Change Log

Added small icon links to our X account (@narrativevalue) and note in the footer of every page.

Redirects from legacy URLs (with .html) to current URLs (extensionless) are now permanent (301) instead of temporary (307), helping search engines recognize each page's canonical URL faster and more reliably. We also excluded the internal contact API (/api/) from search-engine crawling.

We added 10 more listed companies, including themes we had covered less: education, water treatment and circularity (metal / e-waste / hazardous waste / packaging): Vestas (Denmark, wind), NIBE (Sweden, heat pumps), Befesa (Luxembourg, hazardous-waste recycling), Duolingo (US, free language learning), Nubank (Brazil, financial inclusion), Kurita Water Industries (Japan, water treatment), ReNew (India, renewables), Mercury NZ (NZ, 100% renewable), Sims Limited (Australia, metal & e-waste recycling) and SIG Group (Switzerland, cartons) (Japanese and English).

We added 15 more listed companies, balancing regions (Latin America, the Middle East, Europe, North America, Oceania, East/Southeast Asia) and themes (financial inclusion, medicine access, nutrition, efficient lighting, wood & renewable materials, HVAC decarbonization, circular economy incl. waste-to-value and reuse, rare disease, respiratory care, diagnostics, hygiene & elder care, sustainable finance): Credicorp (Yape), Jamjoom Pharma, Grupo Nutresa, Signify, dsm-firmenich, Sonova, Stora Enso, Trane Technologies, Darling Ingredients, CSL, Fisher & Paykel Healthcare, Brambles, Sysmex, Unicharm and DBS (Japanese and English).

We added 4 more listed companies (filling regions/themes): Biocon (India, affordable insulin & biosimilars), Tabreed (UAE, energy-efficient district cooling), Airtel Africa (Africa, mobile money & connectivity) and Serena Energia (Brazil, 100% renewable power) (Japanese and English).

We added 20 more listed companies, balancing regions (South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia) and themes (medicines, cancer care, chronic care, water & hygiene, sustainable materials & forestry, energy efficiency, housing, education, nutrition, financial inclusion): Dr. Reddy's, ACWA Power, Fawry, Vodacom, Clicks, WEG, Klabin, Bancolombia, Schneider Electric, Elekta, UPM, Coloplast, Interface, Ecolab, BRI, Vinamilk, FPT, OMRON, Sekisui House and Grupo Bimbo (Japanese and English).

We added 10 more listed companies, filling thin regions (South Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia) and newer themes such as water, diagnostics, hearing, biosolutions, neglected tropical diseases and school meals: Vaibhav Global, MercadoLibre, ENGIE Brasil, Xylem, Integrated Diagnostics, Cochlear, Novonesis, Halma, ACEN and Eisai (Japanese and English).

We added 10 listed companies, chosen to balance previously thin regions (South Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Oceania) and themes such as access to medicines, financial inclusion, renewable energy and the circular economy: Cipla, Hikma, Safaricom, Equity Group, Australian Ethical, Meridian Energy, Ørsted, TOMRA, First Solar and Delta Electronics (Japanese and English).

When accessed via the 'www' hostname (www.narrativevalue.org), the site now redirects (301) to the canonical non-www address (narrativevalue.org). Nothing visible to readers changes (this consolidates URLs for search engines).

For search engines, we aligned internal links, canonical URLs and the sitemap to the address the server actually serves (without the trailing .html). Previously the declared canonical used .html while the server redirected .html to the extensionless URL — a mismatch Google treated as duplicate/redirect. Nothing visible to readers changed.

We fixed the links on the organization cards on the English home page. Previously clicking an English card opened the Japanese page; it now correctly opens the English page.

We fixed a display bug in the 'Watching' section on the English pages. On some pages (196), the watch items were being shown as one bullet per character; they now render correctly as one bullet per item. The content itself is unchanged and matches the Japanese pages.

We improved internal settings for search engines. We added canonical-URL and language (hreflang) tags to the top pages (Japanese and English) so the same content is not treated as duplicated across multiple URLs. Nothing visible to readers changed.

We added a 'Frequently asked questions (FAQ)' page (Japanese and English). It explains, using familiar terms, how Narrative Value differs from and complements existing metric databases for ESG, intangible assets, human capital and social impact. It includes structured data (FAQ) so search engines and AI can understand the content more easily. It is linked from the top of every page and from the policy pages.

We reviewed our terminology. (1) We unified the word for the framing an organization presents about itself from 'story' to 'narrative' (a single lived account — the N1 — is still called a 'story'). (2) In keeping with this being a mirror, not a ranking, we replaced the Japanese word for 'assessment' (評価) with gentler terms — 'a reading' (見立て) or 'current position' (現在地) — depending on context. The letter name 'Narrative Value' and 'On hold' are unchanged. On the English pages we unified the framing word from 'story' to 'narrative' and kept 'assessment.'

