Yokohama Tire Retread Company Limited (YTR)

Business activities

Production and sale of retread tires

Total site area

31,501 m2 (Head Office (Onomichi): 13,757 m2, Saitama Plant: 6,588 m2, Nagoya Plant: 5,648 m2, Hokkaido Plant: 5,508 m2)

Number of employees

83 (as of December 2021)

Location

Head Office & Onomichi Plant: 2-165-28, Chojabara, Onomichi City, Hiroshima, JAPAN
Hokkaido Plant: 162-2, Uenae, Tomakomai City, Hokkaido, JAPAN
Saitama Plant: 395, Kita-Nagai, Miyoshi-machi, Iruma-gun, Saitama, JAPAN
Nagoya Plant: 192-2, Minami-Yamanoue, Azabu-cho, Miyoshi City, Aichi, JAPAN

Contact for consultation and complaints

Operations Department, Operations Division, Head Office & Onomichi Plant Tel: +81-848-48-3400 Fax: +81-848-48-4055
E-mail: ytr@yokohamatire-rt.jp

Message from the President

Shigetoshi Kondo

Yokohama Tire Retread Company Limited manufactures and sells retreaded tires, mainly for trucks and buses.

Used tires are recycled as a resource, and the amount of CO2 emissions can be reduced by about 65% compared to new tires, while the CO2 emissions in the retread tire manufacturing process are roughly 60% lower than emissions in the production of new tires; our environmentally-friendly retread tires thus embody the 3R principles of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.
Last year, the economy was severely hard by the impact of COVID-19.

However, the effects of COVID-19 will continue in 2021, and the challenge will be how to respond to market needs that are different from those of previous years.

In the uncertain economy, as a member of the Yokohama Rubber Group, we will continue our production and sales activities, based on the basic management policy of "contributing to our customers through the manufacture of safe and reliable products,", while striving for harmonious coexistence with related companies and local communities, and taking “safety,” “the environment,” “quality” and “compliance” as our watchwords.

Organizational Governance

Promoting compliance

The department responsible for matters of accounting and the closing of accounts undergoes regular audits by corporate auditors and the Internal Audit Department. Improvements are implemented promptly in response to any identified issues. We also work hard to ensure that there is no non-compliance with regulatory requirements and no unintentional errors or omissions in the manner in which we do business. Furthermore, by conducting employee compliance training on a monthly basis, we are aiming to strengthen employees’ compliance awareness, while also starting work on improvements to operational systems; the improved systems are scheduled to begin operation in fiscal 2019, and we will be taking steps to realize a further heightening of operational transparency.

Human Rights

Child labor or forced labor

There have been no cases of our company employing children or forced labor.

Promotion of gender equality

Wages, promotion etc. are handled in accordance with a unified company policy, and there is no discrimination between male and female employees with regard to assignments, etc.

Labor Practices

Creating safe and healthy workplaces

On the safety and health front, in addition to all employees participating in radio calisthenics at the beginning of the working day, starting from this year we have been working to strengthen our safety and health awareness-raising activities, for example by having employees recite the “Safety Chant.” Besides striving to maintain and enhance a working environment that ensures safety and peace of mind through the implementation of regular safety patrols and the use of work environment measurement to realize quantitative monitoring of the working environment, we also work to create a safe, healthy workplace by using periodic health checkups to monitor individual employees’ health status, etc. We realize effective follow-up in relation to these activities through the operations of each facility’s Safety and Health Committee, etc.

Education and training for employees

New employees are educated using a scheduled program that is fully implemented in line with the company’s education and training plan. Also, all employees receive education regarding fundamental content such as safety, the environment and quality management, as well as compliance-related awareness-raising activities, either at the regular early morning workplace gatherings or through instruction at monthly morning meetings. In addition, at manufacturing sites, periodic education and operational training are conducted using the operational guidelines and one-point lessons.

Responding in case of disaster

Our fire-fighting equipment is inspected periodically by a specialist company. In addition to regularly reporting the results of these inspections to the local supervisory authorities (i.e. the fire prevention authorities), we strive to prevent emergencies from occurring by taking prompt remedial action whenever any deficiencies are discovered.
Also, by implementing regular evacuation drills and fire-fighting training at each plant, we ensure first-response preparedness in the event of an emergency occurring.

Employment of people with disabilities

At the current time, we employ no disabled persons.

