Local News

New Company to Employ Ex-convicts

Local real estate company owner and volunteer probation officer Isao Soejima has established a recycling company called Human Harbor to provide jobs to ex-convicts. Sympathetic to Soejima’s cause, the Nishitetsu Group will lend the new company industrial land in Umi Town, and operations are set to begin in February.

Soejima incorporated the new company last December with one million yen in capital and aligned its objectives with Yunus Social Business (YSB), a global initiative to create businesses that aim to solve social problems advocated by Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus. Human Harbor was certified by Yunus & Shiiki Social Business Research Center, Kyushu University, who promotes Yunus Social Business
in collaboration with Yunus Center in Bangladesh, as Japan’s first YSB Company.

According to Soejima, 275 firms in Fukuoka Prefecture alone have agreed to cooperate with his company, which plans to buy scrap metal from these companies and process it into new products. Ex-convicts will be hired for a period of one year and will be offered assistance in locating new jobs when they leave the company. Human Harbor plans to launch with two employees and add six more in two years. Its initial sales target is 200 million yen by Sep. 2014. Source: Nishinippon Shimbun Jan. 18

Category
Business
Society
Published: Jan 18, 2013 / Last Updated: Apr 1, 2016

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