Event
Tree-Planting Ceremony Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of Moving RTRI Head Office and Main Facilities to Kunitachi
October 18, 2019
Railway Technical Research Institute
Celebrating the 60th Anniversary of moving to Kunitachi, the board members of RTRI and its affiliated companies planted a cherry tree on October 16, 2019.
In 1959, 60 years ago, Railway Technical Research Institute, the then in-house research wing of the Japanese National Railways, moved from Hamamatsucho to Kunitachi. President Shinji Sogo and Vice President Engineering Hideo Shima of JNR and about 200 concerned people celebrated the opening of the main building of RTRI at Kunitachi on October 16, 1959. 60 years later, on October 16 this year, RTRI’s Chairman Eisuke Masada and President Norimichi Kumagai planted a commemorative cherry tree in the front yard of RTRI at Kunitachi. The commemorative photo exhibition was held as well until November 1 this year at the entrance hall of RTRI’s main building.
【Greetings by President Kumagai】
It has been 60 years since RTRI moved to Kunitachi. At the time of moving, the opening ceremony was held with around 200 persons including President Sogo, Vice President Engineering Shima, Director Oishi and the people who were involved in the construction work. After 60 years since the ceremony, we would like to renew our perception of what was expected of RTRI in those days and what RTRI has accomplished. This is just a small ceremony, but we would like to recharge and revitalize ourselves on this occasion.
When RTRI moved to Kunitachi, the then President Sogo stressed the value of an in-house research institute and said that railways were standing at a crossroad of contributing to economy, or fading into history, and that the most important thing for a research institute is human resource and the cooperation among employees.
After 60 years, we have to ask ourselves whether we still have maintained the DNA, the tradition. I can say yes, but what we have now has been achieved and accumulated by our predecessors. Since RTRI made a restart as an independent institute 32 years ago, we have generated significant research outcomes in broad-ranging fields including the development of superconducting Maglev train systems, speed increase and seismic measures. We will keep our motivation to continue the research and to achieve sustainable development for the next 60 years.
Over these years, we have discussed what railways should be in the future. We should pursue even higher level of safety and achieve this goal with digitalization technologies. Now we have original, large-scale test facilities and advanced computer simulation techniques that did not exist 60 years ago and have accumulated a vast amount of test data. Hoping to make use of these resources and capabilities of RTRI in the technical innovation of railways, I am planting this commemorative cherry tree.
* You can see all the photos and figures in the PDF file above.