●●● high
There is no confirmed −; independently verified + decide the position (B). No unreachable strike-through.= non-additive meter
Borderless Japan: A pure-play “social business” company that makes only solving social problems its business. At 19, Kazunari Taguchi was riveted by a documentary about an African child with a belly swollen from malnutrition, and resolved that “this is worth staking my life on.” Told by an NGO worker that “if you really want to change society, it's better to be able to control money yourself,” he decided to solve social problems through business, and in 2007, at 25, founded Borderless Japan. It works only on “businesses that solve social problems = social business”: poverty, environment, refugees, depopulation, and more. Coming to believe that society changes faster by “supporting people who start up” than by starting up himself, he turned it into a platform for social entrepreneurs. It built a “pay-it-forward” ecosystem in which funded entrepreneurs, after turning profitable, return part of their sales, which becomes seed money for the next founder. Today over 50 businesses operate in 13–14 countries, and without relying on grants, group sales have passed ¥10 billion. The letter is B; certainty is high. (As of 2026-Q2; estimate based on public information.)
Main narrative
At 19, Kazunari Taguchi was riveted by a documentary about an African child with a belly swollen from malnutrition, and resolved that “this is worth staking my life on.” Told by an NGO worker that “if you really want to change society, it's better to be able to control money yourself,” he decided to solve social problems through business, and in 2007, at 25, founded Borderless Japan.
It works only on “businesses that solve social problems = social business”: poverty, environment, refugees, depopulation, and more. Coming to believe that society changes faster by “supporting people who start up” than by starting up himself, he turned it into a platform for social entrepreneurs. It built a “pay-it-forward” ecosystem in which funded entrepreneurs, after turning profitable, return part of their sales, which becomes seed money for the next founder. Today over 50 businesses operate in 13–14 countries, and without relying on grants, group sales have passed ¥10 billion.
One person’s story (N1)
+ before → after
Linlay village in Myanmar had long suffered from heavy pesticide use in cigar-tobacco cultivation. Borderless's organic herbal-tea business “AMOMA” switched this village to fair trade (trading at fair prices) and came to support the livelihoods of about 400 poor farming households. “Not ‘buy it because it's pitiful' but ‘buy it because it's a good product'” — that is how Taguchi insists on selling.
Source nature: シゴトゴト / P3 trade media. Positive effects are not used to offset negatives.
Positive / negative effects
+ effects
- Kazunari Taguchi was selected for Nikkei Business's “50 Japanese Who Move the World,” Forbes JAPAN's “35 Impact Entrepreneurs of Japan” (3rd CSA Award), and EY's “Entrepreneur of the Year Japan.”P1 cert/award/academic/international body / Forbes JAPAN ほか
− effects (confirmed)
- No confirmed −.
Nothing of note at present.
A second look
Whether the effect on protected stakeholders of each of the 50-plus businesses under it is independently verified individually (see each business's page).
Sources
How to read this assessment
- Reachable upper bound (ceiling): a confirmed − sets the ceiling, and independently verified + decide the position within it. + do not cancel out −.
- The weight of evidence is not symmetric: only confirmed − are counted; the volume of disputes or allegations goes under “Watching.” + are counted from independent evidence, while an organization’s own PR is treated as “reference.”
- Size is not value: scale is not used in the assessment. Matters that stay within money or competition—investors, shareholders, sanctions, trade secrets—are also excluded.
- The letter (assessment) and certainty (how reliable the information is) are separate axes.
This is a translation; the Japanese version is authoritative. The assessments here are generated automatically by AI based on published criteria. The operator does not alter individual results. Because they are AI-generated they may contain errors, and they are opinion and commentary, not statements of fact. Where evidence is insufficient, the entry is marked “On hold.” Requests for correction are accepted via the form.
Terms: Narrative Value = an assessment (A–G) of the distance between the story an organization tells and its reality / Ceiling meter = a visualization of the reachable upper bound / Watching = unconfirmed matters not counted / Protected stakeholders = people, animals, nature, and future generations. | Generated by: AI | As of: 2026-Q2 | Back to top