Tokyo - The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announced today that Yokohama Tire Corporation (YTC), Yokohama Rubber Company's subsidiary for tire production and sales in the U.S.A., held a first-phase tree-planting ceremony at its head office in Fullerton, California on Friday, December 3, as part of Yokohama Rubber's global Forever Forest Project.

The event was attended by 150 people, including YTC President Takao Oishi, employees of the company and their families, along with the U.S. Forestry Department, office of Congressman Ed Royce (R-CA 40th District) and the mayor of Fullerton. After Dr. Akira Miyawaki, professor emeritus of Yokohama National University and a plant ecologist, provided the lecture and the guidance for tree-planting, the participants planted seven kinds of seedlings, 600 in all, in a 117-square-meter strip on the premises, facing a public street. To that point, tree planting under the project had been exclusive to production locations, both domestic and overseas. YTC held such an event April 2009 at its Salem plant in Virginia, where 250 participants planted 2,300 seedlings. The latest tree planting in Fullerton was the first of its kind at a non-manufacturing facility. Picked up and reported by the area's leading news authority in print and online, the event drew considerable public attention.

The Yokohama Forever Forest Project started in 2007 to create forests at domestic and overseas production sites in commemoration of the company's 100th anniversary in 2017. Under the guidance of Dr. Akira Miyawaki, trees indigenous to each local area are selected for the planting. A total of about 500,000 will be planted at seven domestic*1 and eleven overseas plants of Yokohama Rubber Group companies*2. In Japan, the fourth-phase planting has been completed at the Hiratsuka Factory (the Nakahara Plant and the Hiratsuka-Higashi Plant have completed the third and second phases, respectively); third-phase plantings have been completed at the Mie, Mishima, Onomichi, Ibaraki, and Nagano Plants; and the second phase at the Shinshiro Plant. Overseas, a third-phase event has been completed at one site, a second-phase at four sites and a first-phase at one site. Overall approximately 175,000 trees - 35.1% of the goal of 500,000 - have been planted to date.

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