Cultural Exchange and Sports Events
Activities that bring people together to share and celebrate cultural differences, or to engage in the shared experience of sports events, serve to break down the barriers of language and culture that separate people. Mitsubishi Electric supports such activities as an important part of its philanthropic responsibilities.
Music in Spain
Mitsubishi Electric is honored to be a member of the Foundation Orfeo Català Palau de la Música, which owns the prestigious Palau de la Música Catalana concert hall in Barcelona. This hall, with its unique architecture, is the site of the annual Primer Palau Festival sponsored by Mitsubishi Electric, where promising young musicians are given an opportunity to perform in front of an audience as a major step towards a career in music.
Ice Skating Program
Ice skating both strengthens the body and helps in developing a sense of balance. Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation supports special skating activities for people with physical impairments. Volunteers take to the ice with physically impaired people using specially designed equipment such as walkers and harnesses.
Basketball Clinic
Mitsubishi Electric's company basketball teams in Japan -- including the scrappy Melco Dolphins -- typically compete in the top class of the Super League and the Emperor's Cup & Empress's Cup All Japan Basketball championships. The company also regularly dispatches players and coaches to grade and junior high schools throughout the country to assist in basketball training clinics. This program is designed to widen the popularity of basketball as a sport throughout Japan.
Australian Rugby
Mitsubishi Electric supports the local community and promotes wholesome development of youth through sport in Australia by sponsoring the popular Bulldogs Rugby League Club of Canterbury, an Australian Rugby League.
German Marathon
Mitsubishi Electric takes a key sponsorship role in the annual New Year's Run in the city of Ratingen, Germany (near Dusseldorf), and even fields its own team.
Disabled Sports USA
Mitsubishi Electric America Foundation supports Disabled Sports USA, a Rockville, Maryland-based initiative that trains young, disabled American veterans returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to serve as mentors to young people with disabilities. The program uses sports as a way of developing skills and self-confidence, to help all participants make meaningful and fulfilling contributions to society.
Special Music Performances
In 1973 the Easy Listening Club ("Koryokai") jazz band was established as a part of culture and sports activities by Mitsubishi Electric employees in the Itami region of Japan, in order to make social contributions through musical performances. The band gets regular requests to hold performances at nursing home facilities and to make special appearances at various regional activities, including an interactive carnival held at a sheltered workshop for people with mental disabilities.
Tennis Clinic for High School Students
The Mitsubishi Electric tennis team is an active member of the Japan tennis league, which includes world-class professional players. Making use of factory site tennis courts, professional players and Mitsubishi Electric tennis team members recently held a tennis clinic for 100 public high school students in the Kamakura Area, giving them an opportunity to improve their tennis skills and participate in other exciting activities.
Summer Badminton Clinic
The badminton club at the Itami City, Japan office recently organized a badminton clinic for public junior high school and high school students, which included instruction by coaches and professional players from the Japan League and attended by the town mayor.
Weekend Table Tennis
Employees belonging to the Mitsubishi Electric Table Tennis Club in Nagasaki, Japan teach table tennis at junior high schools in the community on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays. These dedicated volunteers begin teaching children with no table tennis experience the basics and help them master advanced skills, too. Parents and coaches share the pleasure of attending special tournaments to see how much the children's skills have improved.