Business opportunity and food education in Japan

Purpose - 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. Design/methodology/approach - 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. Findings - 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. Research limitations/implications - 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. Practical implications - 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. Originality/value - 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.