TOKYO (July 21, 2011)—Yokohama Rubber Co. Ltd. inaugurated a program in which employees can take part in on-site relief activities to support recovery efforts in areas affected by the March 11earthquake and tsunami that devastated east Japan.
Through the program, which includes Yokohama subsidiaries, employees selected from among would-be participants will travel to the affected areas and participate in the recovery effort.
Yokohama said 28 employee volunteers took part in the first mission under the new program, traveling to northeast Japan on July 11. There they spent three days clearing mud from ditches and clearing debris from the surrounding land in the Miyagi Prefecture city of Higashi-Matsushima.
According to the Tokyo-based tire maker, by April 28 Yokohama Group companies and their employees had donated a total of approximately $1.2 million to the relief effort. The companies and employees made contributions mainly through the Red Cross societies in their nations.
Yokohama also has supported the recovery effort by furnishing relief supplies, by offering employment to persons who lost their livelihoods in the disaster and by providing shelter to persons displaced by the disaster in municipal and prefectural housing rented at company expense, the company said.
“The volunteer-support program unveiled (July 19) is a measure for accompanying financial and material support with direct human interaction,” Yokohama said, and evidences the company's “commitment to achieving the speediest-possible recovery in the areas affected by the earthquake.”