On December 1, Air Water West Japan established a joint venture with Okano, a gas distributor in Okinawa, to sell Air Water Group’s business materials in the prefecture for the first time.
　
In Okinawa the Air Water Group has so far been selling medical equipment like hyperbaric oxygen therapy devices and artificial respirators and also other items including dry ice, frozen food for business use and artificial sea water. The annual business scale has been brought up to be one billion yen now. Air Water aims at a more extensive sales channel with the medical equipment as its core. That is why Air Water has tied up with Okano which has a solid business base locally through the industrial and medical gas business.
The new venture named Okinawa Air Water is capitalized at 10 million yen, invested 60% by Air Water West Japan and 40% by Okano and will be headquartered in Tomigusuku City.

The company is planning to expand sales of various items like dry ice snow cleaners or LPG gas emergency power generators in addition to the aforementioned business items.
The company also will establish a contract sterilization business in the premises for the first time in Okinawa and start consigned services for sterilization in hospitals in the prefecture. They aim to get new users mainly in the medical field, so that the annual sales may be doubled up to 2 billion yen in three years.