President’s Message
- Representative Director of the Board, President and Group CEO
Oji Holdings Corporation - HIROYUKI ISONO
In February 1873, Shoshi kaisha was established by Mr. Eiichi Shibusawa who advocated that the domestic production of Western paper would be needed for the development of Japanese culture. Accordingly, we will celebrate the 150th year of our foundation in February this year. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to all of our stakeholders for their support.
The initial capital was 150,000 yen, but the company soon ran short of funds. To pay for equipment ordered from Britain, it increased its capital to 250,000 yen at the end of 1874. The installation of equipment and the construction of the mill were completed in June 1875 with only slight delays. Later, the company began operating the equipment in an attempt to start production. However, there were tremendous difficulties that Mr. Eiichi Shibusawa later spoke about in a reminiscent discussion in 1914.
"The machinery worked but the paper kept breaking, and hardly any paper was produced. We could at last produce paper continuously, but the paper was coarse and thick and the company's losses were also growing. The people who saw this sad state of affairs no doubt thought the company had no future. However, there is no abandoning a business once it is announced and underway. I hate giving up partway through a job I set my heart on. I always want to finish the job no matter how. I worked on the job with such determination. As a result, we succeeded in manufacturing white paper in October 1875, began to test papermaking for newspapers by December, and then got as far as holding an opening ceremony on December 16.”
I believe the reason for what we are now is because of this resolve, "completing the job no matter what. We would also emphasize "The importance of not giving it up easily and completing the job no matter what throughout the future business operations.
Annual production was 200 tons in 1876, the early days after the mill began operating. At present, the amount has increased 50,000-fold to approx. 10 million tons (including the production output of market pulp). In those days there were 374 employees. At present, this has increased 100-fold to a total of 39,000 employees all over the world. In this way, our company has made major strides. For the next 150 years, we must not only achieve further business growth by producing and selling paper and paperboard from wood-based resources but also evolve our business by developing new materials and products from wood-based resources. The Oji Group will work together to accomplish the structural transformation of our business.
