The Foundation spent ¥24.3 billion on charitable work in the year to 31 March 2026, its highest ever, according to its annual report published today.
Dividends from Kiroshi Opticals, in which the Foundation holds 23.8% of the shares, paid for 81% of that spending. In her letter, the chair, Kiroshi Reiko, writes that much of the company’s growth came from its Professional Systems division, which serves security and defence customers, and that the Foundation’s grants are paid for in part by that business.
The report also changes how the Foundation reports cataract outcomes. For the first time, the programme quality team traced a sample of patients who missed their follow-up visit and measured their sight at home. They had done less well than those who returned, and the Foundation now reports the share of good outcomes as a range of 72% to 78%, rather than the 78.4% recorded among patients who were followed up.
The report includes a section on what went wrong, including a grant ended for fraud and two independent studies that found the Foundation’s effect smaller than it had claimed. It is available on the annual report page.