Tagawa Industries is a plaster manufacturer based in Tagawa City, Fukuoka Prefecture. It has been in business for a century.

That company is now in Ukraine, working to turn war debris into tiles.

As someone helping with the company’s website redesign, this story has been on my mind for quite some time. Since I had the opportunity, I asked President Yukihira to spare some time so I could ask him about it.

What actually sparked the idea for the Ukraine project in the first place?

It started with a message from an acquaintance. This person lives in Osaka and had helped us out when we exhibited at a Limix trade show in the past. We don’t usually keep in touch, but they remembered Limix and went out of their way to contact us.

That person said they’d seen the news—that Ukraine was apparently having trouble dealing with the rubble.

Is that all?

That’s all.

Wait, you took action based on just that message?

I was curious, so I looked up the original news story. As I dug deeper, I discovered that a framework is starting to take shape between Japan and Ukraine to connect private-sector technologies.

It’s said that there are over 10 million metric tons of rubble in Ukraine. There’s nowhere to put it. Just transporting it is a massive undertaking.

At that point, did you think, “We can do this”?

I did.

Our “Rimix” is made by setting plaster without firing it to create a ceramic material. Since nearly half of the raw materials are aggregates, we can mix other materials into it.

We’ve mixed in all sorts of things in the past: incineration ash from thermal power plants; ash from burned sewage sludge; glass from solar panels; and sand from the deserts of the Middle East.

Can construction debris be treated the same way as ash?

There are some aspects we won’t know until we try. But it’s not like we’re diving into something completely unfamiliar. Mixing materials is something we’ve been doing for a long time.

So when I heard “building debris,” I thought, “We can probably do this.”

So, who did you consult first?

The Kyushu Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry. It was around the beginning of 2024. I asked if they had any specific information.

The person in charge did a lot of research for us. They said, “It seems there’s an initiative like that at the central ministry.” Based on that, they told us:

“What can Tagawa Industries do, and what are you planning to do? If you can prepare materials that explain that, we’ll try to put you in touch with the right people.”

So, we put together the materials in April.

What happened with that document?

About two months after we submitted it, we received a call. They said it matched the technology the Ukrainian side was seeking, so they asked if we could come to Berlin to give a presentation.

Two months. Isn’t that too fast?

It was fast, wasn’t it? I put together the materials in April, and by early June, I was in Berlin. I was giving a presentation on our technology to officials from Ukraine’s Ministry of Economy.

So, they reached out to you, right?

No, no—it was our proposal.

Oh, really?

People often misunderstand this, but I didn’t do it because someone asked me to. I saw the news, did some research, put together the materials, and took them there. That’s all.

How many times did you go there after that?

Three times. All in 2025—in July, November, and December. I went three times in half a year.

I’d take the overnight train in, sleep in an underground shelter, and mainly visit two cities—Kyiv and Lviv—and finally went to see a rubble dump on the outskirts.

During that time, a study to convert rubble into building materials had begun under the framework of the United Nations.

When you hear about it, it sounds pretty reckless, doesn’t it?

Well, maybe so.

How far along is that project now?

To be honest, nothing has been accomplished yet. No factories have been built, and not a single tile has been set over there.

Right now, it’s all just pie in the sky. We have to actually make it happen.

So, it’s still a work in progress.

Still, since it was interesting to hear about, I’ll write about it in a series of posts. It’s not all success stories—there are also times when we hit a wall and situations where we still haven’t found a solution.

Next, I’ll tell you about my first trip to the site.