Partnership with Valuable 500The Nippon Foundation’s role toward achieving disability inclusion

Since The Nippon Foundation’s establishment in 1962, support for persons with disabilities in Japan and overseas has been one of our main areas of activity. We have been particularly involved in Southeast Asia in recent years, supporting specialists and organizations who help to develop the abilities (through scholarships and job training) of people with visual, auditory, and physical disabilities.

There are many instances in Southeast Asia of persons with disabilities having difficulty gaining employment after graduating from school, and we are therefore helping them through training to develop skills and by holding seminars for corporate human resources staff on topics like hiring people with low vision. Nevertheless, the efforts of persons with disabilities themselves is not enough to enable them to work as active members of society, and understanding and action on the part of companies are indispensable. According to World Bank statistics, 15% of the world’s population has some kind of disability. Against this backdrop, The Nippon Foundation began working with the Valuable 500, the world’s largest corporate management network focusing on disability inclusion.

The Valuable 500 (V500) is a global management network comprising more than 500 companies and partners working to “eliminate the exclusion of persons with disabilities from business.” Participating companies have come together to accelerate the inclusion of persons with disabilities, with the aim of bringing about change in the business sector that will lead to the transformation of society. Participating companies come from a broad range of sectors, with 16 global companies including Apple, Google, Microsoft, P&G, Salesforce, BBC, and Sony providing financial support as Iconic Partners. The entire network of Valuable 500 participating companies has a combined total market capitalization of more than US$23 trillion (roughly 3,400 trillion yen) and annual revenue of more than US$8 trillion (roughly 1,180 trillion yen), and employs more than 22 million people around the world. The organization was founded by Caroline Casey, a social entrepreneur who is legally blind and has been named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. Former Unilever CEO Paul Polman is Chair of the Advisory Board, and other global business leaders supporting the Valuable 500’s activities include Anna Marks, Chair of the Deloitte Global Board of Directors, and Salesforce Co-Founder and CEO Marc Benioff.

Participating companies are engaged in concrete activities in the following three priority areas:
Leadership: Managers raising disability inclusion as a management issue
Reporting: Collecting company data and clarifying the current situation related to employment of persons with disabilities
Representation: Reflecting the views of persons with disabilities to enable them to participate in all decision-making processes

Although The Nippon Foundation’s direct support to V500 has concluded, we continue to partner with V500.
The international SYNC25 summit will be held in Tokyo on December 3-4, 2025, co-hosted by V500, The Nippon Foundation, and Nikkei, Japan’s leading business media group.
SYNC represents the V500’s operating principle of synchronized collective action. The main purpose of this international summit is to bring together CEOs of V500 participating companies and other business leaders and representatives of the disability community to send a message to society that promotes disability inclusion in business. The program will include keynote addresses, breakout sessions, opportunities for dialogue among companies, and company exhibitions, as a venue for introducing examples and exchanging opinions related to disability inclusion.

The Nippon Foundation views SYNC25 as a very significant opportunity, originating in Japan, to transform society to promote disability inclusion globally. Study sessions and other activities for Japanese participating companies will also be held to make the summit even more effective.