October 10, 2014
Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. ("K" Line) has today announced that it has provided free ocean transportation of an ambulance and a fire engine donated by Fujisawa-city Fire Department in Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, to Republic of El Salvador.
Being the most densely populated country in Americas, with over 6 million residents in the area of around 21,000 km2, El Salvador has long been faced with shortage of fire engines, having only 19 units in the whole nation. Recognizing such a situation, Fujisawa-city has decided to donate its ambulance and fire engine to El Salvador because Ms. Martha Lidia Zelayandia, the country's Ambassador to Japan, had long been living in the city before, while "K" Line provides free ocean transportation of those vehicles as per request from the ambassador to Mr. Hiroyuki Maekawa, Special Executive Advisor of the company and Honorary Consul of the country. Those vehicles have been put in order for usage in El Salvador supported by Mr. Koichiro Hara, Representative Director of Fulltime System Co., Ltd. and Chairman of Japan-El Salvador Association, and have been loaded onto "K" Line's pure car carriers (PCCs) at Yokohama. The ambulance has been loaded on August 31, and so has the fire engine on October 10, respectively, in the cooperation of Daito Corporation, an affiliate company of "K" Line. It wishes the ambulance and the fire engine from Japan will successfully serve in El Salvador for helping precious lives.
"K" Line has established close relationship with Latin American Countries for a long time, assuming Honorary Consul of El Salvador since 1969, Chairmanship of Japan-Chile Association (est. 1940) and Japan-Peru Association (est. 1954), as well as Directorship of Latin-America Association in Japan (est. 1958). It has been actively providing free ocean transportation of supporting goods for Latin American countries, such as an ambulance and a fire engine donated from Japan to Republic of Peru in 2012. It will continue contribution to society through its core business, ocean transportation.