Messages of Support for the Forever Forest
Turning crisis into opportunity
Going global with our expertise at Yokohama Rubber
Within Japan and throughout the world, the current age has seen the most scientific and technological progress of any in the 5 million long years of human history. Humans can now even go to the moon. However we still fall short when it comes to the overall environment for survival and sustaining life.
Including those who are still missing, nearly 30,000 lives were suddenly lost in the Great East Japan Earthquake and resulting tsunami. The Fukushima Nuclear Power facilities were equipped with the latest technologies and had every kind of measure in place, yet this disaster sparked an accident there that spread heavy gloom throughout the entire world. In other words, this event made the world aware of how insufficient our current science and technology is at protecting lives.
Technology includes risk. The best technology is that which eliminates as much of this risk as possible. Yokohama Rubber (Ltd.) is working to that end, “creating forests that protect lives” that coexist with regional economies both domestically and abroad. These serve as the green cushion that protects the irreplaceable lives of all living citizens and preserves the genes of our species, which have endured for 4 billion years and must be carried on into the future.
Using 2011 as a foundation for progress towards the future, we would like to call on the efforts of all our employees starting with Chairman Nagumo himself, and their families, to continue spreading the forest of life and to make reliable products using the best technology that eliminates all risk. We truly hope for further progress at our production sites so that they may become the global manufacturing industry model for coexisting with creation of forests of life.
(2008)
A Toast to the YOKOHAMA Forever Forest
Chairman Nagumo, my heartfelt congratulations on completing the planting of the 500,000th tree. This is no easy feat, and I celebrate the outcome of YRC’s efforts.
It was when I first met then-chairman Mr. Tominaga, your predecessor, that tree planting was commenced using the Miyawaki Method. Initially, the opinion was that there was no room at the Hiratsuka Factory to plant trees. Even so, you created spaces that were appropriate for tree planting, which have now become fine forests. The saplings that were first planted at the Hiratsuka Factory now stand at a height of over eight meters.
The number of tree plantings carried out abroad has also increased. Today, approximately 60% of the project’s tree plantings take place at YRC’s overseas plants. This is, indeed, a wonderful thing. Please carry out the creation of forests that are in line with the rules of nature and plant systems forests that do not have to be managed by humans. You have achieved superb results over the past 10 years of this project.
These results have also led to the Chinkon no Mori in Otsuchi-cho, Iwate Prefecture. Tree-planting activities have also spread to those at Iwanuma City, Miyagi Prefecture, and Kakegawa City, Shizuoka Prefecture.
Please continue these activities as well.
(2017)
