Nov. 20, 2001 — Dai Nippon Printing Co.’s President and CEO, Yoshitoshi Kitajima, was honored recently by the government of Denmark as an Order of the Knight of Dannebrog. The conferment ceremony was held at the residence of the Danish ambassador to Japan.

Established in 1671, the Order of the Knight of Dannebrog (the name of the Danish flag) is given to private citizens for their contributions to Denmark. Kitajima received the title for his long and dedicated years of economic and cultural contributions to Denmark.

For 12 years, DNP has been operating a 110-person plant in Karlslunde, near Copenhagen. Kitajima introduced a social action program between the two countries. On the cultural and educational front, DNP implemented an internship system to accept students from Copenhagen Business School, as well as donating PCs and Japanese software (including electronic publications) to the school’s Japanese language department.

Today, the order of Dannebrog is rarely given to foreigners. In Japan, the order has been given to a few distinguished professors, Danish honorary consuls having served for at least eight years, and a very select group of businessmen.