The 2013 New Year Opening Ceremony was held in an Oshima shipyard painting factory on January 7, 2013.

In his speech during the ceremony, President Minami thanked all employees for their dedicated hard work and called for joining hands to beat this serious recession with winning strategies.” Mr. Nakatsuno, chairman of the Labor Union, delivered his speech and said, “Let’s step up work efficiency through clarification of our goals and objectives and fight against the current difficulties with a mutual trust and spirit of “Safety Comes First.” And then, Hatanaka, shipyard manager, made a safety declaration and reinstated a warning to the effect that workers should always stay on top of safety requirements. All employees present called out “Safety First” in chorus and pledged zero-accident working environment.

What followed that was a new year’s commendation of total 11 items “good deed” and “excellent achievement,” consisting of one commendation by the president, five by the shipyard manager and five by general affair managers, respectively.

Finally, the New Year opening ceremony closed with all people’s praying led by Director Kamichika for zero accidents and good health of all the people present in the ceremony.