Tokyo-The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announced that, on Saturday, December 5, Yokohama Tire Philippines, Inc., the key production and sales site for passenger car tires in the Philippines, staged a second-phase tree-planting ceremony as part of Yokohama Rubber's "Yokohama Forever Forest" Project.

Yokohama Tire Philippines' tree-planting activities - part of its CSR - have drawn a lot of attention locally and been covered by local media. On the day of the event, some 900 people attended the ceremony, including employees of the company and their families, along with neighboring companies, media people, etc., and the participants planted 4,294 seedlings of twenty varieties of trees indigenous to the local area. There were also dance and musical events, and panels were displayed explaining the company's CSR and environmental activities. The first-phase tree-planting was held in August 2008, at which time about 6,000 trees were planted by 800 participants.

The "Yokohama Forever Forest" Project started in 2007 and is, over the course of some ten years, creating forests at domestic and overseas production sites in anticipation of the company's 100th anniversary in 2017. Under the guidance of Dr. Akira Miyawaki (an expert in physiognomy and professor emeritus of Yokohama National University), trees indigenous to each local area are being planted. About 500,000 trees in all will be planted at seven domestic*1 and eleven overseas plants of Yokohama Rubber Group companies*2. First-phase plantings have been carried out at all seven domestic locations, and the second phase has been completed at six: the Hiratsuka Factory and Mie, Onomichi, Mishima, Nagano and Ibaraki Plants. (The Hiratsuka Factory has also had its third-phase planting.) Overseas, first-phase events have been held at five plants and the second phase has been completed at three. Overall, more than 130,000 trees have already been planted.

*1:The Hiratsuka-East and Nakahara Plants are included as part of the Hiratsuka Factory; the Shinshiro-South Plant is included as part of the Shinshiro Plant.
*2:The joint ceremony by three group companies in China is counted as one.

Tree planting

Participants move to the planting zones