Tokyo – The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd., held the first "YOKOHAMA Forever Forest" tree-planting ceremony at its Hiratsuka Factory, in Hiratsuka City, Kanagawa Prefecture, on November 11, 2007 (Sunday). About 3,500 people of local residents, employees of the Yokohama Rubber Group and their families joined in planting about 27,000 seedlings, 54 varieties, including tabu (persea), shii (castanopsis) and akagashi (quercus acuta).

The ceremony began a little after 9:30 a.m. with President Tadanobu Nagumo of the company explaining the objective. Mr. Taro Kono, a member of the House of Representatives living in Hiratsuka City and Mayor Ritsuko Okura then spoke, after which Mr. Tadashi Tateuchi, a noted automotive journalist, and Mr. Ukyo Katayama, a racing driver, were introduced. Professor Emeritus Akira Miyawaki of Yokohama National University, who was supervising the planting, gave a detailed explanation of how to plant the seedlings, demonstrating with Yokohama Rubber Chairman Yasuo Tominaga, President Nagumo and the other guests on stage, all of whom had seedlings in their hands. The participants were divided into groups to plant the trees at 15 locations within the factory premises. In the afternoon after the planting had been completed, in the main dining room, there was a Japanese taiko drum performance by students and graduates of the Kanagawa Prefectural Hiratsuka School for the Deaf, and a discussion between Mr. Tateuchi and Mr. Katayama on the global environment. Food stands erected along the main walkway to the west of the dining room served light meals. The entire event concluded at around 2 o'clock.

The "YOKOHAMA Forever Forest" project involves the creation of forests over the next ten years at the Yokohama Rubber Group plants in and outside Japan. The forest at each location is to be created by 2017, when the company's 100th anniversary will be marked. Yokohama Rubber intends to plant a total of 500,000 trees at seven domestic and eleven overseas locations. Starting at the Hiratsuka Factory, those remaining plants will plan their events individually from next year.