To match the site's concept name, we unified the phrase 'value money cannot measure,' which remained in a few places, to 'value beyond numbers' (the meaning is unchanged; this is a more accurate wording).

We have finished preparing an English version for every published organization page. Every organization readable in Japanese is now also readable in English (366 English pages, matching the Japanese pages one-to-one). You can switch between them from the language toggle at the top right of each page.

For readability, we removed the explicit words 'before' and 'after' that had been written into the 'single story (N1)' and analysis text on organization pages. The change is now conveyed naturally by context; the content is unchanged (Japanese and English).

We unpublished the pages of six organizations (BYJU'S, eFishery, Gawad Kalinga, Sama, Papa, San Patrignano); they no longer appear on the site (the assessment data is retained internally).

We unpublished the Oxfam GB page, and it no longer appears on the site (the assessment data is retained internally).

In line with the assessment's basic principle (the mainline narrative and the single story (N1) describe positive effects, while negatives, distance and watch items belong in separate fields), we tidied some organization pages so that mentions of negatives, watch items and caveats that had crept into the mainline narrative or N1 are moved to their proper 'Questioning,' 'Watching' and 'ceiling' fields. The content itself is preserved; only its placement was corrected (30 organizations; Japanese and English).

As an overall finish, we unified notation and fixed display issues: translated Japanese that remained on English pages (country, region, category and letter labels, etc.), unified region categories, removed internal notes that had slipped into the listing cards' descriptions, adjusted the display of aggregated sources that have no single URL, and finalized the dates on the Disclaimer and Privacy Policy. The assessment texts themselves were not changed.

To expand coverage, we added Japanese pages for 168 candidate organizations (373 organizations total). Each organization's content was reviewed recently (June–July 2026). English pages will be added progressively.

To make this change log easier to read, we added category filtering (six types: feature added / removed / changed, and organization added / removed / updated). Click a chip at the top to show only that type of change.

To improve transparency, we created this Change Log page (Japanese/English). From now on, additions, edits and deletions are recorded here with the date, type, reason, target and section.

On the home page, the free-word search box was hidden behind the fixed top bar when scrolling, so we fixed it: the search box and filters now stay just below the fixed bar and remain visible (home; Japanese/English).

For consistency of region categories, we consolidated groupings that were uneven as geographic divisions. 'Other Asia' (Korea and others) and 'Greater China' (Taiwan) were merged into 'East & Southeast Asia,' and a standalone 'India' entry was merged into 'South Asia' (region labels on every page and the region filter on the home page).

To expand coverage, we added Japanese/English pages for 10 candidate organizations (Duofu, WIRobotics, Testworks, Dot Incorporation, Better Milk, Donggubat, OurCityLove, Todoworks, PackAge+, Doson Company) (205 organizations total). Before adding, we checked each one's current status (leadership, continuity, policy changes).

Also to expand coverage, we added Japanese/English pages for 10 candidate organizations (AmaliTech, Banqer, Bear Better, Brighte, Exuus, GoodDot, Hireup, Mamotest, Stellapps, Tree Planet) (195 organizations total).

Some English pages still showed Korean text (e.g. academic author names) in the sources section, so we added processing that automatically removes annotations containing Korean (sources display on English pages).

To keep information current, we re-checked the leadership and status of 32 Japanese organizations and updated five (Japanese/English): JOGGO (current president Masayuki Ota), Nakagawa Masashichi Shoten (14th-generation head Aya Sengoku), Spiber (added its late-2025 funding difficulty, 2026 private restructuring and business transfer to CRANE; placed on watch), Smiles (2023 president Wataru Nozaki), Grameen Nippon (2025 chair Kimihiro Momono).

To improve navigation, we changed the header on organization pages and the home page into a fixed 'NARRATIVE VALUE' bar that stays in place while scrolling (it shows the current location, page title, a Japanese/English switch and a disclaimer note; clicking the logo returns to the home page).

So that the disclaimer can be read on its own, we created a standalone Disclaimer page (Japanese/English) and fixed links to it from various places.

For readability of English pages, we translated and tidied Japanese that remained in the sources section using a glossary, omitting anything untranslatable. We also shortened the bilingual summary (direct-answer) block to reduce overlap with the main text, and changed long source URLs to a 🔗 icon.

For source traceability, we identified and filled in missing source URLs through web research (including placeholders that read 'confirm and enter the source URL').

For readability by AI systems, we added an HTML fallback list of all organizations on the home page (a list that remains readable even with JavaScript disabled).

To expand coverage, we added 50 candidate organizations (from 135 to 185 organizations; published in Japanese/English after checking each one's current status).

To accept corrections and rebuttals, we brought the contact form into production (submissions are notified to the operator; your text is never published).

We acquired and connected the custom domain narrativevalue.org and published the site (on Cloudflare).