{"id":391,"date":"2022-04-21T18:52:54","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T09:52:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/workmill.jp\/en\/?post_type=webzine&p=391"},"modified":"2023-09-04T18:06:15","modified_gmt":"2023-09-04T09:06:15","slug":"recycle-ishizaka-japan-20220421","status":"publish","type":"webzine","link":"https:\/\/workmill.jp\/en\/webzine\/recycle-ishizaka-japan-20220421\/","title":{"rendered":"Why 40,000 people Visit Our Waste Treatment Plant Each Year – Noriko Ishizaka From Ishizaka Sangyo, Japan"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Home to numerous industrial waste incinerators and treatment plants, Kunugiyama, a mixed forest which extends across the cities of Tokorozawa, Kawagoe, and Sayama, and the town Miyoshi, was once called The Ginza of Industrial Waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1999, erroneous media reporting led to an uproar about dioxins in Japan. Against a background of intense finger-pointing at industrial waste management companies, there was one industrial waste company with a rather off-beat story about attracting fireflies and Japanese honeybees. That company was Ishizaka Sangyo Co., Ltd., based in the town Miyoshi.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Japan, waste is roughly divided into two categories: one is general waste, which is generated by citizens living their lives, and the other is industrial waste, which is generated by economic activity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the cost of general waste processing is covered through taxation paid by citizens, this is not the case with industrial waste, the processing of which individual companies outsource to external companies. Ishizaka Sangyo handles this kind of industrial waste processing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ishizaka Sangyo takes the industrial waste that has been trucked to its plant and carries out the recycling (resource recovery). It now has a solid reputation for being a high-tech industrial waste plant that has achieved an industry-leading 98% recycling rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly, inspection groups visiting Ishizaka Sangyo come not only from industrial waste companies, but from a wide variety of fields, including educational institutions and manufacturing companies. It seems that visitor numbers are as high as 40,000 people a year.  We are pleased to share our in-depth conversation with the company\u2019s representative director, Noriko Ishizaka.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many Visitors Come To Find Out About our Staff Rather Than the Garbage<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
\"Noriko<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u30fc<\/span>Noriko Ishizaka
Born in Tokyo, 1972. After graduating from high school in Japan, she studied at a university in the US for a short period of time. She joined Ishizaka Sangyo Co., Ltd., which was founded by her father, in 1992. Motivated by an incident of erroneous reporting about dioxin contamination of agricultural crops in the Tokorozawa area of Saitama Prefecture, she negotiated directly with her father saying, “I will be the person who changes the company,\u201d and was appointed president in 2002.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WORK MILL\uff1a<\/span>Ishizaka Sangyo is said to be visited by up to 40,000 people a year from all manner of industries. What are the aims of the people who come to visit you here?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Noriko: As we are not engaged in direct sales, there aren\u2019t so many opportunities for people to learn about us. So for the most part, people come to know about us through word of mouth, and the message that gets around is that we have lovely people working for us. The focus is on our employees rather than on something like having excellent technology or a wonderful president.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Industrial waste management tends to have a negative image, don\u2019t you think? There is still a strong perception of it as an industry that no one wants to work in; an industry with a bad reputation. So, can you explain why\u2014in the face of all that\u2014our employees seem to do their jobs so happily? Corporate people come to visit us with such questions in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

WORK MILL\uff1a<\/span>We certainly got the impression that you have a lot of lovely staff here. The parking lot guides and people at head offices greeted us with a smile each time they passed by. What kinds of in-house initiatives do you have?<\/p>\n\n\n

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\u30fcA smiling employee<\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n

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\u30fcVisual inspection of wood brought to the plant
to check for the presence of foreign substances. <\/p>\n\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>