Business Cards with Braille

Hello.
I am Yamashita from the Public Relations department.

September begins today. It has become somewhat chilly, and autumn has arrived all at once.
At our company, many employees are busy and excited as we prepare for the “RockCorps supported by JT” LIVE event scheduled for this weekend. Since our company is the organizer, there is a sense of tension in the office that differs from our usual large-scale event preparations.

NE-YO will be visiting Japan for the live performance, and Kobukuro, flumpool, and May J. will also be participating. I am looking forward to it.
(The staff in charge of the artists have been working with minute-by-minute schedules, and since last week, they have been struggling to confirm and memorize them.)

With all that is going on, I realized I must prepare my business cards as I will likely meet many people at the event. Today, I would like to talk about “SUNNY SIDE UP business cards.”

The business cards of SUNNY SIDE UP employees include Braille. I remember being deeply moved when I first received this business card.

The Braille is in two rows. The top row is the company name, and the bottom row is the individual’s name.

Naturally, when exchanging business cards with people outside the company, these Braille-embossed cards very often become a topic of conversation.
The initiative was reportedly introduced in 2004 at the suggestion of our company president, so I asked her about the background of its introduction.

“I exchanged business cards with an acquaintance I hadn’t seen in years. When I did, I noticed the card I was given had Braille on it. I learned that it wasn’t made by a machine, but that visually impaired individuals were adding the Braille by hand. Upon hearing that they used Braille business cards to support the independence of visually impaired people, I felt that we could do the same and immediately adopted it for our own company cards.”

That was her response. While it may be presumptuous to call it ‘support,’ the desire to ‘be of use to someone’ or ‘to do something’ remains one of the driving forces of SUNNY SIDE UP, both then and now.

We entrust the task of adding the Braille to ‘Work-I Funabashi,’ a social welfare center located in Funabashi City, Chiba Prefecture.

It takes time for the business cards to arrive after they are ordered, but because they contain not only the company’s philosophy but also the care of the people who add the Braille, the joy of receiving them is exceptional.

They are a very important ‘proof of employment’ that constantly reminds us that we are working with and for society!