Teijin Ltd. commemorated its 100th anniversary on June 17 last. As it looks back over its century of history, Teijin is also taking the opportunity to look toward the next hundred years, unveiling a new global message of FUTURE NAVIGATION as it pursues its long-term vision, aiming to be an enterprise that supports the society of the future. Moreover, it marked its centennial with the THINK HUMAN PROJECT, a symbolic initiative that put the FUTURE NAVIGATION message into practice.
Teijin, founded in 1918 as Japan’s first rayon manufacturer, has retained the global mindset and adventurous spirit of its early days in the years since. Over the years, Teijin has grown its business and expanded into new fields through chemical technology, cutting-edge research and development, and epochal innovations, embracing ceaseless evolution and ambition.
The Teijin Group currently operates in the materials business field, providing its own high-performance materials, and the health care business field, including pharmaceuticals and home healthcare equipment, as it develops new business fields to create new value. In future it will further leverage its capabilities through business synergies and technical innovations, focusing on materials and healthcare as two pillars supported by its ICT technical foundation for creating and delivering its own distinctive solutions that help to solve social issues.
On the occasion of its centennial, the Teijin Group launched the message “Toward the world we all desire: FUTURE NAVIGATION,” focusing on quality of life (QOL) for future humanity.
FUTURE NAVIGATION:
* Technology will continue to advance as it has over the past 100 years. However, technology must not be allowed to overwhelm humanity. Chemistry must comprehend and care for humanity instead.
* If Teijin’s chemistry can understand humanity better, if it can develop hopes for the future of humanity and evolve to improve QOL, then Teijin can help lead the way toward an ideal world.
Based on a long-term vision encompassing the entire century to come, FUTURE NAVIGATION is a message backed by Teijin’s long experience of resolving the issues that face humanity. With eyes on future QOL for humanity, the Teijin Group will show the way to the world what humanity desires.
To achieve this goal, Teijin will break through its passive attitude of providing solutions to the existing issues and explore chemistry beyond materials and products to reach services, systems and even inter-personal connections, creating new value that has never existed before.
By expanding the field of chemistry, the Teijin Group will become an enterprise that puts people first in its thinking – a proactive force for improving QOL for future humanity.
THINK HUMAN PROJECT:
Technological evolution in recent years has given us an ever-changing world. As this evolution deepens into uncharted territory, what is happening to the journey of humanity itself?
Teijin has put people first in its thinking for the past century. The message “Toward the world we all desire: FUTURE NAVIGATION” encapsulates Teijin’s goal of finding solutions for future humanity.
Divided into personal and social components, the THINK HUMAN PROJECT identifies key elements that Teijin will explore as ideas for humanity through analysis, research and publishing the results.
Based on the FUTURE NAVIGATION message, the THINK HUMAN PROJECT marks Teijin’s centennial with nine individual research programs looking beyond the traditional bounds of chemistry to create solutions in anticipation of future human needs. Activity on these programs is already well underway.
Each of the nine project teams has been assigned a theme drawn from the key elements of humanity to explore using a variety of angles and approaches. Project team members are selected from the Teijin Group employees across the globe. The teams will deepen their understanding of today’s humanity through rich creativity cultivated by their experiences in Teijin, search for ways to improve QOL for future humanity, and investigate their challenging hypotheses in collaboration with external experts.
Progress reports will be accessible through Teijin’s centennial anniversary website (https://100.teijin.co.jp/en/) and the results are expected to be announced later this year.
THINK HUMAN PROJECT
PROJECT 1: Environment – What will the society realized by a circular economy be like?
PROJECT 2: Aging – What does aging mean in a 100-year life?
PROJECT 3: Sensitivity – Does sensitivity have value in communication?
PROJECT 4: Clothing – What can we learn from biomimetics in clothing?
PROJECT 5: Humanness – What will humanity be like when humans can augment their functions?
PROJECT 6: Mobility – How will automatic driving vehicles change values in the living sphere?
PROJECT 7: Super-aged society – How will the super-aged society change lifestyles?
PROJECT 8: Living space – How do living environments reflect biological clocks?
PROJECT 9: Food – How will commodification change dining experiences?
Communication Plan
The FUTURE NAVIGATION message and other initiatives celebrating Teijin’s centennial were disseminated through Teijin’s centennial anniversary website and a wide range of media internally and externally. Focusing on aspects of QOL for future humanity, Teijin also disseminated visual art questioning the meaning of humanness, the essence of humanity and human society.
Teijin is a technology-driven global group offering advanced solutions in the areas of environmental value, safety, security and disaster mitigation, as well as demographic change and increased health consciousness. Its main fields of operation are high-performance fibers such as aramid, carbon fibers & composites, healthcare, films, resin & plastic processing, polyester fibers, products converting and IT. The group has some 170 companies and around 19,000 employees spread out over 20 countries worldwide. It posted consolidated sales of JPY835 billion ($7.6 billion) and total assets of JPY 986.2 billion ($9 billion) in the fiscal year ending March 31, 2018.