Mitsubishi Corporation

Introduction Main Web Site	Mitsubishi Corporation is Japan's largest integrated trading and investment company. Its annual revenue in 2003/4 was Yen 15 trillion (US$130 billion). Together with its numerous subsidiaries, affiliates and investments, Mitsubishi Corporation's business interests are world-wide and include most market sectors - particularly pulp & paper. The company and Mitsubishi Paper Mills (a separate listed company from Mitsubishi Corporation) work together in the procurement of some of the latter's wood chip supplies. After having been described in the 1990s by the Western media as "the world's most destructive company" and attacked by NGOs such as the US's Rainforest Action Network Mitsubishi Corporation has improved its performance in respect of some of its wood supplies after being exposed internationally during the 1990s as complicit in forest destruction. There are still certain suppliers Mitsubishi Corporation is involved with that would not satisfy FSC or probably any other certification scheme (e.g. Mitsubishi's involvement with Gunns in sourcing from Tasmania's ancient forests); and the company will remain a target of external pressure. The company appears committed to working towards the certification (to FSC standards) of a number of its mono-culture tree farm projects. Mitsubishi Corporation and others are participating in one such project in China. This is being promoted as a carbon offset project. Mitsubishi Corporation is palying a key role in the development of a heavily subsidised timber processing complex in the region of Putian (a town in China's Fujian province).[ref: Japan Lumber Reports (28 April 2005)] Putian is infamous for its links, via Liem Sioe-Liong who owned the Salim group, to former President Suharto of Indonesia and China's (illegal) imports of timber from Russia. This complex has been granted a five year monopoly starting in June 2005 too fumigate China's log imports (hitherto, China prohibited the import of logs which did not meet certain phytosanitary standards - a prohibition which, given the huge volume of illegal timber which China imports, might not be widely respected). Being remote from major nodes of economic growth, it is likely that this complex will have an export focus. Mitsubishi ought to be aware that, unless the logs (including those from Alaska) entering the complex are credibly certified as legal, export markets are likely to deem the complex's exports as illegal (and, the subsidies may warrant anti-dumping measures) - jeopardising (reputable) investment in the complex.
Businesses Dealing in Products Based on Tropical Timber	Relevant enterprises include: Green Houser Co (wood building materials), Eidai do Brasil (tropical timber production), MCA, and Mitsubishi Shoji Construction Materials. MCA is a subsidiary of Mitsubishi Corporation which specialises in trade in Southsea and Russian logs.[ref: Japan Lumber Reports (24 March 2000)]
Scale of Tropical Timber Trade	Mitsubishi Corporation imported well over a million cubic metres of tropical timber in the late 1980s and early 1990s (including much from Malaysia - particularly Sarawak (through Daiya) - and Meiwa Trading) and had a major plywood mill in the Philippines. Mitsubishi has also had logging interests in Papua New Guinea. Mitsubishi Corporation has been the biggest supplier of plywood from Indonesia (including from Barito Pacific in the Moluccas and its own mill in Kalimantan). It has invested in APP, particularly its subsidiary PT Pabrik Kertas Tjiwi Kimia which sells office paper under the Paperline brand. It is likely that the company continues to import timber from Indonesia, Malaysia and Russia (including indirectly through China) - whose timber exports tend to be illegal and/or from unsustainably managed forest. Mitsubishi Corporation disposed of its ownership stake in the company Eidai do Brasil "Eidai" in 1997 to its partner Eidai Sangyo - a building materials company which specialises in wooden flooring and joinery. Mitsubishi Corporation is probably still involved, for example in the distribution Eidai's output. Eidai is one of the leading logging companies in Brazil's tropical forest - much of its output is sold in the USA. Eidai has been fined for engaging in illegal timber - yet it also sells some FSC-certified joinery products (which it and others appear to procure from third parties). Eidai's log production is in the order of 0.25 million m3.
Policy on Use of Tropical Timber Products	Mitsubishi Corporation's medium-term plan includes "reshaping industries to reflect market needs". The wood-based products market needs to be confident that it is supplied with products deriving legally from sustainably managed forest. In claiming both to support Third Party Certification (particularly that endorsed by the Forest Stewardship Council) and to carry our environmental audits of its businesses, Mitsubishi Corporation appears committed to meeting this need. However, in so far as it continues to supply uncertified wood-based products from Brazil, China, Indonesia, Malaysia and Russia, Mitsubishi Corporation puts these claims and plan at risk - and may be in breach of its own environmental policy (which requires that its businesses do not engage in unlawful activity - i.e. it does not facilitate or participate in trade in illegal timber) and might conflict with the wishes of the company's Chairman to end illegal logging. To assure customers and the public that it, a flagship of Japanese enterprise, does not trade in such timber, and to comply with its stated policy of open dialogue, Mitsubishi Corporation may consider publishing reports on the Environmental Reviews which it claims to carry out annually, specifically on those of its businesses which have significant interest in Indonesia, Malaysia and Russia and other countries where unsustainable and illegal logging is prevalent. Mitsubishi Corporation's commendable experiments in restoring natural tropical forest may be dwarfed by the company's participation in trade in wood-based products from tropical forest.
Contact Details within Company	Address unless otherwise indicated: Mitsubishi Corporation 6-3, Marunouchi 2-chome Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8086 Japan 'phone: +81 3 3210 2121 fax: +81 3 3210 8583 Mr Mikio Sasaki President and Chief Executive Officer Mr Takeshi Inoue Executive Vice-President, Group Chief Executive Officer Living Essentials Group Mr Kimio Okano Senior Vice-President, Division Chief Operating Officer Lumber and Housing Materials Unit General Merchandise Division Living Essentials Group Mr Minoru Akita General Manager Environmental and Social Responsibility Office 'phone: +81 3 3210 9489 fax: +81 3 3210 9257 e-mail (direct): minoru.akita@mitsubishicorp.com e-mail (general): mcenv@mitsubishicorp.com