Outline of SBRC

Dr. Muhammad Yunus, the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate, is the founder of Grameen Bank which provides small, unsecured loans to the poor in Bangladesh. Dr. Yunus is also an advocate and practitioner of social business. Kyushu University concluded an exchange agreement with the Grameen Group in 2007 and established Yunus & Shiiki Social Business Research Center (SBRC) in 2011. As the very first Yunus Center in Japan, SBRC promotes social business in cooperation with various organizations and companies, both in Japan and overseas.
 
Dr. Muhammad YUNUS
 
ムハマド・ユヌス博士 Born in Chittagong, Bangladesh in 1940. Dr. Yunus received his Ph.D in Economics, Vanderbilt University, U.S.A. in 1970 and returned to Bangladesh in 1972 to become Head of the Department of Economics, Chittagong University, Bangladesh.
In 1974, witnessing the poor suffering from the devastating famine in the country, he started working on activities to eradicate poverty. In 1983, he established Grameen Bank, which provides unsecured microloans (microcredit) to the poor. Under Dr. Yunus's core philosophy of Grameen Bank, "a credit system for the poor requires neither mortgages nor collateral" the bank supported the independence of the poor in rural areas and provided small loans to the self-employed, particularly to poor women, making a significant contribution to alleviate poverty in Bangladesh. In recognition of his achievements, Dr. Yunus received the Grand Prize of the Fukuoka Asian Culture Prize 2001 (12th) (Japan) and the Nobel Peace Prize (Norway) in 2006 (with Grameen Bank). In addition, he has received more than 100 awards from around the world, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award (Philippines) known as the "Nobel Prize of Asia", Presidential Medal of Freedom (U.S.A.), U.S. Congressional Gold Medal (U.S.A.), World Food Prize (U.S.A.), Nikkei Asia Prize (Japan), and more than 40 honorable titles (honorary doctorates, etc.) from universities around the world.
Eradicating poverty by using business methods, Dr. Yunus runs more than 50 Grameen group companies (the Grameen Family) to solve a lot of social issues in areas such as education, medical care, energy, information and communications. He develops and promotes social businesses in Bangladesh, by stimulating local industries, spreading communications technologies, and using renewable energy. He also engages in social business on a daily basis in partnership with the United Nations, multinational corporations, and universities around the world.
 
 
 
 
Mr. Masakazu SHIIKI
 
椎木正和氏

*Mr. Shiiki's photo courtesy by Fukuoka Keizai, Vol. 210, February 2006
Born in Yukuhashi City, Fukuoka Prefecture in 1928, Mr.Shiiki founded Sanyo Shoji Co., Ltd. in Kokura City (currently Kokura Kita-ku, Kitakyushu City), Fukuoka Prefecture in October 1959.
In June 1972, he changed the company name to Sanyo Shinpan Co., Ltd., and served as its president and chairman. In addition to the company's business activities, he continued to support classical music by holding free classical concerts once a month in the lobby of the headquarters building, featuring mainly chamber music performed by members of the Kyushu
Symphony Orchestra (offering other support to them as well), and inviting parents and children to offer "Shiiki Seats" at Music Festival Argerich's Meeting Point in Beppu.
When he was in his twenties, his life was saved by a newly developed medical technology, so he also contributed to Kyushu University Hospital, Japanese Red Cross Fukuoka Hospital, and others for the development of medical technology.
Targeting Asian students, he funded "Shiiki Masakazu Memorial Scholarship for Asian Student" to further contribution to the local community.
Mr. Shiiki knew of and respected Dr. Yunus and his activities even before he won the Nobel Peace Prize. He was an eager proponent of Kyushu University's agreement with Dr. Yunus's
Grameen Group to study and promote Yunus social business, and donated funds to support it. This led to the establishment of Yunus & Shiiki Social Business Research Center (SBRC), the
first social business research center in Japan.
SBRC would like to express our deepest gratitude to Mr. Shiiki for his outstanding contributions to the activities of Dr. Yunus and Kyushu University.
 
 
 
SBRC logo
 
 
The SBRC logo was created by a chance encounter with an artist named Mr. Naoyuki Omine. He belongs to Kobo Maru, a welfare service office for people with disabilities, in Fukuoka City.
In 2011, we asked Kobo Maru, which is famous for artistic creativity, to draw wall paintings for Grameen Creative House (GCH) at Hakozaki Campus, Kyushu University. We invited Kobo Maru’s artists to create space to stimulate gathering people’ s sensitivity by artistic paintings. Later, Mr. Omine’s paintings caught the eye of SBRC executive director. He suggested Mr. Omine for the painting theme "Yin-Yang and the five elements". Inspired by the advice, Mr. Omine created his new work with the images of wood, fire, soil, gold and water, which led to a new wall painting in GCH. Then we decided to ask Mr. Omine to produce SBRC logo with arranging more to his original wall painting.
With a tight one-month deadline, it seemed to have been more difficult than expected to arrange the original work. In the middle of the process, Mr. Omine was unable to make any progress under such pressure, and was so worried that he could not eat. Despite this, he persevered and continued to carefully create the new design, searching for an image that would satisfy himself, finally coming up with our current logo.
 
 
Profile of Mr. Naoyuki OMINE
Born in 1977 in Fukuoka City, At the age of 20, Mr. Omine started painting on his own, and vigorously created works with a magical style. The sharp lines of the black magic-marker are created by channeling the involuntary and forceful movements caused by his condition. His controlling delicate movement of tip of the brush with full force is outstanding, but often causes bruises on his upper arm. The images that emerge on the paper are breathtaking.
 
 

 
 
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