Shirane-aoi Shirane-Aoi (Glaucidium palmatum) is a perennial that grows wild in the mountainous areas extending north from central Honshu and in Hokkaido. The Japanese name comes from Mt. Nikko-Shirane, and reflects the fact that the plant is found in abundance around this mountain. Its purple flower with a diameter of five to ten centimeters is seen in mid and late June every year. But as food for the local deer population, the plant has recently been in sharp decline and it is now designated as a semi-endangered species in the Red Data Book of Gunma Prefecture. The Shirane-Aoi Preservation Group was set up in December 2000 at the initiative of Gunma Prefectural Oze High School and the residents of Katashina Village in Tone-gun, Gunma Prefecture. The Group has a number of initiatives designed to preserve the species, including the collection of seeds, rearing of seedlings, plantation, installation of protection fences, growth surveys and mountain cleaning. Nippon Paper Industries has offered its own Sugenuma Forest, located in Katashina Village, Tone-Gun, Gunma Prefecture, as a site for plantation of Shirane-Aoi. Since 2002, a dedicated band of the Company’s employees have volunteered to participate in plantation and seed-gathering activities. Since the plantation in June 2004, these activities have been positioned as part of the conservation activities for the environment as corporate citizenship made by Nippon Paper Group, and the Group calls for volunteers from its member companies. Running the Malnuma Kogen Resort in part of the Company-owned forest, Nippon Paper Development Co., Ltd. provides support for the operation of the Shirane-Aoi Preservation Group. Plantation work on the mountain slope (with 22 volunteers from the Group’s member companies in 2004) Nippon Paper Group will continue to take part in the efforts to preserve the alpine plant in the hope that the slopes of Mt. Nikko-Shirane will once again be covered with the purple flowers of the Shirane-Aoi.