Tokyo - The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., announced today that it held a first-phase tree-planting ceremony as part of its "Yokohama Forever Forest" project on March 10 (Saturday) at the Tire Test Center of Asia, its extensive testing facility in Rayong Province, Thailand. On April 14 (Saturday), another first-phase tree planting ceremony took place at its extensive testing facility at D-PARC (Daigo Proving-ground and Research Center) in Kuji-gun, Ibaraki Prefecture, Japan.

In the event at the Tire Test Center of Asia, Manager Yoshiaki Fujikawa and employees, along with, from Japan, Dr. Akira Miyawaki, plant ecologist and professor emeritus of Yokohama National University, who has guided the Yokohama Group's tree planting activities in general, and Kinya Kawakami, Yokohama's Director and Managing Corporate Officer, and General Manager of Corporate Social Responsibility Division, were present. Representatives from the Yokohama Group's locations in Thailand also attended. A total of 322 people including representatives from the administration of the Town of Pluakdaeng, where the center is located, related companies in the area and local residents attended at the event. They were planting 3,650 trees of 27 varieties, 1,800, i.e., half, of which were seedlings grown by employees.

At D-PARC, Manager Kenji Yamane, employees and their families, Dr. Miyawaki, Hirohisa Hazama, Corporate Officer and General Manager of Tire Global Technical Division, and others - a total of 79 people were present and planted 1,120 trees in 19 varieties, including shirakashi (bamboo-leaf oak) and tabunoki (machilus).

Yokohama launched its "Yokohama Forever Forest" project in 2007 to plant 500,000 trees by 2017 at all Yokohama Rubber Group production facilities in and outside Japan, for the company's celebration of its 100th anniversary. With these two tree-planting ceremonies at the two locations, the number of trees planted as of April 2012 was about 242,000.