In recent years, rapid climate change has contributed to a number of natural disasters and COVID-19 has upended conventional wisdom, ushering in conditions that many accept as a new normal. Now more than ever people recognize the need to come together and help each other overcome problems of the modern age. Understanding of the needs of people with disabilities is as important now as it’s ever been. Exemplifying this, Yokohama-based company Chocolabo is dedicated to a forward-thinking, diverse workplace that proactively incorporates the skills of this underutilized segment of our society.
The president of the company, Noriyuki Ito, now in his mid-50s, became the father to a son with a disability when he was in his late 20s. Soon after his child enrolled in a special-needs school with a twelve-year program, discussions with a guidance counselor there had him thinking well into the future. The reality of what people with disabilities face when eventually seeking employment and the difficulties that his son would need to overcome in the workforce became evident to him. When he learned that the monthly wage was only much lower than that of other workers, he felt that something absolutely had to change. He decided to take action and has expended an enormous amount of energy to effect that change. Discussing his views, he asserts, “The past cannot be altered. The only thing I can do is improve myself personally and work toward a better future.” At the age of 36 he decided to leave behind his job as a bank employee. Instead of the work-obsessed life he had been leading, he prioritized spending time with his children while learning about entrepreneurship with an eye to the future. He took a better-paying job at a foreign-affiliated company in order to accumulate savings so he could launch his own business when the timing was right.
Driven by a deep love for his son and, at the same time, anxiety about the future, he was determined to change the status quo. Ito launched Chocolabo in 2012. The name of the company derives from a combination of “chocolate”, “laboratory”, and “collaboration”. The aim was to highlight collaboration between people with disabilities and those without. All of the employees accept that it’s quite normal for each of them to be different in some way. Backing this concept, Ito has surrounded himself with a variety of business professionals who have diverse backgrounds and express a desire “to draw upon the knowledge they have personally acquired to give back to society in a more visible way”. These individuals lend substantial support to the Chocolabo cause.
As its name suggests, the store specializes in chocolate. Ito has invested a lot of time in researching cacao, the base ingredient for chocolate, including overseas training. The product quality is high and choosing the correct type of cacao to produce a certain flavor is important. For chocolate fans, trying to choose a product or find the right gift from the nearly endless varieties in the store is challenging and fun at the same time.
After visiting the shop, we were permitted to observe the chocolate production process on the shop floor, and it was clear that all of the workers, regardless of having a disability or not, were equally considered professionals. All were making the most of their respective specializations, creating everything with care by hand. The manufacturing area, online sales department, and store are all in close proximity to each other, but in separate buildings. For visual learners, this eliminates the distractions presented by a large facility with every department under the same roof. Thus they can concentrate on their tasks much more efficiently.
The universal, unshakable bond between parent and child has led to Ito’s clear vision and corporate philosophy. It’s his hope to translate what he has accomplished in integrating people with disabilities in his own business into a greater understanding in society as a whole. Ito says with a smile, “I hope that one day we can realize a society where the word ‘normalization’ itself is non-existent.” We were particularly impressed by the diligently working staff at Chocolab. It was evident they enjoyed their work and clearly took pride in it. The respect all employees had for each other was also evident–a clear reflection of Ito’s vision.
Note that in April of this year Chocolabo opened a new store on the first floor of Landmark Plaza making their products more easily accessible.