 |
 |
| The lazy Kurokawa River runs north and south through Kanuma, bisecting the city. Viewed from the Fuchu bridge, the Tochigi mountains surrounding the city testify to the rich natural environment of the region. |
 |
| People at the Kanto Plant of Tsutsunaka Plastic. |
|
The Tohoku Expressway is a main transportation artery connecting the Tokyo metropolitan area with the major cities in northeastern Japan. In 1969, a large industrial complex was built near the Kanuma interchange on this highway. Conveniently located some 100 km from Tokyo, the industrial complex has attracted some 21 manufacturers of various products, including electronics parts, and metal and plastic products. It now serves as the main growth engine of the city’s key industries.
One of the manufacturers that has located an important production base in Kanuma’s industrial hub is Tsutsunaka Plastic Industry Co., Ltd. Founded in 1917 in Osaka as a small business for making and selling combs, celluloid dolls and other toys, the company has branched out into the molding of vinyl chloride and acrylic resins. After years of steady growth, it built the Kanto Plant in 1970.
“We built the facility to expand our operations into the Kanto region,” says Masaru Nakahori, general manager, Administrative Department, the Kanto Plant. “This place offers an ideal combination of large space and a good location for distribution.” The Kanto Plant is the flagship among the company’s six production bases at home and abroad and supplies nine sales offices.
The factory churns out dozens of resin boards, including mainstay plastic sheets. The company’s bread-and-butter products are polycarbonate and acrylic resin boards, which are supplied to manufacturers that process them into a wide range of products used in areas such as the construction and civil engineering, housing equipment, optical, and electronics industries.
“General consumers seldom see plastic sheets themselves in their daily lives, but they are used as materials for a broad array of things familiar to us,” says Nakahori. They are, for instance, used to make signboards and the roofs over platforms at train stations, sound insulating boards for highways, carports, various types of cards, and sunglasses. Tsutsunaka Plastic has built a new plant equipped with a clean room to meet the growing demand in the electronics industry for functional resin boards used in liquid crystal displays for cell phones and flat-panel televisions.
“We are trying to enhance the functions of our mainstay polycarbonate products so that we can satisfy the diversifying needs of our customers,” says Nakahori. Ready to tackle new technological challenges, the company’s Kanto plant will continue to be a reliable partner for many players across the industrial landscape. |
