Having started as a mine and nonferrous metal company, we have supported economic growth alongside modernization in the area of nonferrous metals. More recently, we have been growing by expanding into areas of business where we can apply our accumulated technologies and experience.
- 拡大
- 1907: Roaster at Kosaka mine (currently KOSAKA SMELTING & REFINING CO., LTD.)
The Company was established in 1884, after the Japanese government sold the Kosaka mine, the largest silver mine in Japan at the time. More than a decade later, the Company faced financial difficulties when the mine’s silver ore reserves became depleted, compounded by a drop in silver prices. However, DOWA managed to develop technology capable of refining black ore, a complex sulfide ore found in large quantities at the bottom of the silver deposits. This allowed us to revive the Kosaka mine as a copper mine.
From that point on, DOWA expanded as a mining-oriented company, boosted by demand generated by two world wars and post-war reconstruction. The Plaza Accord of 1985, however, led to a rapid appreciation of the Japanese yen and a subsequent and substantial drop in domestic prices for nonferrous metals. This drop in prices caused the profitability of mining, DOWA’s then primary business, to plummet. As a consequence, DOWA was forced to shift away from a mining-oriented business structure.
- 拡大
- Around 1960: Okayama refinery
(currently DOWA ELECTRONICS MATERIALS OKAYAMA CO., LTD.)
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- Around 1980: Toyooka Plant
(currently DOWA METAL CO., LTD.)
Since 1990, after moving on from mining, we have worked to diversify our business. These efforts built the foundations for the DOWA Group’s businesses today but had yet to improve profit levels in any significant way. Taking in this situation, we went forward with reorganizing our corporate structure starting in 2000, with an emphasis on reforming our profit and asset structures and reducing interest-bearing debt. In addition, we committed management resources to our core businesses—the Environmental Management & Recycling Business, the Nonferrous Metals Business, the Electronic Materials Business, the Metal Processing Business, and the Heat Treatment Business—a decision that allowed us to showcase our competitiveness for many years after.
We have utilized our five core businesses to develop a recycling-oriented business model that features an unprecedented smelting and recycling complex that combines appropriate waste treatment with metal recycling. These businesses have also enabled us to provide highly functional materials, technologies, and services and to develop a plethora of niche products. Today, these strengths make it possible for us to do business on the global stage.
Under Midterm Plan 2024, we will continue to improve corporate value by strengthening financial and non-financial aspects of the DOWA Group.
- 拡大
- 2007: Introduced recycling-specific furnace
at KOSAKA SMELTING & REFINING CO., LTD.
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- 2009: Began waste treatment in Southeast Asia
- 拡大
- 2010: Introduced recycling business for used
lithium-ion batteries
DOWA’s History and the Origins of Sustainability-Focused Management
DOWA’s founder, Fujita Denzaburo, was a businessman during Japan’s Meiji era who contributed to the industrial world through his involvement in a broad range of businesses that included construction, railways, textile spinning, power generation, and newspapers, in addition to mining.
Fujita founded the Company in Kosaka (Akita Prefecture), where he donated large sums to elementary schools based on the conviction that education is the source of national wealth and power. Further, through the Company’s predecessor, Fujita Gumi, he established social capital by introducing electric utilities, constructing railways, maintaining waterworks, and building schools, housing, hospitals, and leisure facilities, such as theaters and sports centers.
This social capital was made available not only to those directly or indirectly involved with the mine but also to residents of local communities.
Sustainability management at the DOWA Group is corporate management conducted from a long-term perspective, drawing from Fujita Denzaburo’s philosophy of “coexistence between workers and the residents of local communities.”
Founder
FUJITA
Denzaburo
（1841–1912）
Business centered on mining and smelting
Transition from mining toward diversification
Formation of recycling-oriented business model using our five core businesses
