Johnson & Johnson Continues Support for Hospital Facility Dog® Training

Shine On! Kids (Representative Director: Kimberly Forsyth, https://sokids.org/ja/), a certified non-profit organization supporting children with cancer and serious illnesses, has been continuously supported by Johnson & Johnson since 2021. We are pleased to report a further donation this time for the Hospital Facility Dog® training program.

Currently, our organization operates six teams of Hospital Facility Dogs® (hereinafter referred to as Facility Dogs) at five hospitals nationwide (two teams are in a six-month trial period), providing emotional support and care to children battling illness. In addition to two hospitals scheduled for introduction from fiscal year 2027 onwards, we are receiving requests for introduction from various regions across the country.

However, training Facility Dogs to work in medical settings requires highly specialized training, significant time, ongoing funding, and specialized personnel to ensure training aligns with international standards. To date, our organization has covered all expenses for Facility Dog training, including the purchase of dogs and direct training costs, through donations and grants.

Dog trainers and training managers responsible for nurturing highly specialized Facility Dogs.

Leveraging over 15 years of experience as a founding Facility Dog Handler to train successors.

Continuous donations from Johnson & Johnson enable us to secure personnel for training, which is difficult to cover with grants alone. The presence of dog trainers and training managers with high expertise and extensive experience, as well as handler leaders who train successors by leveraging over 15 years of experience as a founding Facility Dog Handler, forms the foundation of our training system.

This allows for the stable training of Facility Dogs and leads to the establishment of a sustainable training system to deliver the companionship of Hospital Facility Dogs® to hospitals nationwide wishing to introduce them in the future.

We are also supported by the team of Facility Dog "Ollie," who works at the Kanagawa Children's Medical Center. We express our sincere gratitude for this support.

Shine On! Kids will continue to work towards enhancing emotional care in pediatric medicine through Hospital Facility Dogs®.

About Johnson & Johnson

Headquartered in Racine, Wisconsin, USA, SC Johnson was founded in 1886. Johnson & Johnson (hereinafter referred to as Johnson) believes that a more sustainable, healthier, and transparent world stimulates people and creates many opportunities. Not only are we confident that such a world is achievable, but we also believe it is our responsibility to make it a reality.

It is Johnson's tradition of innovation and bold, transparent decision-making that allows our high-quality products, including iconic brands such as Scrubbing Bubbles®, Kaboom®, Windex®, Pledge®, and Glade®, to be used in homes, schools, and businesses in nearly every country around the world.

As a global, purpose-driven company, Johnson is committed to making the world a better place for today's and future generations. This means continuously addressing the world's most pressing environmental and health issues, such as reducing plastic waste and eradicating malaria, using our expertise and capabilities in science, innovation, and collaboration. Furthermore, Johnson supports providing economic and educational opportunities globally to people and communities who have limitations but possess boundless curiosity and potential. https://scjohnson.com/en

About Shine On! Kids' Hospital Facility Dogs®

These are dogs that have undergone specialized training to work as members of the medical team, being stationed full-time at hospitals. They work with handlers (nurses with clinical experience who are paired with the dogs) not only to interact with patients but also to assist in the treatment of cancer and serious illnesses.

Since 2010, they have been deployed at four hospitals: Shizuoka Children's Hospital, Kanagawa Children's Medical Center, Tokyo Metropolitan Children's Medical and General Center, and the National Center for Child Health and Development. Additionally, from April 2026, a second team was introduced at Hyogo Children's Hospital and Tokyo Metropolitan Children's Medical and General Center (currently in a trial period).

A key feature is that they work at the same hospital every day and engage in activities tailored to individual needs. They provide support during painful examinations, accompany patients to the operating room, and assist with rehabilitation. They do not make rounds to various hospitals or facilities. The fact that the same dog is always there, spending a lot of time repeatedly, provides encouragement to hospitalized children, rather than brief visits.

*Hospital Facility Dog® is a registered trademark of Certified NPO Shine On! Kids.

About Shine On! Kids

We support children with cancer and serious illnesses and their families through emotional care programs. We operate programs such as the Facility Dog Program (animal-assisted therapy), Beads of Courage Program (art-assisted therapy), Shine On! Community (support for social contribution activities and career development for childhood cancer survivors), and Shine On! Connections (providing online emotional care and learning support activities). Established in 2006, as of June 2026, we are active in 36 hospitals/facilities nationwide. http://sokids.org/ja/