Monday, February 19, 2024 | The Japan Times | 7

sustainable japan

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Komatsu builds a sustainable future through innovation
Unraveling Japanesecompanies
HIROKO NAKATACONTRIBUTING WRITER

Construction sites worldwide are beginningto look different. Remote-controlled excavators now dig up soil, and autonomous haul
trucks remove it. Sensors let operators gather
data on the machines‘ conditions and see if
any parts need changing. Such technologies
have driven Komatsu Ltd. to achieve further
global growth, establishing its position as theworld’s second-largest maker of construction
machinery, after Caterpillar.
Komatsu, which now generates about¥490 billion ($3.3 billion) in annual group
operating profit on sales of ¥3.5 trillion, hasgrown based on its corporate philosophy,
including the “Komatsu Way,” its guiding
principles for action. The creeds it spells out
developed as parts of the corporate culture
over a long time, and in 2006 they were written down to help them permeate broadly
among the staff. The Komatsu Way explains
the strengths of Komatsu and the beliefs
supporting these strengths, covering a wide
range of themes from leadership to monozu-“We had the founding spirit and the Komatsu
Way for a long time,” said Yokomoto. COSUFI

kuri (production) and brand management. It
is now available in 13 languages.
When Komatsu celebrated the 100th anniversary of its foundation in 2021, it decided
to sow its corporate beliefs more thoroughly
among its workers. The main backgroundbehind this is that it has become a global
firm with more than 60,000 workers, around
70% of whom are not Japanese, and this has
increased the need to present the direction
Komatsu is heading in a way that is easy tounderstand for its diverse employees andstakeholders. Its buyout of Joy Global Inc.,a Wisconsin-based maker of mining equipment, in 2017 also was an impetus.
Komatsu’s corporate purpose, as written
on its website, is “Creating value throughmanufacturing and technology innovation
to empower a sustainable future where
people, businesses and our planet thrive
together.” And its website also explains about
its corporate identity. “We had the founding
principles and the Komatsu Way for a longtime, and now we have our corporate identity, which is an easy-to-understand, systematic presentation of our purpose and values
established in 2021, along with other existingideas,” said Mitsuko Yokomoto, a director
and the senior executive officer supervising
human resources, education and sustainability at Komatsu. The interview was part of amonthly series by Naonori Kimura, a partner
for the consulting firm Industrial Growth
Platform Inc. (IGPI).
The company’s foundation dates backto 1921, when Meitaro Takeuchi started an
ironworks company to develop mining
equipment for a copper mine in the Ishikawa
city of Komatsu. The entrepreneur — anolder brother of future postwar Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida — aimed to develop
local industries, even after the mine later
closed down, because he knew that enriching a country requires industry and humanresources. In the corporate culture passed
down from that foundation era, the company has pursued quality and reliability, andmade efforts to build strong relationships of

Mitsuko Yokomoto, director and senior executive officer supervising human resources, education and sustainability at Komatsu COSUFI

trust with stakeholders. Based on this history, the Komatsu Way was born, and Komatsu presented four values in 2021: ambition,
collaboration, perseverance and authenticity.
Komatsu has had to overcome a seriesof crises on its own. After World War II, themachinery maker survived fierce competition with Caterpillar, the first operating deficit in 2001, the global financial crisis sparked
by the failure of the U.S. investment bank
Lehman Brothers in 2008 and the Great East
Japan Earthquake in 2011. Through the experience of overcoming the crises, the company created a culture where workers canfind business opportunities through innovation and developing new value in manufacturing and technology, which further
strengthened and company, Komatsu says.
“With this independent spirit and ability toturn crisis into opportunity, we have always
had a strong will to make a strong company
that would grow even more. And this will isstill being nurtured by the Komatsu Way,”
Yokomoto said.

More than two decades ago, the company invented a revolutionary service called
Komtrax, an Internet of Things system thatlets operators remotely access conditionand location information on construction
machines equipped with sensors and Global
Positioning System devices, relayed via satellite. The innovation was backed by the Komatsu Way concept of aiming to provide newvalue that is far superior to other companies’
offerings.
The growth strategy defined in the current midterm management plan (fiscal
2022 to 2024) has three pillars: 1. accelerate
growth by means of innovation; 2. maximize
earning power; and 3. enhance corporate
resilience. Central to the innovation is its
DX Smart Construction, which introduces
advanced technology to overall operations.
It measures land with drones and creates
three-dimensional geographic data for analysis and planning. This process is followed byactual construction, inspected via drones.
Besides this, Komatsu has already introduced

