Basic Policy

In recent years, large-scale disasters induced by earthquakes, floods, typhoons and other natural phenomena have been increasing, causing significant economic damage and posing a grave threat to human society and people’s life. A recent study has reported that the estimated economic damage caused by natural disasters in Japan over the period from 2000 to 2025 totaled approximately 586.6 billion dollars’ worth*. In this context, the Sumitomo Forestry Group has recognized the risk of such major earthquakes, storms, floods and other natural disasters that could seriously affect its business, entailing significant costs, specifically for restoring operations at company-owned facilities, confirming the safety of delivered housing projects, and paying compensation for the delayed completion and delivery of construction works undertaken. These situations could have severe impacts on the Group’s business performance and financial standing.

As a measure to address the above risk, Sumitomo Forestry promotes the sale of high seismic performance homes built by the BF construction method and highly resilient housing equipped to enable life to survive for a certain period of time in case of critical utility infrastructure failures. Furthermore, we are building an IoT-based disaster response service framework to grasp damage situations immediately and remotely and provide prompt support.

*Real value equivalent of the reported values as of January 2026 according to Emergency Events Database (EM-DAT) published by UCLouvain Centre for Research on the Epidemiology of Disasters

Internal Systems to Adapt to Climate Change

Initiatives Promoted by the Disaster Prevention Department

In preparation for possible damage caused by earthquakes and climate change-induced ever-intensifying floods and storms, we have established the Disaster Recovery Guidelines to provide measures and action guidelines for the Housing Division to follow to be able to promptly and accurately respond to affected customers or owners of delivered homes. In addition, during peacetime, each branch office and group company conducts disaster preparedness activities under the instructions of the Disaster Prevention Department. In the case of actual occurrence of disaster, the Department gives instructions to related departments or companies to take appropriate actions to minimize damage.

In August 2025, we conducted emergency inspections and necessary procedures in our customers’ houses affected by the heavy rain that struck northern Kyushu. In December the same year, when a massive earthquake with an intensity of 6 upper occurred off the east coast of Aomori Prefecture, we visited the affected customers’ houses with personnel from local branches to confirm their safety and perform necessary repair work.

IoT Utilization for Disaster Recovery Support

Issues Related to Prompt Assessment of Disaster Situations

While being prone to earthquakes, Japan has also recently begun to suffer from damage caused by torrential downpours, typhoons and other natural phenomena that are becoming increasingly severe due to climate change.

In the case of large-scale natural disaster, it not only takes a long time before lives are restored to the normal state, but also assessing the damage situation is requiring a longer time than before in general. This tendency is exemplified by the case of earthquake that hit Kumamoto in April 2016, in which it took about one and a half months just to complete the administrative emergency safety check aimed at preventing secondary disasters. Difficulties with obtaining information essential for taking action poses a major challenge to overcome in order to help victims with advancing recovery efforts as fast as they wish they could, as expressed in our customer feedback.

Efficient Data Compilation about Disaster Damaged Homes

In an effort to address this issue, Sumitomo Forestry is developing services to accelerate disaster recovery efforts. Specifically, in 2017, we began to conduct demonstration experiments of the IoT-based program to provide solutions using sensors to measure the condition of buildings to collect and analyze relevant data while applying our proven analysis techniques. The program features a number of sensors installed in different locations within the house to collect measurements on the level of structural vibrations and state of inundation and send them online to be fed into the data analysis system, which can be connected to the huge database on wooden house seismic resistance testing performed by our Tsukuba Research Institute in order to produce highly accurate results.

As of December 2025, the program has been deployed in 98 locations nationwide, and data is being collected on an ongoing basis. In addition, we have completed system development to automatically assess the degree of damage of affected buildings and started to conduct verification using the collected data. We will continue to work on the program to explore the possibility of practical application of this new service, in a bid to ensure the safety and security of our customers in the event of a disaster.

Overview of How Data Is Collected

Supporting Speedier Disaster Recovery Process of Affected Customers and Regions

By implementing the sensing system, we aim to remotely assess the damage situation of affected houses to be able to immediately determine and report the situation and swiftly arrange recovery work procedures and provide support needed for individual customers. This will overcome challenges related to the previous practice of personnel visiting each of the affected houses to perform on-site visual check, which was generally time-consuming, and often becoming even more so in the case of catastrophic disaster causing inaccessible damage.

We also consider the possibility of secondary use of the collected data to develop new services to offer a greater sense of ease. One major plan is to collaborate with damage insurance companies to expedite the damage evaluation procedures for the payment of insurance claims, thereby facilitating speedier post disaster reconstruction process.

We have other plans, chiefly to provide the data to our customers and local governments to use for emergency safety check aimed at preventing secondary disasters, as well as offering data analysis results to develop technologies for enhanced seismic property and structure durability.

Sale of Housing Adapted to Climate Change

"Sumitomo Forestry Homes" Resistant to Various Disasters

One key feature of Sumitomo Forestry's wooden houses lies with its original Big-Frame (BF) construction method. It is characterized by pillars with the diameter about five times the standard dimension being adopted as a principal structural member and fixed with strong metal fittings, in order to provide excellent seismic and wind resistance.
We carried out experiments on real-size three-story house models to test the seismic resistance exhibited by the method, and confirmed its capacity to endure earthquakes comparable to the Great East Japan Earthquake and its repeated aftershocks. We have also verified its resistance to wind damage to be caused by a maximum wind velocity of 88 mps, far exceeding 57.5 mps registered when Typhoon Faxai struck the Tokyo metropolitan area in 2019. In addition, our BF structure wooden houses have standard specifications to qualify as a semi-fireproof house as defined by the ministerial ordinance, reducing fire insurance premiums for the houses to be equivalent to those for reinforced concrete (RC) and steel structures.

