Asahi Glass Co., Ltd., of Tokyo, Japan (President & CEO : Hiromichi Seya) supports Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, Smithsonian Institute, in New York, exhibiting sun light collection and transmission system "HIMAWARI" (Japanese name of sunflower) in the exhibition "Under the Sun" which is held from June 21 to October 25, 1998.

"Under the Sun" is an outdoor exhibition which is held in the southern garden of the museum as one of the Cooper-Hewitt's centennial projects. Its theme is solar energy. The exhibition explores the power of the sun as a catalyst for design both practical and visionary and enlighten utilizing of solar energy . A variety of solar and solar electric products, prototypes, and commissioned designs will demonstrate that the sun's energy is a working asset.

Asahi Glass started solar energy utilizing business in 1991 by establishing a joint venture company with Mori Building Co., Ltd., "Laforet Engineering Co., Ltd." which manufactures and sells "HIMAWARI" system. "HIMAWARI" consist of three main parts, lenses, optical fiber made by Asahi Glass, and sun tracking system. Lens collects the sun light, then optical fiber, its incident end aligned onto the focal point of lens, transmits the light to anywhere desired. The lens of "HIMAWARI" are controlled to face to the sun by microprocessor. In this exhibition, "HIMAWARI" with 36 lenses will be shown.