Tokyo – The Yokohama Rubber Co., Ltd. announced today that it has established a TIRE SERVICE TRAINING CENTER in its comprehensive tire proving ground TIRE TEST CENTER OF ASIA in Rayong Province, Thailand. The opening ceremony for the center was locally held on October 14, 2011. The center is designed to train technical service staff of overseas Yokohama tire sales companies and sales representatives. Yokohama Rubber plans to use the center to train technical services staff and others from countries around the world in due course.

At present, Yokohama Rubber stations Technical Service Department members in its major overseas bases and is unfolding technical service activities aimed at further upgrading "Customer Delight" together with technical service staff of overseas tire sales companies and sales representatives. In the background to the establishment of the TIRE SERVICE TRAINING CENTER, there is Yokohama Rubber's strategy to further increase customer trust in Yokohama brand by improving global, technical service capabilities through pragmatic, systematic training based on an identical program.

The TIRE TEST CENTER OF ASIA is an advanced tire proving ground opened in April 2009 and is equipped with a 4.1-km high speed track and other facilities including a wet test course and special test courses able to reproduces a variety of road surface conditions around the world. Technical service staff can further deepen their understanding on tires through actual car driving experiences using these facilities. In addition, Yokohama Tire Manufacturing (Thailand) Co., Ltd., a tire manufacturing/marketing company located closely to the center makes it possible to efficiently provide consistent training including practical learning of tire manufacturing knowledge. Taking these advantages into consideration, Yokohama Rubber decided to establish a global technical service training center in Thailand.