Since the company was founded in 1988, it has been conducting business with many countries all over the world as an international trading company but its origins date back to when I was in junior high school.
My mother, who had spent most of her youth in times of war, told me on countless occasions from when I was a very small child about the importance of knowing about the world; she had developed this opinion through her experience of the war. With this in mind, it was my mother who strongly recommended that I learn English. She must have badly wanted me to know about the big wide world because, at the time of the war, English had been the language of the enemy. Due to this and other factors, two years before the return of Okinawa to Japan, I travelled to the US for the first time at the age of eighteen. I was so overwhelmed by this new experience that I could only express shock and I experienced a series of surprises one after another. I was also able to experience the importance of actually seeing the world with your own eyes.
Following this, I started work in the trade business and it was then that I really experienced the high quality of products made in Japan. With the intention of bringing products made in Japan to the world in the high-grade steel field, which has internationally renowned advanced technology, I founded Toho International.
I realized something while I was exporting Japanese products to the world. It was that the Japanese products that we were exporting were an important part of comfortable lives of people overseas. We are currently focusing on countries in South East Asia with initiatives to enhance our overseas network in order to achieve international contribution in even more countries and regions. We have established collaborative relationships with partner companies in various countries such as Hong Kong, Vietnam, Thailand and India and our business is in the process of steady expansion in additional countries as well.
Meanwhile, if we look to the domestic Japanese market, we see that the economy is in difficulty. There are many issues that we cannot ignore such as the declining birth rate and negative economic growth. Consequently, our company is proactively making efforts to employ and make good use of female staff. We actually have a number of women in executive positions. We provide an environment in which our female staff can be active without compromising either their children or their work and we want them to grow together with the company.
The world will always be in a state of flux. We want to respond flexibly to these changes in the world while staying in touch with our suppliers and customers onsite. We thank you for your support and hope that we will be able to serve you for many years to come.
