• Company Information

Construction of new building for Yupo Corporation Research and Development Laboratory

Saturday, December 1, 2018

Yupo Corporation (President and CEO: Hideyuki Fujiwara; Headquarters: Kanda-surugadai, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo) will construct a new building as part of the restructuring of the Kashima Factory (Towada, Kamisu-shi, Ibaraki), which is a production base in Japan that conducts research and development for the entire Yupo Group in Japan and overseas. The new building will be constructed on newly secured adjacent land on the north side of the Kashima Factory. Construction will begin in 2018 and is scheduled to be completed in autumn 2019. The construction of the new research and development laboratory is one of the initiatives for the 50th anniversary of the company's founding in 2019.

Various pilot/prototype/test facilities, which are currently distributed across the factory, will be consolidated into the new building, and various analytical and inspection instruments will be newly introduced. Yupo Corporation aims to speed up the development of groundbreaking new products such as YUPO GREEN, a product containing biomass-derived resin, and Yupo that can be printed on both sides with oil-based ink for paper.
In addition, Yupo Corporation is planning to increase its production capacity in preparation for future demand growth at the site where development-related equipment will be relocated by sequentially introducing production equipment for future multiple products and new product production.

The current R&D laboratory was established in 1971 as an in-plant research building of the former Oji-Yuka Synthetic Paper Laboratory. Since then, the lab has consistently been engaged in new product development and base material research for synthetic paper YUPO. Beginning with product development for FP paper, the predecessor of the current YUPO, the lab has responded to customer requests with products with various functions, such as General YUPO, SUPERYUPO, ULTRAYUPO, and in recent years, YUPOSTATIC, that can be adhered by electrostatic force. In response to the increasingly diversified market demands and increasing expectations for environmentally friendly products advocated by the SDGs in recent years, in 2019, the 50th anniversary of the company's founding, Yupo Corporation has decided to set up a new building for the research and development laboratory with the aim of strengthening product development capabilities to respond even more quickly and accurately.

Research and development laboratory Overview of new building

  • The installation site is located adjacent to the Kashima Factory
  • Reinforced concrete 2-story building area 1,375 m2 (55 m × 25 m)
  • Includes workbench facilities and various laboratories, evaluation-related facilities, office and conference areas
  • Total construction cost 1.3 billion yen
  • Completion/Usage timing: Scheduled for fall 2019
  • Construction company: Mitsubishi Chemical Engineering Corporation
Research and development laboratory New building Scheduled completion image

Inquiries about this matter

General Affairs Department, Management Division, Yupo Corporation