Kitayama Ltd. is located on a small hill in Yokohama City. It is surrounded by spreading peaceful fields. When the husband retired in February 1996 from the company where he had worked for many years, he established Kitayama Ltd. as a company to sell welfare goods and to support the manifest system for waste materials. He is currently renovating his home, which also serves as the company's office. The manifest system support service is notable as the only service of its kind among the eight. We spoke with President Kinue Kitayama about this business.

Kitayama Ltd. is located on a small hill in Yokohama City. It is surrounded by spreading peaceful fields. When the husband retired in February 1996 from the company where he had worked for many years, he established Kitayama Ltd. as a company to sell welfare goods and to support the manifest system for waste materials. He is currently renovating his home, which also serves as the company's office. The manifest system support service is notable as the only service of its kind among the eight. We spoke with President Kinue Kitayama about this business.

The "manifest system" is a system used when a business that generates waste commissions the disposal of industrial waste. The name, quantity, properties, carrier name, processor name, and handling precautions of the industrial waste are recorded on the "control slip (manifest)," and the flow of industrial waste is monitored and managed. Depending on the type of waste, manifest slips of 4 to 8 sheets (25 yen per sheet) are used. The slips are kept in the hands of the emitter, the collector/transporter, and the disposer, and are returned to the emitter in the end. The manifest system started as administrative guidance in April 1990, and the legally enforceable system began with the "specially controlled industrial waste management slip" system under Article 12-3 of the Waste Disposal and Public Cleansing Law, which came into effect in July 1992. Target wastes include waste oil, waste acid, infectious industrial waste, and specified hazardous industrial waste.

Kitayama's service is to handle manifest paperwork for these specially controlled industrial wastes on behalf of our clients. Information on the collected slips is entered into a computer on a monthly basis, and a report to the prefectural governor is prepared. Since many industrial waste collectors and transporters are small companies, they may not be able to keep up with manifest paperwork. Kitayama aims to provide support to these companies.

There is still one vendor that uses our substitute service, and we just started it at the end of 1996. It undertakes about 300 vouchers a month for 25,000 yen. Sales are not a large amount, but it is important for us to gain the trust of vendors. We will take our time to increase the number of customers," says President Kitayama.

President Kitayama learned about FSPAC, the Fuji Electric software he currently uses, through a developer in his neighborhood where he used to live. Touched by the developer's enthusiasm, he started this business with the hope of helping to popularize the software. In addition to handling paperwork on behalf of clients using the software, he also conducts sales activities as a software sales representative and instructor, and has five sales achievements to date.

In February 1997, Kitayama exhibited the manifest paperwork agency service at the "Technical Show Yokohama '97" held in Yokohama. This service attracted much attention and was introduced in the Nikkan Kogyo Shimbun and Kankyo Shimbun. In addition, the revision of the Waste Disposal and Public Cleansing Law currently under discussion in the Diet may expand the use of manifests to all industrial waste. If enacted, this will be a new business opportunity for Kitayama.

Of our current sales, the ratio of welfare to industrial waste is about 7:3. Our immediate goal is to expand our manifest system as an administrative agent and bring the balance of sales to about 50-50," said President Kitayama.