Coexistence with Local Communities
Support and Sponsorship of a Wide Range of Cultural and Sporting Activities
Since its establishment in 1989, Xebec Hall has been exploring the future shape of sound by sharing information with wider society and eliciting feedback from the public as the TOA Group’s sound information transition base. The multipurpose hall, which can be used for performances and creative activities across a wide range of genres, serves as a base for our mécénat activities. In addition to the hall, we support and sponsor a wide variety of cultural and sporting organizations, including the Kobe Luminarie light festival, Kobe Marathon, Vissel Kobe Football Club, INAC Kobe Leonessa Football Club, and the Shiki Theatre Company’s “Kokoro no Gekijo” (Theater of the Heart).
Kobe Luminarie
Kobe Luminarie has been held since 1995 to commemorate the victims of the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake and express a desire for the recovery and regeneration of the city. As a company headquartered in Kobe City, TOA Group has been in charge of sound production at the event since 1996. Each year we create original music to match the theme of the lighting work. With approximately 100 speaker systems installed at the venue, we add an extra layer of brilliance to the light-up event.
The main venue is divided into five areas that connect the entrance, known as “Frontone,” to the climax at Kobe East Park, each of which is assigned its own musical composition. As you make your way through the venue, elements of stillness and movement are interwoven while the music builds into a majestic climax.
The musical production along with the installation and operation of audio equipment are handled by our group company Xebec Corporation. Xebec staff are stationed at the venue to provide support, handling emergency broadcasts where needed and fine-tuning the volume to suit the ever-changing number of visitors.
An original CD is released every year, which contains the actual musical compositions aired at the venue. As official Kobe Luminarie merchandise, the CD is available to buy at the venue (during the festival period) or via the Xebec website.
○ Kobe Luminarie website
https://www.kobe-luminarie.jp/
Kobe Marathon
The Kobe Marathon has been held since 2011. As an audio equipment manufacturer headquartered in Kobe, TOA is playing its part in the event in the area of “sound.”
Our original Horn Array Speakers are used at the start point, where more than 20,000 runners crowd together. TOA engineers adjust the sound quality of the system, which was developed for disaster prevention and offers outstanding transmission over distance, to convey the excitement of the starting ceremony to runners far away from the starting line in clear sound.
We also lend support with other parts of the event, including orchestration of roadside cheering and finish line celebrations. This vast project involves more than 150 large speakers, more than 400 megaphones, and more than 100 staff working on the sound.
For runners and spectators alike, the Kobe Marathon is a moving experience. And TOA supports this moving experience through sound. This is another area in which our desire to contribute to the revitalization of Kobe, our home, is coming to fruition.
○ Kobe Marathon website
https://www.kobe-marathon.net/
Vissel Kobe
As part of our local contribution activities, TOA supports the J.League football club Vissel Kobe. At the team’s home stadium, Noevir Stadium Kobe (formerly Kobe Wing Stadium), we provide on-field and emergency broadcast systems to add to the excitement and keep the venue secure.
Vissel Kobe was founded in 1995. Based on the three principles of “contributing to the local community through soccer,” “improving community-based soccer skills,” and “creating a world-class sports club,” Vissel Kobe aims to keep alive the “Kobe Forever Forward” spirit, which expresses a desire for the club as well as the city of Kobe and its people to never stop moving forward.
○ Vissel Kobe website
https://www.vissel-kobe.co.jp/
INAC Kobe Leonessa
Founded in Kobe in 2001, INAC Kobe Leonessa is now one of the top teams in the Japan Women’s Football League (Nadeshiko League). TOA supports Leonessa as part of our local contribution program.
Adopting the “community-based” concept, the club is nurturing future leaders of the sports community in Kobe City and Hyogo Prefecture and is engaged in international activities. Under the slogan “Kobe to the World!” Leonessa is promoting efforts to convey the fascination of sports through soccer.
○ INAC Kobe Leonessa website
https://inac-kobe.com/
Kobe Storks
Kobe Storks are Hyogo Prefecture’s first professional basketball club.
Storks K.K, the company that operate the team, is also focusing on nurturing children through basketball, through basketball and cheerleading schools for elementary and junior high school students in Hyogo Prefecture and other activities. With the philosophy of “remaining a club for 100 years,” the Kobe Storks aim to grow together with the local community.
○ Kobe Storks website
https://www.storks.jp/
“Schubertiade Tamba” Tamba no Mori International Music Festival
Schubertiade Tamba is a community-based festival with a homemade feel, held in the Tamba-Sasayama region of Hyogo Prefecture. The international music festival consists of classical music concerts held over three months, from September to November, each year, in various locations throughout the cities of Sasayama and Tamba. The name “Schubertiade” means “Schubert’s Friends,” and originates in Austria where Franz Schubert was born. Since 1995 the festival has been organized by an executive committee made up of citizens in the Tamba region. Artists from Japan and overseas are invited to perform at concerts, broadening the horizons of regional and international exchange, including hall concerts that aim to reconsider Tamba through Schubert, street-corner concerts planned and organized by residents and students from the Tamba region, and “kin-kon-kan” concerts performed on visits to kindergartens, elementary schools, junior high schools, and special support schools in the Tamba region.
TOA supplies audio equipment and provides staff and audio assistance at the concerts, promoting regional and international exchange through music-based activities in pursuit of harmony among people, nature, and culture.
○ “Schubertiade Tamba” Tamba no Mori International Music Festival website
https://www.schubertiade-tamba.jp/
Dialogue in the Dark (DID)
Dialogue in the Dark (DID) is a program where visitors experience a variety of scenes in absolute darkness, including a forest recreated by its sounds and smells, allowing them to perceive the possibilities of senses other than sight. In small groups, visitors enter a space where all light is completely shut off, exploring the space and experiencing various scenes with the support of visually-impaired guides, who are experts in the dark. Through this process, the visitors are awakened to the possibilities and comfort to be found in the various senses other than sight, and reminded of the importance of communication and the warmth of people. DID originated in Germany in 1989 as the brainchild of Andreas Heinecke, a doctor of philosophy; it has been held in about 100 cities in 25 countries around the world, and experienced by more than six million people as of 2009. Since 1999, DID has been held in Japan every year by volunteers, and about 60,000 people have gone through the experience.
TOA has endorsed the event since its inception in 1999, providing support with sound production at the venues.
○ Dialogue in the Dark (DID) website
http://www.dialoginthedark.com/