Hiroshi Tomita

Title: 
Founder and Chairman of the Board
Organization: 
GEO SEARCH Co., Ltd., Tokyo
Biography: 

Tomita first encountered Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) technology while stationed in Houston with a petroleum engineering company and began a corporate venture utilizing this technology in a new surveying business. 

After returning to Japan, Tomita succeeded in implementing the world’s first tunnel survey system.  When the parent company went bankrupt, he founded GEO SEARCH, Co., Ltd. in 1989 as a spin-out venture and implemented the world’s first underground cavity detection service for road sinkhole prevention.
    
Tomita’s presentation on the findings of his ground-breaking research utilizing GPR in fieldwork caught the attention of the UN’s chief demining officer, Brigadier Patrick Blagden, who requested the detection of small plastic landmines, 2.2 inches (5 cm) in diameter, scattered along the Thai-Cambodian border which were causing tragic injury to children.

Other companies rallied to support this large-scale humanitarian effort, and Tomita established the Japan Alliance for Humanitarian Demining Support (JAHDS), the world's first NGO to support UN landmine clearance activities.

After ten years of pro bono research and development, supported by millions of dollars of investment from his own company’s profits, and additional investment by others, demining operations were established in Cambodia in 2002, with a total landmine removal area of 1,077,472 square meters on the Thai-Cambodian border from 2003 to 2006.  This eased access to the Preah Vihear Temple, registered as a World Heritage Site in 2009, and other Khmer historic locations.

The implementation of the innovative technology used to detect plastic landmines has improved accuracy to an unparalleled level. Furthermore, emergency surveys after the Great East Japan Earthquake have tremendously increased the speed of conventional surveys.  The company has demonstrated leadership not only in Japan, but in the global market as well.

GEO SEARCH utilizes its vehicle-type radar, which scans at speeds of up to 62 mph, to provide 3-D visualizations of underground voids and buried structures to a depth of approximately 6 feet (= approximately 1.8 m). 

To fulfill its corporate philosophy of “Protecting Lives and Livelihoods” in the U.S., a subsidiary was established in Los Angeles County in 2022 to provide disaster mitigation expertise and information to minimize damage from natural disasters.

At the same time, Tomita realizes the importance of disaster mitigation, “GENSAI”, and continues to educate the public by holding awareness programs at his alma mater university and high school.

Category: 
Speaker
Conference: