The Long Road from Retail Chain to Global Environment
By Katsuhro Asagiri
TOKYO (IDN) - They are engaged in greening activities at home and abroad: tree planting in the Great Wall area in China, around the Quindao Lao Mountain Dam, in south Thailand, on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur, in areas around the World Heritage Site of Angkor Wat, and in Kenya.
The reference is to the AEON Environmental Foundation of Japan which has helped plant 9.2 million trees around the world. April 2010 marked the planting of one million trees around the Great Wall of China.
Guarding Environment with a Paper-and-Pencil Project
By Katsuhro Asagiri
BANGKOK (IDN) - Asia-Pacific already has the largest number of motorized vehicles in the world and if the present trend continues, the region would in the coming years have more automobiles than Europe and North America combined.
In Japan alone, the number of vehicles has swelled from 8.12 million in 1966 to 78 million in 2009. Of these 54 percent are passenger vehicles, 34 percent light-duty vehicles, and 8 percent trucks. The rest are motorcycles and buses.
Overcoming Hazards - Striving for greater Safety
By Katsuhro Asagiri
TOKYO (IDN) - Nowadays they are trucking hazardous cargo. They carry fine chemicals and ethanols, imported by trading companies, to client factories in Tokyo and surrounding five prefectures, known as the Kanto area. But there is a long and exciting human story behind today's Gosho Transportation Company.
The short of the long story is that before Yoshio Emori founded Gosho in 1969, its predecessor Emori Oil Co. Ltd was running 27 gas stations in Saitama and Tokyo. The story that son Azuma Emori -- who now presides over Gosho -- tells, manifests the resilience with which the Japanese citizens helped build up post-war 'Nihon'.
Trucking Safe with Ecology in the Pouch
By Katsuhro Asagiri
TOKYO (IDN) - Like the kangaroo pouch pocket that provides a place of shelter for the young after they are born, the truckers of Tokyo’s legendary Nagai Transportation Company move their cargo with great care. No surprise therefore that the kangaroo is the logo of the company that celebrates “60 years of good faith and gratitude”.
“What we receive is confidence, what we put on our truck is our gratitude (to clients) and what we transport is safety and future of the planet”, says Junichi Nagai, the eldest son of Kazumi Nagai who set up the company after World War II (1939-45) in Minato-ku, one of the 23 wards of Tokyo.