At Mizuho, we define our social contribution as corporate activities that address social issues but do not directly lead to business in the short term. Based on this, we have established policies for social contribution initiatives and are undertaking such initiatives as a unified group.

• We position social contribution initiatives as important initiatives for creating social value and contributing to a brighter future, and we are committed to promoting these activities.
• By leveraging our expertise and resources as a comprehensive financial group and by supporting the initiatives of employees looking to give back to our communities, we work as one with our clients, the economy, society, and our employees to take on social issues.
• We proactively disclose information about Mizuho’s corporate stance and actual activities related to social contribution. Through dialogue with stakeholders, we also foster close communication with the public, ensure our initiatives meet social expectations and norms, and pursue continuous improvement.

Our initiatives

We implement initiatives grounded in Mizuho’s six materiality areas (priority issues).
In particular, we focus on financial and economic education, children and young adults, and underserved communities.

About our materiality areas

We define our materiality areas as areas that include medium- to long-term priority issues for the sustainable growth and development of Mizuho, our clients, our employees, the economy, society, and other stakeholders.

Key initiatives

Children and young adults / other assistance

Activities by employees

Disaster relief and recovery

Social Contributions

• Children and young adults / other assistance
• Activities by Executives and Employees
• Relief for Disaster Victims

We are implementing a wide range of efforts to improve financial literacy and career readiness in countries around the world.

For example,
- Offering workplace experience field trips and financial classes to local schools- Delivering lectures on finance and economics at universities
- Leading financial and economic education workshops for underserved youth and adults
- Offering summer school and internship programs

Example from the Americas

Each year, Mizuho Americas offers financial education “FinEd” workshops in New York, in which our employees volunteer to teach underserved youth and adults. This initiative was launched to build awareness of Mizuho's local and global commitment to financial education and to enable more Mizuho colleagues to serve as FinEd volunteers.

Activities in Japan

Elementary and secondary education

Joint project with Tokyo Gakugei University

As a joint project with Tokyo Gakugei University, we have developed tools and methods for financial education, and used these outputs to educate elementary and secondary school students.

Children's Summer School

We host Children's Summer School at Mizuho Bank branches and other venues throughout Japan, giving children opportunities to learn about the roles of money, securities, and banks through on-site tours, classes, group work, and other activities.

Workplace experience programs and school visits by employees

As part of our educational contribution, Mizuho provides opportunities at our branches nationwide for students to experience actual workplaces and learn about money, how the financial industry works and how it relates to our daily life. Moreover, each group company's employees visit schools and teach finance in classes as guest instructors.

Higher education

We continue to fund and support lectures and courses at universities with the aim of cultivating the next generation of skilled financial personnel. We enlist the help of highly experienced managers from various group companies to conduct courses on banking, trust banking, securities, asset management, and think tanks, leveraging the latest hands-on financial knowledge of our employees.

In addition, we send some of these employees as lecturers upon request from universities and industrial groups to provide one-time courses on financial topics. We are working to make the content practical and timely by setting topics aligned with the latest macroeconomic and financial industry trends.

Training teaching staff

With the aim of spreading financial education across the educational front lines, we implement a range of initiatives focused on teaching staff.

Lectures held at the Faculty of Education, Tokyo Gakugei University

Under the aforementioned joint project, Mizuho Financial Group has been offering a course at Tokyo Gakugei University's Faculty of Education since 2007. This course targets students who wish to become school teachers and is intended to equip them with financial knowledge as they create career and life plans.

Supporting training for teaching staff

Mizuho Securities has been providing and funding lectures aimed at nurturing educators capable of teaching children a range of financial skills, including investment and life planning.

The Mizuho Foundation for the Promotion of the Sciences provides grants for high–quality research in the field of engineering to provide encouragement and support for the young people who hold Japan's future in their hands. It also runs essay competitions on themes relating to law and economics, and the winners receive study grants.

The Mizuho Scholarship Foundation provides student loans for university students and others who would otherwise be unable to continue their studies for economic reasons. In addition to an annual gathering for scholarship students, graduates, and university officials, every two months, students in Tokyo attend individual interviews to report their progress and receive advice on various matters. The Foundation aims to give many talented people an opportunity to see the world through these support activities.

The Mizuho USA Foundation, the charitable foundation of Mizuho Americas, has always focused on supporting outstanding nonprofit organizations and programs that strengthen and sustain underserved communities in New York City. Since its formation in New York on January 1st, 2003, the Foundation has made more than USD 15 million in grants for impactful programs that tackle a range of economic and societal challenges. In 2023, the Foundation announced a new grantmaking strategy targeting the intersection of technology and education, supporting innovative and effective nonprofits in New York City that help underserved young adults acquire the technical and professional skills necessary to access competitive-wage jobs. The Foundation also continued to award grants in support of our employee involvement in local communities.

2024 Highlights

FutureReady Grants

• Mizuho awarded NPower New York a three-year USD 450,000 grant to support the launch and development of the Path2Tech: Networking & Systems Administration Program, a new training and job placement initiative. NPower is a national nonprofit organization providing young adults (ages 18-26), military-connected individuals, and women from under-resourced communities with pathways to prosperity through free tech training, professional development, social support services, and job placement assistance with leading employers.
• Mizuho awarded America On Tech a one-year USD 100,000 grant for its Tech Talent Pipeline Powered by AI initiative, an effort to integrate AI across its educational curriculum, helping to ensure its students and alumni remain competitive in the future workforce. America On Tech's mission is to prepare the next generation of technology leaders from underestimated communities in New York City and other US cities.

Opportunity Grants

• The Foundation awarded a total of USD 360,000 in general operating support for ten nonprofits engaged in technology training and job placement in New York City.

Community Involvement Grants

• The Foundation contributed a total of USD 194,225 to 18 nonprofit organizations with which our employees volunteered in the United States.

Total 2024 grant commitments: USD 1,104,225

Visit the Mizuho USA Foundation website for the guidelines of the Mizuho USA Foundation.

Case

Genesys Works is a nonprofit organization that creates career opportunities and pathways for young people in underserved communities. Mizuho Americas has supported Genesys Works New York City since its launch in 2019, and to date has provided 34 high school and college students with internships at our New York City and Chicago offices, and USD 300,000 in philanthropic support. Mizuho also offers employee volunteer workshops with the students on professional skills development.

A fund to support the education of young students who plan to work in China's financial industry. This fund was founded in 1995 in cooperation with the China Institute of Finance (now, University of International Business and Economics). The resources of this fund are used to hold seminars on finance and economics.

To support basic education in China, Mizuho Bank established the Mizuho Incentive Fund in fiscal 2006 for three schools: the junior high schools affiliated with Renmin University of China, Peking University, and Tsinghua University.

A fund to primarily provide support in the areas of education, medicine, and social welfare.

Mizuho Forest Project

Through the Mizuho Forest Project, Mizuho is committed to regenerating the coastal disaster prevention forest in Fukushima Prefecture, which was heavily damaged by the tsunami. In April 2013, Mizuho signed an agreement with Fukushima Prefecture, Iwaki City, and the owner of a local disaster prevention forest to work on regenerating 1.3 hectares of forest for coastal disaster prevention in Iwaki City by March 2022. As of March 2016, we had carried out tree–planting activities three times, during which a total of about 400 Mizuho employees together with local officials and residents planted around 14,000 Japanese black pine seedlings.

In 2024, with the cooperation of local government officials, bank employees at Mizuho's Iwaki branch carried out underbrush cutting.