Tokyo - The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announced that, on Saturday October 16, its Onomichi Plant (Onomichi City, Hiroshima Prefecture), a key production site for large-size tires for construction vehicles, and its Hiratsuka-East Plant (Hiratsuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture), a key site for assembling hoses and couplings, staged tree-planting ceremonies as part of Yokohama Rubber's Yokohama Forever Forest Project. The ceremonies completed third-stage tree-planting at the Onomichi Plant and second-phase tree-planting at Hiratsuka-East.

For the third-stage event at the Onomichi Plant, 161 people, including employees of the plant and their families along with people from cooperating companies, attended, and the participants planted 2,055 seedlings. For the second-stage ceremony at the Hiratsuka-East Plant, 103 people, including employees, their families, people from cooperating companies, etc., attended and planted 631 seedlings. According to the concept of creating forests through hands-on, personal efforts, seedlings grown primarily by employees have been used since the second-phase tree-plantings; for the ceremonies at both plants this time, 100% self-prepared seedlings were used.

The Yokohama Forever Forest Project was started in 2007 and is 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, professor emeritus of Yokohama National University and an expert in physiognomy, 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. In Japan, first-phase plantings have been carried out at all seven domestic manufacturing operations, and the third phase has been completed at the Hiratsuka Factory, Onomichi, Mie, Nagano and Ibaraki Plants; and the second phase at the Mishima and Hiratsuka-East Plants. Overseas, a third-phase event has been completed at one site, four sites have completed the second phase, and a first phase event has been held at one plant. Overall, approximately 170,000 trees - more than 34% of our goal of 500,000 - have already been planted.

In addition to planting trees, Yokohama Rubber is monitoring absorption and fixation of carbon dioxide, as well as the behavior of birds, in order to understand the effects of its tree-planting, including on the ecosystem. The company also contributes seedlings grown by its employees to administrations, schools, organizations and other companies, working to spread recognition throughout society of the importance of preserving the global environment.

*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:A joint ceremony by three group companies in China is counted as one.