The Environment

Strengthening environmental management

We are working to strengthen our environmental management through the effective utilization of an environmental management system based on ISO 14001, which was established in April 2006. In addition to raising employees’ environmental awareness by increasing the number of internal auditors, and by making efforts to both reduce waste and enhance energy efficiency through improvements to our equipment, we are also working to improve our environmental indicators through various improvement activities.
As part of our efforts, we are actively disposing of equipment containing PCBs and replacing equipment that used Freon gas.
We hope to contribute to the further development of a recycling society by promoting increased reuse of tires, through the growth and expansion of our business activities.

Management of chemical substances (responding to the Pollutant Release and Transfer Register Law)

In cooperation with Yokohama Rubber, by aiming to have our different sites list their chemical substances, we employ the Substances of Concern (SOC) principle when handling such products. Regarding the PRTR requirements, by filing the required documentation with both the national government and the relevant prefectures, we engage in secure management of those materials subject to the law.

Environmental data

Move the screen to the left or right to see the table information

Category FY 2017 FY 2018 FY 2019 FY 2020 FY 2021
Waste Disposed (t) 1,908 2,122 2,152 2,042 2,044
Water usage (1,000m3) 4.7 5.1 5.5 5.2 5.1
Greenhouse gas emissions (1,000t-CO2) 2.59 2.72 2.73 2.48 2.5

We are working to reduce the environmental burden associated with our activities by reducing our energy consumption per unit of production output and the amount of industrial waste that we generated, through measures such as switching to LED factory lighting, adopting new inverter technology in our production equipment and compressors, and actively implementing measures such as switching boilers to improve production efficiency to reduce power consumption and ensure efficient power consumption management, as well as reducing water consumption.

Noise, vibration and odor

By implementing regular measurement of noise and holding meetings with voluntary monitors, we make efforts to prevent noise, vibration, and odors.
We also place importance on communication with neighboring residents (coexistence with the community), and have not received any complaints from them.

Fair Operating Practices

Building trusting relationships with business partners

On-site verification of an intermediate processing facility (Saitama)

We enjoy business relationships with numerous partner companies in regard to the sale of retread tires, the purchase of used tires and the disposal of industrial waste, etc.; We enter into transactions with potential partner companies only after confirming that meet regulatory requirements for the business activities in question. We work to verify compliance with the law by conducting our own audits of the companies who dispose of our industrial waste.

Consumer Issues

Building trusting relationships with customers

As regards inquiries from customers about product quality, we provide an appropriate response in collaboration with individual Yokohama Tire Japan Co., Ltd. dealers, as well as Yokohama Rubber’s Tire Technical Service Department and Tire Quality Assurance Department. In the event that an incident involving non-conforming product does occur, the reasons for the issue are investigated and measures to prevent reoccurrence are decided on at the periodic meetings of the quality management committee that are held at each of our production facilities.
Relevant information is managed within the Yokohama Rubber network systems with a strong emphasis on information security management, aiming to ensure a level of security equivalent to that applying in Yokohama Rubber as a whole.

Community Involvement and Development

Credibility with stakeholders

We participate on a regular basis in meetings organized by relevant administrative authorities in each of the regions in which we operate, and we endeavor to strengthen communication with local communities. Given that our Hokkaido Plant looks out on Lake Utonai, which has been designated as an environmental special protection area, we participate in various activities aimed at safeguarding the biodiversity of the Lake Utonai Sanctuary, etc.
Additionally, Our Hokkaido plant was awarded the Hokkaido Zero Emission Grand Prize (2020) for its achievements in reducing industrial waste emissions.
Our Saitama Plant participates in the Green Support Team” activity organized by the local government authorities, contributing to environmental protection activities aimed at conserving local areas of mixed woodland.
As part of our continued efforts to strengthen communication with local kindergartens, employees from the Nagoya Plant collaborated on an activity involving the creation of plastic bottle cap artworks with children at a neighboring kindergarten, as part of the kindergarten’s “graduation” ceremony activities.
And we continue to carry out the Forever Forest activities etc.

Biodiversity preservation activities and cleanup activities at Lake Utonai (Hokkaido)

Biodiversity preservation activities and cleanup activities at Lake Utonai (Hokkaido)

Weeding and garbage pickup(Saitama)

Environmental conservation activities (Nagoya)

Plastic bottle cap artworks forming part of a kindergarten’s “graduation” ceremony activities (Nagoya)

Shiba-zakura* art along the road (Nagoya)
* moss phlox (Phlox subulata)