Komatsu: Through Permafrost, Desert and Swamps

Fifty years of Komatsu machines working in the world’s harshest climates.

In the 1970s Japanese engineers travelled to the far north-east to test new machinery in a brutal climate: −50 °C and high humidity. The results went straight back to the factories in Japan, where bulldozers and other equipment were improved for the largest construction and mining projects of the time.

Komatsu pipe-layers went on to build major gas pipelines, dump trucks worked in coal mines and excavators reached every region. The film traces that story through permafrost, desert and swamp — and lands on what Komatsu stands for today: advanced technology, materials and the highest safety standards.