While ensuring the safety of residents by adopting our original BF construction method to achieve outstanding structural strength, our houses also provide several functions, such as a solar power generation system, rainwater harvesting tanks, and substantial emergency storage space, to enable residents to survive for a certain period of time in case of critical utility infrastructure failures. We also offer the option of installing a video intercom system equipped with a network-connected camera for residents to monitor the indoor situation online remotely even away from home, which is especially useful in the event of a disaster. The emergency storage can also serve to store daily goods and necessities. Furthermore, our original-design built-in furniture increases residential safety by eliminating the risk of collapsed furniture while providing a sleek interior design complete with a fine sense of unity.

BF Construction Method for Housing to Stand Up to Disasters and Enhance Living Comfort

Housing to Support "Evacuees at Home"

In the case of a large-scale disaster, it often happens that many victims survive the crisis situation immediately after its occurrence and become ill later from stress while spending many days at an evacuation center. To make matters worse, it could take a prolonged period of time before the damaged electricity, water and other critical utility infrastructure is restored.

To address this problem, we look at the concept of “evacuation at home,” the option for victims to choose to stay home as evacuees.

In a bid to embody this concept, Sumitomo Forestry Homes provide good resilience functionality in various ways based on the highly seismic resistant BF construction method and Net Zero Energy House (ZEH) features. ZEH specifications have good insulation to support energy-efficient lifestyles while solar power generation systems, household fuel cells, storage battery units, and other functions are installed to ensure adequate electricity supply. Other major resilience features include wind-resistant slate roofing, short circuit fire alarm, home security lights (night lights to also serve as emergency flashlights), and rainwater harvesting tanks to provide emergency water supply.

Strengthening of Resilience

Sumitomo Forestry Homes have a proven track record of demonstrating strong resilience performance, by leveraging our specialty wood processing technologies and adopting proprietary features developed by conducting numerous experiments, to endure unexpectedly severe natural disaster conditions. In order to enhance the quality of post-disaster life as “evacuees at home,” we have recommended settings for resilience materials.

We have recommended settings for the following specifications to improve resilience performance.

• Rainwater tank
• Wind-resistant slate roofing
• Emergency water drain sleeves built in the base structure (to drain water from the base structure in the event of inundation above/below floor level to enable an effective initial step to be taken to recover from flood damage)
• Home security lights (night lights during peacetime; security lights in the event of a power outage; portable lights for emergency use)
• Short circuit fire alarms (to alert residents of an abnormality in the event of a short circuit)

We will continue to provide ever-safer Sumitomo Forestry Homes for the residents to feel greater peace of mind.

Regional Disaster Prevention in Community Development Business

Initiatives to strengthen resilience

Sumitomo Forestry undertakes community development projects, primarily for park development. Our essential objective of this business is to provide a safe and secure environment for local residents, regardless of whether it is a new town creation or improvement project. In whichever case, we plan to install appropriate disaster prevention features, according to the project size, to enhance the disaster preparedness of the surrounding areas, looking to strengthen resilience in the region as a whole. Major such features include open spaces with simple kitchen facilities to accommodate the need for temporary evacuation, emergency water supply, sewerage manhole installation, and others suited to the planned location. We promote the community development business with the aim of creating a place for mutual assistance of people and communities, thereby contributing to safe living environments.

Forest Garden Kunitachi Kiginosono Park

Utilizing properties within Forest Garden Kunitachi Kiginosono Park, a project owned by the Sumitomo Forestry Group, we created a park characterized by a range of disaster prevention features installed to provide appropriate facilities for local residents to use for temporary evacuation in the event of a disaster. The plan came from our wish to give a solution to the regional situation lacking desirable government functions for disaster prevention, such as emergency storage and evacuation sites. The park is equipped with emergency storage, emergency water wells, sewerage manholes, emergency stove benches, pergolas*, among others. We also transplanted many different species of existing miscellaneous trees in order to provide a habitat for native plants and reduce environmental impacts. In doing this, we strove to minimize impact to be caused on the existing habitat environment of insects and birds and achieve a park rich in nature.

*Outdoor ivy trellis often installed over park benches to create shades

Approach to strengthening disaster prevention and resilience

Collaborative Research on Climate Resilient Plant Varieties

In October 2022, "Climate Change-Adaptive Breeding Project (Tropical Forest Resilience Project)" for forests in Indonesia went into full-scale operation. This is an industry- government - academia collaborative initiative promoted by Japan and Indonesia aiming to develop climate adaptive forestry in Indonesia. Sumitomo Forestry is the sole Japanese participant from the private sector, and working with universities and research institutions from the both countries to engage in research and development of plant varieties that are resilient to climate change, with the aim of enhancing the resilience of the forestry industry to ensure its sustainable development.

Behind the launch of this project was the situation of Indonesia facing challenges posed by climate change accelerating the forest loss and degradation process mainly in the tropics. The project plan is to do research on major regional tree species and develop technologies to identify and propagate individual plants adaptable to climate change. The Company has set up labs in its Indonesian group companies―Kutai Timber Indonesia (KTI) engaged in manufacturing and two forestation arms Wana Subur Lestari (WSL) and Mayangkara Tanaman Industri (MTI)―to station the team tasked with the propagation of selected trees and production of seedlings using tissue culturing, cutting, and other necessary techniques. The team will also perform climate change simulations in order to select good individuals according to the expected environmental conditions, with the objective of improving and boosting the forests’  carbon sink and carbon storage functions. By cultivating highly climate-adaptive forests, the project is expected to help restore ecosystem functions, establish sustainable timber production systems for the future, and bring positive effects to local communities and economies in Indonesia.