BluEarth1 series are equipped with the various latest technologies being developed by Yokohama Rubber all the while in order to improve various performances by taking a good level of environmental friendliness into consideration.For example, Orange Oil, an extraction from orange peel, is utilized, when previously it was discarded as industry waste. It is not just to utilize the natural resources to the fullest; it also helps to improve the wet grip part to contribute to the maintenance of braking force. Also, by placing numerous dimples from the shoulder part to side part of the tire, which is totally a new idea called Dimple Side Design, air resistance itself while driving a car will be reduced. Another concept is the deployment of AIRTEX Advanced Liner, which is the inner liner made of our very own material by blending rubber and resin to prevent air failure, a cause of inefficient fuel consumption.
Also, while being considerate for the environment, another major feature of BluEarth1 is to pursue Gentleness towards People and Society as well. Our Silent Rings offer a pleasant space in the car to reduce various tire noise echoing inside the car and also, reduce noise outside of the vehicle, hopefully this is considerate for the outer environment as well.
Also, MaintenanceReducing Technology is deployed during the development phase to measure in quantitative form comfort and stress people may feel while driving. Deployment of AIRTEX Advanced Liner is not just to curve inefficient fuel consumption due to air leaks; it also assists with maintenance work such as the adjustment of air pressure and so on. This explains our fundamental posture to thoroughly pursue gentleness towards people and society.

Safety sanitation is the very basis of manufacturing every product.Yokohama Rubber has established a Safety Management Support System for each office to aim for zero occupational injury or any potential risks, thereby all our production plants are about to obtain Occupational Health Safety Management System (OSHMS). Also, we will get to know each office's strengths and weaknesses to take actions to make improvement on their current situations in terms of safety sanitation; we shall therefore execute the internal safety audit both in domestic and overseas offices by defining the auditing items all common in our entire corporation.
In the Close Up from P16 to 17, you may wish to refer to the actual case of our Suzhou Yokohama Tire Co., Ltd., which has achieved significant improvement of their plant's condition of safety sanitation through various aspects of approaches.

Yokohama Rubber has a very important notion in terms of manufacturing products not only within our own Group to promote CSR towards the entire supply chain, i.e. the partners we purchase the raw materials from. In March 2010, we conducted a seminar for our partners by defining CSR guidelines by elaborating our CSR activities.
We requested them to fill in The CSR SelfEvaluation Form, which is for them to evaluate by themselves items such as Compliance, Environment, Human Rights, and so on.
Based on their results, we are conducting workshops or providing technical assistance by visiting their sites to fill in for any areas not being up to standard. Because we believe that we can grow together in terms of our corporate values by sharing information and working on various CSR activities hand-in-hand.

Maintaining quality tire products is our extremely important role as this will directly affect the safety of our customers all over the world. This is why we conduct Design Reviews for each stage such as planning, development, production, and distribution. We conduct our stringent quality controls through screening for product planning and another screening for designing.
Also, we promote to obtain the certificate of ISO/TS16949 which is the standard for quality management both in our domestic and overseas offices. Furthermore, we will promptly relay to our relevant department any feedback from our agents, retailers, customer service centers, and so on, in order to continue to keep improving with our activities on quality assurance by reflecting our customers'perspectives.

• I get the impression that BlueEarth this a tire deploying Universal Design (UD) for the very first time in the industry. What is called UD in Japan refers to "Design for all" in Europe, which means the design for everybody. It may sound simple but actually this is extremely challenging to realize, personally, I hardly know any other products which were able to realize this. In other words, this means to satisfy all the people regardless of being professional, amateur, or an avid racer; I would say it must have been such an innovative challenge totally out of the box of conventional ideas.
• Tires are such an important factor when you think about the fuel efficiency of your car. I truly commend BluEarth for being meticulously designed through Yokohama Rubber's unwavering pursuit of the reduction of resistance when rolling. Not just that, it came to me as a surprise that Yokohama Rubber also paid attention to tire's air resistance. I think it is awesome to come up with placing dimples on the tire. I have tried numerous types of ecotires in my striving for the utmost fuel efficiency, and I ended up taking BluEarth as my final choice.

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  Mr. Masahiko Nagahama
  Associate Professor
  Design Department, Tokyo University of the Art

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  Mr. Takuya Yura
  Racing Car Designer