Our last big event of 2008 was the naming and delivery ceremonies held on December 11 for S-481, 845TEU geared container carrier.

Japan is traditionally known as country of career-long employment and escalator system. Things are changing slowly though. Nowadays, one can switch companies more easily than before as labor fluidity is increasing.

On October 1, the first day of the 2nd semester of 2008, at 8 clock in the morning, I introduced Kyokuyo's action plan for 2009-2010 under new slogan "For our future. Re-challenge 2010" to all the employees and subcontractors.

All our avid readers certainly know that Kyokuyo was founded on October 10 more than 65 years ago and that every year we commemorate this day by hosting a golf event, aka "Kyokuyo Open", where are invited more than 100 players, including our customers, suppliers, subcontractors, employees and friends.

Kyokuyo's office building annex was extended to 3 floors this summer, to provide an ample and organized space for our growing design division.

Kyokuyo received the first order for its new strategic product - Roll-On/Roll-Off cargo carrier. Being aware of the fact that about 50% of the world RO/RO fleet of "our size" are more than 20 years old, we have been tackling since a couple of years the development of modern RO/RO, which can reduce as much as 60% of CO2 emission compared with truck transportation. This 4-ship order marks the first fruit of the project.

You probably know that we received an order for 4 sister container carriers of 847 TEU and have already delivered 3 ships, named SINOTRANS BEIJING, SINOTRANS SHENZHEN and SINOTRANS NINGBO respectively.

After the company's 71st regular shareholders' meeting and subsequent board meeting held on June 27, Kyokuyo Shipyard Corporation announced board of directors for 2008/2009 and the creation of new post of corporate officer.

On May 30, 2008 took place, at our shipyard, the naming and delivery ceremonies for a 847TEU container carrier S-478, 3rd of 4 sister ships ordered by China's SINOTRANS group.

To old residents, name of "Shimonoseki Stadium" sounds specially nostalgic. Long time ago, when whaling business was permitted and active, Shimonoseki had thrived on fishery.

Hello again! How have you been? Today I will take you to the world of blue water and ... sepia ink!

This year too, we had the flower-watching "hanami" party (see news069) under organization of young employees.

Like everywhere in Japan, the new fiscal-academic-corporate year kicked in on the bright and clear day of April 1!

On February 1st, an 847 TEU type container carrier, code-named S475, was delivered to her Hong Kong based owner, Trade Integrity Shipping Limited. She is the eldest of the series of 4 vessels.

"Seijin no hi" (Day of Adults, literally) is the Japanese coming-of-age day, held on the second Monday in January. To celebrate its employees who reaches the age of 20, Kyokuyo Shipyard presents them a gift on that day every year.

Happy new year! I would like to wish a prosperous new year for everyone of you.