Weathernews Inc. is the world's largest private weather service company headquartered in Japan. It is the only global weather content maker that employs over 700 staff (including more than 400 meteorologists) in offices in 40 cities in 15 countries and region, including United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Netherlands, Italy, France, Spain, Denmark, Australia, China, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Philippines, and Taiwan. It offers a full range of weather content using "man-machine shareware system" In November 2003, Weathernews became the first weather service company ever listed in the 1st Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (4825).

Weathernews believes that "weather does not simply mean weather forecast, but is a news in itself (and a valuable information)" For example, it is a service which not only forecasts that it will rain tomorrow, but also tells how a life of people and corporate activities are influenced when it rains. We take into account the individual situation of our customers and advise them on how best they would behave and be ready for a given weather condition. That is in essence the kind of service that Weathernews aims at consistently, which we proclaim "RC Services".

The founder and Global CEO is Hiroyoshi ("Hiro") Ishibashi. In his initial business career, he was responsible for log business working in a trading firm. There, he experienced a tragedy when a chartered ship carrying the logs sank and crews died due to severe weather. He felt personal responsibility for the tragedy, and also felt strongly that accurate weather risk management is vital in avoiding such tragedies. This accident caused Ishibashi to change his job to join a ship routing service company called Oceanroutes to ensure safety of ship and crews. Oceanroutes was founded in 1952 in the U.S., and was specializing in ship routing service. Ishibashi became a member of senior management team of Oceanroutes. In 1986, Ishibashi started a company called Weathernews Inc. capitalizing on some technology and expertise he acquired from Oceanroutes. In 1993, Ishibashi purchased Oceanroutes and merged the companies' expertise and resources to create much more valuable risk communication services for their clients - helping all types of weather-dependent businesses and people to ensure safety and comfort to improve efficiency based on accurate, timely and actionable weather information and analyses. Ishibashi's vision is to grow Weathernews into the world's largest full-service weather content company - helping people understand, appreciate and manage weather's impact on earth, economy, business and people's lives.

Weathernews differentiates itself from other weather companies by utilizing multiple weather models data sources, analyzing and modifying them with in-house meteorological expertise to produce accurate forecasts. These forecasts are then applied into our risk communication services and operational decision support to help our clients take direct actions to mitigate their potential weather risk. As a full-service global weather service company, Weathernews, among others, is offering services to many industries such as airplane operation, mobile content market, oil operation, ship routing, media, retail market, road management support and disaster prevention for local governments that are subjected to weather risks. These industries are supported from the Weathernews network of worldwide offices, which are linked through an extensive communications system. By taking advantage of global economies of scale and scope, Weathernews can provide the highest quality services and support them in the most cost-effective manner.

Performing a variety of weather services to meet the varying needs of 6.4 billion people on earth and offering each and every one of them an optimal service is our final goal. There is no border in weather, and it is a property for all human beings. While it is a risk, it can also be called human beings' life itself. How this great power is employed efficiently or not is dependent on the wisdom of human beings. Weathernews wishes to confess that it does not as yet have all the wisdom to resolve weather-related risks. However, we are committed to work together with all of you "for the supports, with the supporters" to learn how weather affects our life, and how we can bring happiness, richness and solutions to our life by learning more about weather and anticipate from weather.