The Suntory Group's 7 Sustainability Themes 05 Health

We believe that as a consumer-oriented company, it is important to support the pursuit of a balanced lifestyle both in body and mind. Our consumers have different needs and preferences at different life stages, and through our diverse business activities, the Suntory Group will support consumer wellness at each of those stages. By offering choice in products, services and experiences through our soft drinks, health foods, alcohol and other businesses, as well as by innovating in relevant fields, we will support the wellbeing and balanced lifestyles of our consumers.

Social Awareness

Contributing to solving world health issues through products and services

There are a variety of health issues affecting the global population. For example, a 2017 indicated that one in eight adults aged 18 years and older were obese; in 2010 the World Health Organization (WHO) adopted the Global strategy to reduce harmful use of alcohol to address the risk factors thereof; and by 2045, the number of elderly people in the world is expected to exceed the number of children due to an aging global population. While these examples are varied, each one is an issue Suntory seeks to address through its products and services. Suntory strives to prevent alcohol-related issues and raise awareness of responsible drinking in order to contribute to healthy living. Furthermore, through continuous research and development led in Japan, we aim to provide Natural and Healthy beverages as well as health foods to support wellness, with a goal of contributing to the realization of a healthy society where people are healthy in mind and body.

Contributing to the SDGs

Our Approach

  1. Alcoholic beverages

    As a provider of alcoholic beverages including beer, wine and spirits, Suntory seeks to inspire human connections and to celebrate the milestones of our lives. To this end, we are committed to promoting the moderate consumption of our products and encouraging responsible choices surrounding alcohol. With our Drink Smart alcohol responsibility program as a core, we work both within the Suntory Group and in partnership with industry peers and other partners to reduce harmful consumption of alcohol, including overconsumption, driving under the influence, underage drinking, and drinking during and after pregnancy. We also offer non-alcoholic and low-alcohol products to meet customer preferences and support healthy lifestyles.
    Responsible Consumption - Suntory Group's Principle and Course of Action

  2. Soft drinks

    In addition to leveraging Japan-led research on and development of “Natural and Healthy” beverages, we address health and wellness concerns through our beverages to allow consumers to make positive choices in pursuit of a natural, healthy, convenient and rich lifestyle.
    Health Policy

  3. Health foods

    In order to contribute to a longer active life, we research the relationship between "the power of nature" and health to support people's health, beauty, and wellness through daily dietary habits.

Our Initiatives

Development of products that respond to the needs of health-conscious consumers

In order to respond to the needs of health-conscious consumers, Suntory Group promotes the development of food for specified health uses (FOSHU), functional RTD beverages, and health foods based on research.

  1. Alcoholic beverages

    In addition to raising awareness regarding responsible drinking, the Suntory Group is striving to promote low-alcohol and non-alcoholic drinks for a broad range of adult consumers of legal drinking age to enjoy without worrying about the effects of alcohol. In 2010, we launched "All Free" and in 2011 "Non-aru-kibun", pioneering the creation of a market for non-alcoholic beverages with an alcohol content of 0.00%. In recent years, we have expanded our product lineup with the release of "All Free for Your Body," a food with functional claims that responds to growing health consciousness, "Non-aru-banshaku Lemon Sour Non-alcoholic," a lemon sour-flavored beverage, and "Non-alu-de-wine-no-kyujitsu," a new wine-flavored non-alcoholic beverage.

  2. Soft drinks

    Suntory provides various beverages categorized as food for specified health uses (FOSHU) due to their various positive health effects. For example, Kuro Oolong Tea OTPP was developed based on research results to apply prevention of fat absorption in polymerized polyphenols of oolong tea characteristics; Sesame Barley Tea is suitable for people with high blood pressure; Pepsi Special prevents fat absorption; and Tokucha (FOSHU Iyemon) is the world's first drink to clarify the lipolytic action of quercetin glycoside. While contributing to the health of our customers with a variety of lineups such as Iyemon Plus, a ready-to-drink (RTD) product which has the ability to lower bad cholesterol (LDL), we also ensure that a high quality of taste is maintained and will continue research to deliver products that are both healthy and delicious. In addition, utilizing knowledge for developing sugar-free beverages such as tea and water and low-sugar beverages, knowledge cultivated for many years in Japan, we are expanding our natural and healthy beverage portfolio and actively promoting the use of less sugar in soft drinks globally.

  3. Health foods

    At Suntory Wellness, in order to help provide each and every customer with a "healthy, beautiful, and enriched daily life," we search for ingredients that are good for health and scientifically verify how to make the most of them. In the mid-1980s, we took on the challenge of analyzing the functionality of sesame that has been praised for its health benefits and scientifically investigating the health effectiveness of sesamin, which is one minor component of sesame lignan that is part of sesame. This was commercialized as our first health food in 1993. Thereafter, we released Sesamin EX, a more powerful version of the product, based on a combination with vitamin E, tocotrienol, Oriza Plus, which is a component derived from brown rice.

Development of SUNTORY+, a service to support health management of companies

Suntory Beverage & Food Ltd. launched the "100 Year Life Project" in 2018 with the hope of being a company that supports people to lead healthy, optimistic lives, and to find the power to be themselves. We are also promoting joint research with external dedicated agencies; developing and strengthening of our product portfolio of beverages that address lifestyle diseases; providing services to improve lifestyle habits; and engaging in various other health-related initiatives.
As a service to improve lifestyle habits, we developed SUNTORY+, a free app that supports health management within companies by encouraging the individual development of healthy habits for employees. It has a large number of points of contact with vending machines at work, a drink portfolio by issue, such as sugar measures, blood pressure measures, cholesterol measures, body fat measures, and daily drinks. It makes use of communication methods that capture consumer insights accumulated during development. We will strive to support the health of our customers even when they reach 100 years old.

Supporting Diversifying Lifestyles

There are over two million customers that enjoy Suntory Wellness products throughout Japan. As people age, their lifestyles diversifies based on their health conditions, living conditions, and motivations. To closely support each customer, we aim to offer specific and personalized products, services and programs through the life stages and help good aging through utilizing latest digital technologies.
We also strive to create motivation for customers and contribute in creating a community that encourages emotional bonds and happiness through projects such as Be Supporters! based on the concept of “from supported to a supporter,” this project aims to encourage elderly and people with dementia that are often “supported” to “supporter” of soccer clubs and “support” the club and local community.