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The purpose of this paper is to examine Kikkoman’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication with public schools associated with a new food education law in Japan. It describes how an internationally recognized soy sauce maker, Kikkoman, effectively entered a previously untapped market, public schools in Japan, and improved its corporate image using the vehicle of CSR activity.

Three traditional qualitative data sources were utilized: documents, interviews, and observations.

Social, political, economic, and environmental factors pushed Kikkoman to create a soy sauce lesson as a new CSR activity, which created challenges in corporate communication. The company, with the help of government, overcame the difficulties and was able to effectively communicate its CSR and improve its corporate image while promoting its signature product to children. This case presents a successful public relations strategy using a stakeholder approach as a framework.

It is difficult to generalize the findings to CSR communication in Japan because this is a single case study with interviews with one company representative and observations at two schools.

First, collaboration between business people and public schools teachers is on the rise. This may open new opportunities for socially responsible corporations to engage in effective public relations activity through CSR in Japan. Second, human resource development in CSR activities is strategic and employees can play a pivotal role in Japanese CSR.

This paper examines the unique activities of a Japanese food industry leader from multiple data sources including observations of actual corporate behaviors in schools.

This qualitative research aims to examine through their voices, why Japanese teachers who invited corporate lessons into their classrooms first became involved with business people and how their perceptions towards business may have changed.

Out of 275 food companies in Japan, three leading companies were selected as cases. Their corporate websites were examined to identify the participating public schools and the teachers who had been recruited to evaluate their experiences with corporate programs.

Teachers learned about corporate programs through governmental sources and direct mailings from the companies. They were motivated to use corporate lessons because of food education, creative experience-based activity, and a newly created school subject termed “integrated study”, which became a great receptor for corporate programs. This study suggested that corporate lessons positively changed the perceptions of teachers toward the business community.

Because this is a case study, the findings may not be generalized to other situations or other countries. Schools that may have corporate programs but refused to be included on company websites were not counted because this research relied on corporate websites to identify participating schools.

More companies should consider public schools for effective CSR communication channels, and more strategic CSR is imperative to capture the battleground of the “integrated study” market.

No previous study has examined food education as social responsibility activity as meeting the emerging educational needs of the society with a focus on “integrated study” as a receptor for corporate food education lessons in Japan.