autonomous haul trucks, bulldozers andexcavators equipped with functions for automatically controlling their blade or bucket.
And Komatsu is working to further increase
the levels of automation and autonomy inequipment and to expand its lineup.
As for the second pillar, Komatsu continues to maximize its business opportunities
with machinery that has urban civil engineering specifications in growing markets
such as other parts of Asia. Part of the third
pillar of enhancing resilience is cultivating
human resources. While top managers frequently talk about the corporate purpose
and future strategies, employees share theirtargets as key performance indicators, Yokomoto explained. Even though it can be hardto quantify elements relating to personnel,
education and sustainability, the company
has long believed that human resources areimportant, and that part of employees’ identities comes from contributing to society
through the business, she said.
Deploying its technologies and expertise, Komatsu in 2008 started programs tohelp Cambodia remove land mines using its
machinery and otherwise aid the country’s
restoration for community development
purposes. These were just part of its activities to contribute to the regions where it does
business. As of April 2023, it had removed
4,272 land mines from 4,355 hectares of land,built 10 elementary schools in some of those
now-safe places, turned 80 hectares to riceand cassava farmland and used its bulldozers
to make 48 reservoirs as infrastructure development in the country.
Other projects include free-of-charge
lending of machinery to aid areas hit by natural disasters, regenerating forests on mountains that had been mined in North America
and planting trees to widen green spaces in
China and Indonesia.
“It is part of our philosophy to contributeto society through our business operations.
We also want to make contributions byusing the knowhow and strengths we havedeveloped in our business,” Yokomoto said.

NAONORI KIMURA
INDUSTRIAL GROWTH PLATFORM INC.
(IGPI) PARTNER

Komatsu Ltd.
formalized its
corporate identity in 2021, the100th anniversaryof the company’s
foundation, anddeclared its corporate purpose to be “Creating value
through manufacturing and technology
innovation to empower a sustainable
future where people, businesses andour planet thrive together.” The essenceof what they describe is not recently created, but based on a corporate identitythat has been handed down for a longtime. It is well known that the company’s beliefs and values are systematicallydescribed in its corporate philosophy,
the “Komatsu Way,” which is underlain
by resilience to changes in the businessenvironment and whose central idea is
to focus on long-term cooperation withvarious stakeholders.
The top management has been deeplycommitted to this spirit, letting the idea
broadly spread among the company’s
workers in every country and practicing
it thoroughly in everything from daily
meetings to product development.
That is where the root of Komatsu’s
strength comes from, and at the sametime shows the essence of sustainable
management. The stance is also shownin its thoroughgoing activities for social
responsibility, represented by its projects to remove land mines.
The company will face the challenge ofrealizing carbon neutrality. It may not
be easy to decarbonize the construction machines used in various environments, but I believe Komatsu canachieve that goal.

Restaurant Pas Mal
A hothouse of ecological ideas
will produce tomatoes in Aomori French cuisine in Yamagata, home of ‘brand’ foods
ESG/SDGs
MAIKO MURAOKACONTRIBUTING WRITER

Starting in April, a project in the Aomori cityof Mutsu, at the northern tip of Honshu,
will grow tomatoes using a new cultivation
method that will go beyond zero carbon andactually absorb more CO2 than it emits. Built
on a large abandoned farm, the facility will
also create 100 new jobs.
Its Venlo greenhouse is equipped with anautomatic environmental control system
for adjusting temperature, moisture and thelevel of carbon dioxide in the air. The tomatoes will be hydroponically cultivated, andthe management of water and fertilization
will also be automated.
Mutsu Mayor Tomoya Yamamoto said:“To keep the air inside the greenhouse warm,a biomass boiler that burns wood chips togenerate heat was installed. Forests make up
about 80% of the total area of the prefecture,so we can use a natural resource we alreadyhave instead of using fossil fuels.” The carbon
dioxide produced by burning the chips won’t
go to waste — it will be supplied to the tomatoes growing in the greenhouse to accelerate photosynthesis. The amount of carbon
dioxide emitted from the boiler and used for
cultivation is estimated at up to 4,500 tons
annually.
Cutting down old trees and planting seedlings is also an effective way to enhance theabsorption of carbon dioxide emissions.
“Younger trees absorb more CO2 than older
ones. We plan to use part of the profit fromthe tomato farm for reforestation,” Yama-

Biomass will heat the facility and provide clean
CO2 for the plants. MUTSU CITY

moto said. About 40,000 trees will be planted
across 20 hectares of forest land annually.
In addition, LED lights will be installed tomake up for the general low level of light in
the area to stimulate the tomatoes’ growth,and automatic delivery vehicles will allow
workers to be allocated more effectively
to where they are needed. The facility is
expected to produce 1,500 tons of tomatoes ayear on 3.5 hectares of land — 10 times morethan conventional cultivation methods canachieve.
The project started when a Hokkaidobased agricultural company, Torafuku Co.
Ltd., approached Mutsu in March 2022, soonafter it heard news that as many as 500
people had lost their jobs in the midst of thecoronavirus pandemic due to the closure of amajor stocking factory in Mutsu.
Torafuku, established in 2014, grows
vegetables and fruits in greenhouses andon farms in Hokkaido. In 2020, it built thesame type of Venlo greenhouse as the onethat Mutsu now has. “Through discussions
with former Mayor Soichiro Miyashita, theCEO of Torafuku saw potential in our city,which was responsive and quick at decisionmaking, and decided that this was the place
where they wanted to start the future of
agriculture,” Yamamoto said. In November
2022, Torafuku, Mutsu and Aomori Prefecture signed an agreement, and construction
began the next April.
International collaboration has also contributed to the realization of the project.
In January 2023, a delegation from Mutsu
including Miyashita visited the Dutch cityof Westland, a pioneer in facility horticulture, and signed an agreement on friendshipexchange to deepen mutual cooperation topromote the development of environmentally friendly facility horticulture and agricultural technology.
Since then, there have been several
opportunities to learn about each other’s
agricultural efforts, including a visit by senior
Westland officials to Mutsu in July, a session
to exchange views with members of the
Dutch horticulture industry ahead of theNetherlands-Japan Horticulture Seminar in

