Cherry trees, which produce the blossoms known as Japan's national flower, will not produce the same flowers as its parent plant if a tree is grown from a seed since miscellaneous characteristics emerge. Therefore, the plantlets have to be multiplied by vegetative propagation, and cherry plantlets are prepared conventionally by grafting techniques. It takes more than three years to prepare for planting because the grafting must follow the process of growing a rootstock and grafting branches to the rootstock to make a cherry tree. For this reason, the number of trees produced is limited. Moreover, it is said that it is generally difficult to culture the tissues of cherry trees. However, using a rooting technology based on photoautrophic culture system*, the revolutionary cloning technology developed by Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd. specifically for propagating elite Eucalyptus globulus through tissue culture, has overcome these difficulties to enable the efficient growing of cherry plantlets. Nippon Paper Group has started to support the preservation of valuable and old cherry trees in historic, cultural, and academic terms voluntarily since May 2004. *Photoautrophic culture system: A method of culturing plants with only carbon dioxide, water and light and without using sugar nutrition, achieved by enhancing the photosynthetic capacity of plants. →Go Back to Major Activities