In collaboration with the Aomori Support Center for Industrial Promotion (Address: Aomori-City, Aomori Prefecture; Executive Director: Shunichi Kudo), which supports the fostering of new industries, the Sojitz Corporation will provide support for the commercialization of products and technologies that are being studied and developed by universities and research institutes in Aomori. 

As the ‘support project to create and accumulate glocal industries', which is being implemented by the Aomori Support Center for Industrial Promotion in cooperation with the New Industries Development Office, Department of Commerce, Industry and Labor, Aomori Prefectural Government, Sojitz will widely call for collaboration with enterprises and financial institutions in Aomori, and aims to contribute to the vitalization of local industries by finding and fostering the seeds of good businesses in Aomori. 

For approximately five months since July 2005, Sojitz has looked into the marketability of matters that have been studied and developed in pursuit of commercialization by universities such as Hirosaki University and Aomori University, and by research institutes such as the Aomori Industrial Research Center and the Aomori Prefectural Agriculture and Forestry Research Center, and has narrowed down to fourteen the number of such matters that offer the feasibility of commercialization. Sojitz will introduce an outline of the matters at the ‘Industrial Cluster Creation Symposium', to be held by the Aomori Support Center for Industrial Promotion on December 8, and will call for investments and participation in businesses from those enterprises and financial institutions that have interests in the creation of new businesses. Together with such interested enterprises, Sojitz will move ahead with concrete actions towards commercialization.

Sojitz will encourage business commercialization through the provision of know-how in the creation of businesses, through sales channel development making use of its broad line of businesses and networks as a sogo-shosha, and through the introduction of business partners outside Aomori. The company has undertaken the creation of various types of new businesses, such as an automobile recycling business and the provision of a service for an industrial waste tracking/management system, and aims at the development of further businesses using its efforts in Aomori as an opportunity.

Prospective Businesses to be Introduced

1. A sales business for an Automatic Scallop Mid-gut Gland Removal System
2. A business concerning the efficient multi-dimensional use of the residue from squeezed apple juice
3. A business concerning the opening up of a new market for Aomori-grown foodstuff (such as tsuru-arame)
4. A business concerning the opening up of a new market for squeezed Gamazumi juice (jomi juice)
5. A sea farming business, utilizing technology to improve the hatching rate of sea cucumbers
6. A business concerning the production and sale of wooden toys made from native Aomori cedar/cypress trees
7. A business concerning the production and sale of vegetation base, making use of thinned Japanese cedar wood
8. A practical application of technology to improve the combustion efficiency of woody biomass
9. Attraction of plants that utilize new recycling technologies
10. A human resources development business for setting up a diamond cutting plant
11. The development and commercialization of security products that utilize technology to confirm the safety of elderly people living alone
12. A business concerning the establishment of a development base for embedded systems
13. A business concerning the establishment of wireless LAN-based public services
    A business concerning consultation for a universal design and welfare business