RISU AMERICA, INC. celebrated the completion of its first American facility Monday morning in Shelbyville.
The facility is the 15th production site for the company and the first located outside of Japan.
“It is a great honor to celebrate the completion of our very first project in the United States,” said Eita Omatsu, President of Gifu Plastic Industry Co., Ltd. “Today, on behalf of our company, I would like to extend my deepest gratitude to everyone that supported us throughout this journey. Thanks to the hard work of our business partners and the generous hosts of your community, we are able to stand here today right on schedule to author this new chapter.”
Construction of the facility located at 867 W. Boomer Way in the Shelbyville Industrial Park began in April 2024 and was completed on schedule. The manufacturing facility sits on 1.94 acres, but the company purchased 29 acres on site for future expansion as needed.
“This tradition of investment and partnership between the U.S. and Japan and other nations around the globe is not new in 2025,” said U.S. Congressman Jefferson Shreve (photo), who represents Indiana’s 6th District. “Indiana really leaned into this partnership with our Japanese investors more than 40 years ago under the leadership of Governor Bob Orr. We have been doing it really well. This is a very mutually advantageous, profitable, community-driven relationship. We are so thankful that American government welcomes the foreign direct investment of our Japanese partners.”
Gifu Plastic Industry Co., Ltd. was founded in 1953 in Gifu, Japan, and manufactures plastics used in logistics, food containers, construction and civil engineering materials, household products and medical components.
RISU AMERICA INC. is a subsidiary of Gifu Plastic, which has manufactured plastic pallets since 1990. The Shelbyville facility will immediately begin producing plastic pallets to fit the need of logistics materials in North America.
The company will begin operations with 21 employees, including 13 engineers from Japan. The workforce is expected to grow to nearly 40 employees to meet operational needs.
“This all started over 40 years ago. Earlier this year we celebrated Ryobi’s 40th anniversary, which was a milestone in our community,” said Shelbyville Mayor Scott Furgeson (photo) of the city’s partnership with Japanese companies. “The amount of lives that have been touched in our community and the opportunities that our citizens have had to follow that, and the relationships that we’ve had allowed us to start a sister city (relationship) which has flourished. We’ve had students here every year and we send students over there every year. It touches so many lives in our community. I don’t know if the Japanese people understand how great of an experience it is to host students and be able to send students to Japan to have that cultural experience.”
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