Tomoya Yamamoto, mayor of Mutsu

Chiba Prefecture in October and the attendance of Mutsu officials at the seminar.
Yamamoto emphasized that the relationship must benefit both countries. “While we
aim to acquire knowledge and technology
from the Netherlands, we also want to beable to give something in return. For example, installing the biomass boiler at the Venlo
greenhouse and using the carbon dioxide it
generates to enhance tomatoes’ growth is a
new approach we are taking. We hope that
there is something we can share with the
Netherlands in this regard,” he said.
Yamamoto said there are many otherneglected fields in Mutsu. The decreasing
number of farmers is mostly due to the agingof the population, possibly accelerated by theharsh climate. Northeasterly winds calledyamase bring cool, wet weather in the summer, which is not suitable for growing riceand many vegetables.
“But advanced technologies allow us toachieve high agricultural productivity even ina harsh environment,” Yamamoto said. “We
believe this project will demonstrate that.
We enacted a new ordinance to promotesmart agriculture and established a subsidy
system for the installation of plant facilities.”
The city’s goal is to produce a diverse range ofcrops and become a “food valley,” a center ofinnovative and sustainable farming.
Mutsu is a member of the Sustainable Japan
Network, a group of companies that cooperate with this newspaper to spread information about sustainability in Japan. You canalso be part of the network; scan the QR codefor more details.

Address
2-3-16, Nanukamachi,
Yamagata, Yamagata
https://yamagatafrenchpasmal.com

TAKEO TERAOCONTRIBUTING WRITER

Restaurant Pas Mal could be called the soleauthentic French restaurant in the city of
Yamagata. Owner-chef Yusuke Murayama
strives for true gastronomic cuisine. His
dishes emphasize classic sauces making
extensive use of wine and brandy, and the“stars” of these creations are local ingredients. Murayama said: “Foods produced in
Yamagata are considered premium-quality
brands and distributed at high prices outside
the prefecture, especially in the Tokyo area.
They can’t be used at restaurants in the local
area, where prices are lower. When local
residents go out to eat, they almost always
go to an izakaya pub where the average cost
per person is ¥4,000 to ¥5,000 ($27 to $34).
It has become the norm in these places touse a lot of products from overseas, including
vegetables.”Murayama opened a bistro in the city ofTendo in 2002. When he moved to his current location in 2017, he changed course
and transformed the bistro into a gourmet
French restaurant. The establishment ismanaged by Murayama and his younger
brother Tatsuaki, the maitre. At ¥11,000
and ¥16,000, the dinner course prices are
extraordinarily high for the city of Yamagata.

PAGE: 7

“I want to raise the average dining costthroughout Yamagata Prefecture,” said
Murayama. “What I want to communicate
is not that you can make more money inTokyo, but that you can also make a living in
Yamagata Prefecture.” People from outside
the prefecture currently comprise 80% of
the restaurant’s clientele, but the numberof local customers is increasing. To further
raise awareness among the area’s residents,
Murayama periodically carries out collaborations with famous chefs from other regions
and reports on them inside and outside theprefecture. Without a doubt, Yamagata Prefecture’s future culinary scene is in the process of transforming.

MIEKO YOSHIMURA
GOVERNOR OF YAMAGATA

TAKAHIRO SATO
MAYOR OF YAMAGATA

I am honored that Restaurant Pas Mal has been
selected as one of the Destination Restaurants 2023.
Yamagata Prefecture is aregion surrounded by mountains and thesea, and is rich in natural resources. Chef
Yusuke Murayama’s cuisine, which uses
a wide variety of ingredients from thisregion, further enhances the richness andcharm of Yamagata’s culinary culture.
I hope that this award will encourage more people to travel to Yamagata
and experience the culinary delights of
Yamagata.

I am very delighted that
Restaurant Pas Mal has
been selected as one of
the Destination Restaurants 2023. Chef Yusuke
Murayama’s cuisine, which features local
Yamagata ingredients, is a feast for the eyes
as well as the palate with its creative ideas
and innovations. The city of Yamagata has
a diverse culinary culture, blessed withhigh-quality ingredients nurtured by its
rich natural environment. I hope that the
selection of Pas Mal will encourage many
people to learn more about Yamagata andvisit the city.