In the first place we would like to thank everyone for the many inquiries and messages of sympathy we have received following the huge earthquake of March 11. Happily, all Daishichi employees are safe, and damage to the brewery is also relatively minor. Here we would like to update you on the situation as it is of today, March 22.
- Personal accidents:
None. - Building:
As the brewery is very strongly-built, there is no structural damage. Only the joints between the various buildings and some doors received minor damage. - Equipment:
The bottling plant received no damage.
As regards the brewing equipment, some tanks were moved from their place by the strong shaking and some of the pipes were damaged, but this has all immediately been repaired. - Stored sake and finished products:
The large amount of sake we have stored for maturation was undamaged. As our sake in many cases is matured for ten years or even longer, and as during that period a natural disaster like an earthquake can easily occur, we take special care of safe and earthquake-proof storage.
When the earthquake struck on the 11th, some products that were just at that moment being bottled or were being removed from the warehouse for shipping, crashed to the ground. That was the only damage to our products.
[About the problems with the nuclear facility]
Daishichi is located inland, far away from the affected area. On top of that, the walls of the brewery consist of 25 cm thick concrete – when you include the hollow concrete blocks and red brick tiles etc., it even comes to a total protection of more than 32 cm thickness (to which still could be added the insulating materials and inner walls). Since March 11 we keep the inside of the building airtight shut. We are convinced that our products are being kept in a very safe environment.
[About our present business]
While being careful because of the continuing aftershocks, at Daishichi we are brewing sake as normal and we also have the capacity to ship our products as normal.
However, due to the shortage of gasoline, deliveries we can make ourselves are very limited and also transport companies and parcel-delivery companies are not operating. Happily, there are signs that this is improving now and we trust we can resume deliveries as soon as transport companies resume their work. 
[Finally]
We mourn those who have lost their lives in this earthquake, and express our deepest sympathies to all those who have been hit by this disaster.
Daishichi will do its best for the reconstruction of our region.