Yoshinori Abe, acting chairman of the Tohoku Industrial Rubber Products Wholesale Trade Association and president of Seiwa Shoji, recently spoke to Japan Rubber Weekly about the economic conditions of the Tohoku region. Dividing the Tohoku region into East and West, an economic disparity has arisen between the three prefectures of Aomori, Akita, and Yamagata on the Sea of Japan side, to…