Are you curious about what is going on with our new (office) building project, as reported in the news 142 ? Yes, it is running as scheduled, with the old building completely demolished and bulldozed now. As everything is ready for construction works, we had the keel laying, err, ground breaking ceremony on January 20.

The traditional ceremony is called 'Jichinsai' here, and held, they say, in order to keep local spirits' feathers unruffled and to obtain relevant permissions from them. Being watched by other board members, our Mr. Ochi, and Mr. Yasunari, president of Yasunari Construction Co., Ltd., 'broke' the ground in turn with a special wooden spade. Unlike the preceding days it was a fine, windless and warm day, giving us a feeling that we got the permission without problem !

It is our first replacement of the main building since the company moved into the current place 40 years ago. Modified (partly), jumbolized (a little bit) and repaired (after typhoon floods), the 40 years old building was aged. It was built to the 70's standards and lacked earthquake protection, too. After the 3.11 disaster, the management wasted no time in deciding its reconstruction to secure safety of employees.

The new 4-storied steel framed building has double-height ground floor to ensure invulnerability to storm surge attack. What is also good is that it will accommodate common and locker rooms for our blue-collar workers, who used to use a separate facility. Their space will be allocated on the same floor as the office of our construction division !

The new mother ship for entire 'Team Kyokuyo' is scheduled to be completed at the end of June. [2012/01/27]