Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance has been supporting J.LEAGUE as the top partner for J1 League and J2 League, as the title partner for J3 League since 2014, and as the title partner for all the divisions of J.LEAGUE since 2015. Moreover, the company’s branches conclude individual sponsorship agreements with local J.LEAGUE clubs (called “J.Clubs”) across Japan as a way to make contributions to local communities. Joe Amaya from the Branding Strategy Department explains why the company has been promoting collaboration with the football league as follows:

“J.LEAGUE has a total of 60 clubs in 41 prefectures, and each club is conducting activities by working closely with their local community. In each of these prefectures, we have about 1,100 sales bases where about 37,000 MY Link Coordinators (sales personnel) are also conducting activities by working closely with local communities. J.LEAGUE is committed to fostering the development of Japan’s sporting culture centering around locally rooted sports clubs, and our company is committed to ‘becoming the life insurer of choice for customers in local communities.’ The two parties thus share a similar commitment, which led us to support J.LEAGUE and collaborate with it for the benefit of local communities.”

Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance has been holding the nationwide Meiji Yasuda Life J.League Walking Campaign since 2018, inviting participants to walk alongside J.LEAGUE players to improve their health. A total of 55,000 people have participated to date. The company has also contributed to promoting sports in schools by holding more than 1,200 football clinics for elementary schools across the country in which 88,000 students have participated in total.

“Under the slogan, ‘We are all supporters,’ most of the company’s employees attend stadium matches at least once a year to cheer on their local J.Club,” says Mr. Amaya. “As a result, the total number of spectators exceeded 1.7 million, and we received messages of thanks from J.LEAGUE and its local clubs in recognition of our contribution to increasing the number of spectators.”

Employees purchase the tickets for the matches themselves. When the initiative was launched, not all employees were interested in J.LEAGUE but over time more and more have become passionate supporters of their local J.Club after witnessing in person the skillful maneuvers of players on the field.

“This, I think, testifies to the power of sports,” says Mr. Amaya. “We collaborate with J.LEAGUE to contribute to local communities and also as part of our branding activity targeting customers. I also think the initiative helps promote a sense of unity among employees.”

Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance has thus built close relationships with local J.Clubs in each region. As the company started its third term as the title partner of J.LEAGUE in January 2023, it began a new phase of collaboration with the organization. “We have set the theme for the third term, which is to create social value,” says Taishi Tomoe, also from the Branding Strategy Department.

“We will support the ‘SHAREN!’ social collaboration activity that has been conducted by J.LEAGUE since 2018 to make social contributions in consideration of the challenges faced by each region,” Mr. Tomoe continues. “Specifically, in recognition of the fact that the number of young blood donors has been falling, we will start an activity to raise public awareness of blood donation in cooperation with the Japanese Red Cross Society this fiscal year. In collaboration with all 60 J.LEAGUE clubs as well as with the Japan Football League (JFL) and organizers of the regional leagues, we will invite a blood donation bus to set up at the local stadium in each region and ask J.LEAGUE fans and supporters, especially the younger ones, to donate blood. We also plan to offer original J.LEAGUE club goods to those who have donated blood at any of the 138 blood donation rooms located across Japan.”

According to the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, the number of blood donors in the teens to 30s age group dropped by around 40% over the decade to fiscal 2018. Moreover, with COVID-19 having kept people at home as well as curtailing the activities of blood donation buses, the shortage of blood supplies has now become a serious issue.

J.LEAGUE’s “SHAREN!” activity is conducted to solve social issues based on collaboration among J.LEAGUE, J.Clubs and local people, companies, organizations, governments and schools, with a focus on themes that are meaningful to the parties involved (education, diversity, community building, health and intergenerational exchange).

“By conducting activities not alone nor in partnerships of two but with three or more partners, we can have a much greater reach. If this way of thinking takes root, J.LEAGUE, Meiji Yasuda Life Insurance and various other companies and organizations will be more widely networked, allowing them to make even more contributions in response to regional issues and challenges,” says Mr. Tomoe.