In a letter to the Amateur Radio community, Vertex Standard Chief Executive Officer and President Jun Hasegawa expressed his “sincere appreciation to all of you for your kind words and thoughts about us” after the devastating 8.9 earthquake that struck Japan last week. Vertex Standard is the parent company of Yaesu.

All Vertex Standard employees and their families are safe and unhurt, Hasegawa said, but the company has not been able to reach many of their dealers and subcontractors who are located on the coast area: “We just hope that they are alive."

Hasegawa said that a Vertex Standard factory in Fukushima was damaged in the earthquake. Even though the factory is not located near the coast and the damage was minimal, he said that Vertex Standard has decided to “disable the operation at this moment.” Saying that they are working very hard to get the factory back to its normal operation, Hasegawa said that “it may take one to two weeks to restart operation in the Fukushima factory. I would like to ask for your understanding and cooperation at this time.”