Nessu Adds Asahikawa City's Long-Life Milk Project to "Kodomo Furusato Bin" for Children's Support via Furusato Nozei

Nessu Co., Ltd. (Head Office: Setagaya Ward, Tokyo; Representative Director: Yuki Kido; hereinafter "Nessu"), which is working to create a system that delivers hope and opportunities to children with the aim of realizing a society where all children can face the future fairly, is developing "Kodomo Furusato Bin." This initiative utilizes Furusato Nozei (hometown tax donation) to deliver local specialty products and experiences as "support items" to children's cafeterias, single-parent households, and children facing serious illnesses.

Donors can participate in children's support while receiving return gifts, similar to regular Furusato Nozei, and contribute to solving the social issue of "children's opportunity disparity" without any additional burden.

On July 1, 2026 (Wed), "Kodomo Furusato Bin" released "We want to deliver delicious long-life milk made from Hokkaido raw milk from Asahikawa" as a new project on its official website.

Through this project, Nessu will promote the resolution of children's nutritional issues and the sustainable development of agriculture and dairy farming, which are key regional industries.

Project Details: https://kodomo-furusato.com/projects/2026asahikawa-milk

Project Overview

Asahikawa City, Hokkaido, will implement an initiative to deliver long-life milk manufactured at a local factory to children's cafeterias and single-parent households nationwide, utilizing Furusato Nozei donations from corporations and individuals.

Milk is a food that contains essential nutrients for children's growth, such as protein, calcium, and vitamin B2, in a balanced manner. In particular, long-life milk, while retaining these nutrients, can be stored at room temperature for extended periods due to special sterilization technology and packaging, giving it excellent characteristics for distribution and storage.

On the other hand, survey results indicate that the recognition of long-life milk in Japan remains in the low teens, with a survey by Nippon Tetra Pak showing that only about 12% of respondents "fully understand its contents," indicating that it is not sufficiently widespread.

This project aims to leverage the characteristics of long-life milk, which is easy to use in food support settings, to stably deliver nutritious milk to children, while also increasing awareness of long-life milk, creating demand for raw milk, and promoting the dairy industry.

Why Deliver Milk?

1 Challenges in Dairy Farming: Surplus Milk at Certain Times

Dairy farming requires continuous milking of cows daily, making it impossible to flexibly adjust raw milk production volume. On the other hand, demand for milk fluctuates seasonally, and consumption decreases, especially during long school breaks when school lunches are suspended, making it difficult to maintain supply-demand balance.

To adjust supply and demand, raw milk is sometimes processed into skim milk powder, but in recent years, demand has not kept pace, and an oversupply of skim milk powder has also become an issue.

2 Children's Nutritional Challenges: Malnutrition During Long Breaks

The need for food support is increasing due to the impact of rising prices. In particular, survey results show an increase in the proportion of children whose meals are reduced to two or fewer per day during long breaks when school lunches are not provided, raising concerns about malnutrition (※). Due to the impact of rising prices, more households are unable to afford milk, and many children do not consume nutritious milk during long breaks.

3 Challenges in Milk-Based Food Support: Difficulty in Temperature and Expiration Date Management

While milk is a nutritious food, it requires refrigeration and has a short expiration date, posing limitations on its provision to children's cafeterias and other food support initiatives. Food support sites often operate in environments where refrigerated transport and storage are difficult, and because activities are not frequent, there can be a significant time lag between the provision of donated goods and their utilization, making expiration date management challenging.

The Option of Long-Life Milk

Long-life milk is effective in addressing these challenges in dairy farming and children's nutrition, and it also enhances its potential for use in food support settings.

Long-life milk has the following features:

- Can be stored at room temperature for extended periods, reducing storage burden. - Does not require refrigerated transport, reducing transportation burden. - Nutritional value is the same as regular milk.

Therefore, it can contribute to supply-demand adjustment through effective utilization of raw milk and stably deliver nutritious food to families and children in need. Long-life milk is expected to be a new system that connects solutions to dairy farming challenges with the enhancement of food support.

Significance of Asahikawa City's Initiative

Asahikawa City is one of Hokkaido's leading agricultural regions, producing a diverse range of agricultural and livestock products, including rice, vegetables, fruits, and livestock. Furthermore, it promotes "resource-recycling agriculture" in collaboration with dairy farming and agriculture, where compost derived from dairy farming plays a crucial role in supporting regional agriculture.

Additionally, the city is home to a factory of "Kumiai Nyugyo," one of Japan's leading facilities capable of producing long-life milk, making this project a full utilization of regional resources.

This project is expected to create a virtuous cycle of increased demand for raw milk, stabilization of dairy farming management, and strengthening of the agricultural base.

Use of Donations

Donations will be used for the following expenses:

- Purchase cost of long-life milk - Logistics costs - Consignment fees - Project public relations costs

Donations received will be carefully utilized to deliver milk manufactured in Asahikawa City to children.

About Asahikawa City, Hokkaido

Located in the central part of Hokkaido, Asahikawa City is a region rich in nature, surrounded by the Daisetsuzan mountain range. Taking advantage of the climate with significant temperature differences, the city produces highly acclaimed rice varieties such as "Nanatsuboshi" and "Yumepirika," as well as various agricultural and livestock products. Dairy farming, in particular, is one of the region's important industries, and this project leverages these regional resources.

Furthermore, the city promotes environmentally friendly and sustainable agriculture and actively engages in initiatives to shorten the distance between producers and consumers.

About "Kodomo Furusato Bin"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2R3PpCaRPW0

"Kodomo Furusato Bin" is a system that utilizes Furusato Nozei to deliver local specialty products and experiences as "support items" to children's cafeterias, single-parent households, and children facing serious illnesses. Donors can participate in children's support while receiving return gifts, similar to regular Furusato Nozei.

Furthermore, donors can choose the recipients of the "support items" from regions and organizations, allowing for donations through Furusato Nozei that express the sentiment of "who they want to support and how" – a "purpose-aligned" Furusato Nozei.

Official Website: https://kodomo-furusato.com/

※ Survey on the Meal Situation of Children in Single-Parent Households During Long School Breaks conducted by Certified NPO Good Neighbors Japan (conducted in March 2024)

Company Overview

Company Name: Nessu Co., Ltd. Representative Director: Yuki Kido Established: June 10, 2022 Location: 4-44-4 Daizawa, Setagaya Ward, Tokyo 155-0032 URL: https://nessu.co.jp/

Business Overview: Nessu is a startup aiming to realize "a society where all children can face the future fairly" by creating systems that deliver hope and opportunities to children. The company operates businesses such as the "Regional Revitalization Project (Kodomo Furusato Bin)," which uses Furusato Nozei to deliver local products and experiences to children's cafeterias and single-parent households; the "Food and Child-Rearing Support Project," which connects unused food to support for households and organizations in need; and the "Circular Design Lab," which circulates and utilizes waste resources as materials.