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• Power Transmission Belts See Strong Sales in 2025: Gates Unitta Asia Dec. 19, 2025
  Gates Unitta Asia expects higher sales in its Japanese domestic general industrial belt business for the fiscal year ending December 31, 2025. By market, sales to semiconductor manufacturing equipment, its largest customer segment, increased on a full-year basis, although demand has recently shown signs of weakening. “In the first half, performance was strong as we […]
• Fujikura Composites Posts Record-HighProfits Dec. 18, 2025
  Fujikura Composites reported record-high operating and ordinary profits for the first half of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026, supported by a recovery in industrial materials and a favorable product mix. For the April–September period, net sales increased 2.9% year-on-year to 20.23 billion yen ($130.68 million). Operating profit rose 19.3% to 2.68 billion yen, […]
• Bridgestone and AIST Develop Technology to Chemically Recycle Used Tires Dec. 17, 2025
  The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) announced that a research team led by Senior Researcher Yoshihiro Ueda, in collaboration with Bridgestone, has developed a chemical recycling technology for tire rubber. By combining chemical decomposition at near room temperature with a subsequent thermal decomposition process, the team successfully recovered isoprene and carbon […]
• Toyo Tires President Takashi Shimizu Reflects on 2026, Looks Ahead to 2026 Dec. 16, 2025
  Takashi Shimizu, President and CEO of Toyo Tires, reflected on fiscal 2025, the company’s 80th anniversary year, highlighting progress at its Serbia plant, which began operations in 2022 and reached full production capacity this year. “Tires manufactured at the Serbia plant have won product awards from a leading UK trade magazine. By leveraging state-of-the-art production […]
• Sumitomo Riko Launches SG Building as Symbol of Vision 2029 Dec. 15, 2025
  Sumitomo Riko has commenced full-scale operations at the Sumitomo Riko Green Transformation Building (SG Building), constructed as a core hub for its infrastructure and living environment business. Built at the Komaki Plant in Komaki, Aichi Prefecture, the SG Building consolidates chemical products operations that had previously been dispersed across the site and serves as a […]
• Sumitomo Riko Develops High-Capacity Seismic Control System Dec. 12, 2025
  Sumitomo Riko has developed a new building material product, tentatively named the High-Capacity Seismic Control System, which has obtained Japan’s top-tier Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) certification for wooden structures: a wall strength ratio of 5.0. This ratio represents one of the highest public standards for structural capacity in wooden buildings. The […]
• Surging Raw Material Costs Impact First Half Results: Okamoto Dec. 11, 2025
  Okamoto reported a decline in both revenue and profit for the first half of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2026 (April–September 2025), as rising raw material prices, the strong yen, and sluggish demand in China put pressure on its performance. Consolidated net sales fell 2.9% from a year earlier to 52.90 billion yen ($340.74 […]
• Yokohama Rubber Opens Chinese New Passenger Car Tire Plant Dec. 10, 2025
  Yokohama Rubber held an opening ceremony on November 22 for its new passenger car tire plant in Hangzhou, China. The event was attended by numerous local officials and business partners, with President and COO Shinji Seimiya representing the company. The new facility is the first one-year plant launched under Yokohama Transformation 2026 (YX2026), the company’s […]
• Flooding in South Asia: Minimal Impact on Japanese Rubber-Related Firms Dec. 9, 2025
  The late-November floods that struck Southeast and South Asia have resulted in a major disaster, with the death toll exceeding 1,300. Amid the widespread damage, Japan Rubber Weekly surveyed Japanese rubber-related companies operating in the region. While some firms were temporarily forced to adjust production, most have since returned to normal operations, and overall damage […]
• Sumitomo Rubber Accelerates Global Expansion of Dunlop Brand Dec. 8, 2025
  Sumitomo Rubber is ramping up its global expansion of the Dunlop brand. The company, which acquired in January trademark rights for four-wheel tires in Europe, North America, and Oceania, has already begun deploying the Dunlop brand globally, with some regional and product exceptions. On December 3, it announced that it had obtained exclusive rights to […]