Asahi Refining – Newsweek

Executives at another Japanese giant, Asahi Holdings, came up with a dual-track business model, one aimed at the domestic market and the other targeting overseas expansion, according to President and CEO Mitsuharu Terayama. The company’s already extensive mining and metal refining operations will take a further step toward globalization through a new model of processing various materials to delivering the final product direct to the consumer. “This will mean the whole chain is involved – which no other refining companies are doing – in expanding our operations, so that Asahi becomes the world’s top refining company,” says Mr. Terayama.

“Environmental issues are very important to us,” says Mitsuharu Terayama, President and CEO of Asahi Holdings, conveying a sentiment felt widely across the country and its businesses. “I believe that the world’s interest in the environment has decreased somewhat in recent years because of various political issues we are facing. The leaders of the world must take climate change into consideration more seriously.”

Following COP21 and the recommencement of the G7 environment ministers’ meeting this month, governments are beginning to catch on says Mr. Terayama, however he stresses that it is vital for the private sector to set a good example too. Since its establishment in 1952 for instance, Asahi Holdings has been recycling precious metals and has continually aimed to be the foremost company in eco-business, working to develop technologies, products and services, and leading other firms in activities to preserve the global environment.

Aside from air pollution, one of the biggest environmental issues in Japan today is waste management. Modern day cultures produce a lot of trash, and on a small island nation like Japan, there is only so much room. Asahi Holdings, which specializes in waste disposal, is at the forefront of tackling this problem, detoxifying and properly disposing all types of waste, and promoting the realization of a sustainable, recycling-oriented society.

“I believe that it is of the utmost importance as a business to be contributing to the conservation and improvement of the environment,” explains Mr. Terayama. “It is something which has been entrusted to us by the next generation, and we must not destroy it while it is in our hands.”