News Release

Official Partner Agreement Concluded with the Japan
Wheelchair Basketball Federation (JWBF)

Supporting the activities of Japanese national wheelchair basketball team candidates

Suntory Holdings Limited entered an official partner agreement with the Japan Wheelchair Basketball Federation (JWBF), in order to support the activities of Japanese national wheelchair basketball team candidates (men and women).

Since 2014, Suntory Holdings Limited has been running the program　‘Supporting Challenged Sports (for Persons with Disabilities)’in three prefectures in the Tohoku region of Japan (Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima) as part of its Great East Japan Earthquake recovery efforts. Within this program, activities such as hands-on experience classes in Tohoku have been held together with wheelchair basketball teams and players. Suntory Holdings Limited has now entered an official partner agreement with the JWBF to reach beyond recovery support activities and into the realm of supporting wheelchair basketball in Japan. Various plans are in place for the future that include supporting the athletic activities of candidates for the Japan national team, helping run competitions, and volunteer activities by company employees, for example.

About ‘Supporting Challenged Sports (for Persons with Disabilities)’

This is one segment of the Suntory Group’s Suntory Tohoku Sun-Sun Project that supports recovery from the Great East Japan Earthquake. It involves support for activities to develop and popularize challenged sports and train challenged athletes who daily make efforts to achieve goals, in three prefectures of Tohoku (Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima) over a seven-year-long period from 2014. A “Challenged Athlete Subsidy” has been created to support the training of athletes on par with global standards and to develop and popularize challenged sports. To date, a total of 39 million yen has been provided to 48 individuals and 15 organizations. In addition, lectures and hands-on experience classes with challenged athletes are held at schools and athletic facilities in disaster affected areas, and efforts are being made to strengthen the base and improve the environment, based on the wishes of each prefecture, such as upgrading facilities and donating sports gear.