Yazaki North America Pitches in to Help Save Belle Isle Aquarium

Tier One Supplier Challenges Local Supplier Community to Match $10,000 Donation

CANTON, Mich., April 1 -- Yazaki Corporation (Yazaki), a leading supplier of vehicle power and data solutions to the automotive industry, has joined in the effort to save one of the Detroit community's cultural gems. Yesterday, the company not only donated $10,000 to the Friends of the Belle Isle Aquarium's campaign to raise the $500,000 necessary to keep the facility operating, but it also issued a challenge to fellow automotive suppliers in Metro Detroit to do the same to preserve this important institution.

"Yazaki is committed to creating opportunities that inspire our community's youth for greatness, and we believe that such is the inspiration of the Belle Isle Aquarium," said Brandon L. Dent, senior manager of Corporate Affairs and Communications for Yazaki. "We hope that our colleagues in Metro Detroit's automotive supplier community will answer our challenge and provide assistance to this very worthy cause."

In danger of closing due to city of Detroit budgetary problems, the Belle Isle Aquarium is North America's oldest, continuously operating public aquarium and the home of 1,500 individual animals of 146 species, 18 of them are endangered, threatened or already extinct in the wild. The building, which opened in 1904, was designed by renowned architect Albert Kahn.

The Friends of the Belle Isle Aquarium has until Sunday, April 3, 2005, to raise the $500,000 needed to keep the facility open through the next fiscal year. To date, they've raised a little more than $30,000. Additionally, someone has donated roofing repairs valued at $400,000. To donate, please call the organization at, (313) 331-7760, or visit their website, http://www.fobi.org/ .

Yazaki Corporation is a global leader in the research, development and delivery of vehicle power and data solutions, as well as advanced electronic technologies for vehicle applications. Yazaki produces electrical distribution systems, fiber optics, instrumentation, solid-state power centers, connection systems and electronics. Worldwide, the company employs over 150,000 people in 37 countries, 1,500 of whom are based in the company's North American headquarters and research center campus in Canton, Michigan. For more information on Yazaki, log onto http://www.yazaki-na.com/ .