea of ”Be fans!” while having dinner with a friend. “Looking at the future of Japanese society, it is expected that the number of people with dementia will increase dramatically. Generally speaking, when a family member has dementia, everyone hides it. I had heard of a case where a nursing business had collapsed, and I had always thought that businesses needed to tackle this problem head on. was a project that our company needed to do as part of our corporate social responsibility to find a ‘push’ and find purpose in life.” (President Okinaka) I had intended to propose this project to other companies, but in the end I entrusted it to President Okinaka, who immediately declared that he would do it. The president launches a project within the company, finalizes the plan and proposes “Be supporters!” to every J League team this fall. The choice of ‘soccer’ instead of ‘sumo’ or ‘baseball’, which are popular with seniors, was well received by seniors. “The original concept was football, but among professional sports, the J.League is a community activity. Amidst this weakening of horizontal ties, we want to root ourselves in the local culture and encourage the people who live there to support their local clubs. I think it’s something close to human instinct. On top of that, the rules of the game of football are very easy to understand.” (President Okinaka), 1 point if the ball goes into the goal, very simple. It is held continuously throughout the year, and the duration of the match, which is 90 minutes, is fair compared to sumo and baseball. In addition to the J-League clubs who showed interest in the project, we were lucky to have staff from nursing homes. This project, which is the first to connect football and the elderly, will not start without the brave employees who say: “It looks interesting. You need to post the player’s photo on the wall, set up the TV, and perform other tasks outside of your regular duties. However, there was an unexpected effect here too. Most nursing facilities suffer from chronic labor shortages. Staff members were often too busy to take the time to talk with users, but the connections between staff and users deepened by supporting each other across the barriers between staff and users. Additionally, we have heard of cases where mentally exhausted employees due to COVID-19 who took time off became joyful after returning to work and participating in this project. Also, the number of student inquiries about hiring has increased, and family members who used to say, “I have dementia, so please stop showing your face now say, “I’m happy, so please put it in the media.” “Be supporters!” was not only good for the three parties, but also for the elderly, their families, the facility staff and J Club staff. However, from a business perspective, this does not appear to be a project directly related to selling products. So why are you doing this project? “There is two reasons for this. The first is that we are a company that created culture and innovation by making Japanese whiskey at that time. We are a company whose philosophy is to give back a third of our profits to society. I don’t know, I won’t know unless I try. It started in December 2020 and evolved in various ways after about 1 year and 10 months. One of them is VISSEL KOBE’s “support meal making”. When they were too hungry to cheer, the elderly would cook fresh vegetables grown at V Field next to Noevir Stadium, with the help of rice vermicelli made by a Kobe company. It seems that there was no problem with the hands of the elderly because there was a purpose to cheer them up. Also, this month, as part of a special project for Respect the Elderly Day, we are doing “Crying Elders in Life”. Around 1,300 messages of support were collected from seniors’ facilities in the 10 club region who raised their hands under the concept “I want to be excited, whatever my age”. At Noevir Stadium in Kobe, this “cry of seniors in life” was already displayed during the match against Nagoya. My 86-year-old grandmother loves Iniesta and wrote “VAMOS Iniesta” (Go ahead, Iniesta) in the Spanish she had just learned. A person in their 60s whose gender is unknown moaned: “You’re aging fast, but it’s hard to score. Don’t give up until the final whistle, be bold and sensitive! Of course, there was also a cheer that understood the predicament at Kobe, saying, “I hope you stay.” We can say that it was a blind spot until now, the link between the elderly and football. As a journalist, I usually write harsh things, and sometimes I have to write articles complaining about fans. But this “Be supporters!” is another world. As the interview went on, I suddenly thought, “If football has a Nobel Prize, it should be a Peace Prize. Seeing the smiles of people with dementia, nursing facility staff, club staff, Suntory Wellness staff and President Okinaka made me happy. And this “Be supporters!” won a media award at the J League “2022 Sharen! AWARDS” in May this year, and interest continues to grow. We asked President Okinaka what form he is aiming for in the future. “Our bodies and our brains don’t assume that humans have been on the earth for millions of years and will live that long. Even though there’s a lot of nutrition, we were able to live that long. That means our brains don’t can’t keep This is a problem not only in Japan, but also common to all mankind. We will do what we can, and the number of companies that sympathize with this and the number of people who want will increase, and this problem will be brought to light, and people with dementia will not suffer with their families. Or, hopefully, this will be a chance to solve it.” This is a large-scale story, and it is a real story that will happen in the near future. With the advent of the 100-year life era, how long can we live happily? It may be necessary to get closer to the idea of ”happy life expectancy” in the same way as health. Finally, I was impressed by the “cry of old people in life” that I found in Kobe, so I would like to introduce it. “Enjoy football until the end of your life” (107-year-old woman) Make it your motto. Interview and text by Koichi Saito Photographs by Takamitsu Yoshida
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