Message from the President March.2023

When the Mid-Term Management Plan(2020-2022 ) "The Transformation" was announced in 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic had begun to wreak havoc on a global scale. A state of emergency was declared in Japan in April 2020 and restrictions on activities were imposed. This required us to make changes in our daily lives, which had a major social and economic impact.

For example, in order to avoid direct contact between people, the number of companies adopting telework increased dramatically and people were encouraged to shop online rather than visit bricks-and-mortar stores. In addition, contactless scenarios became increasingly widespread, including self-serve and robot server cashless payment, and events held in virtual spaces (metaverse). Companies were forced to change their existing business models as a result of unanticipated external factors.

The challenges of Japan's shrinking workforce and super-aging population would have led to digitization and manpower reduction even if COVID-19 had not existed. However, the pace at which these changes occurred would likely have been much slower than it is now.

The SDGs began to be implemented globally in 2016 with the goal of resolving the pressing issues that stand in the way of realizing a sustainable society. Since then, businesses have been making concerted efforts to find solutions to issues pertaining to areas such as energy, the environment, and food. Today, corporate value cannot be assessed without taking into account how a company's activities are linked to the development of a sustainable society and its contribution to achieving that goal. Moreover, over the past few years, businesses and individuals alike have increasingly been directly impacted by the skyrocketing prices of finite energy resources and the rising frequency and severity of extreme weather events linked to global warming. Many of the issues we are now facing are attributable to the business activities of corporations and the way we conduct our own daily lives. Accordingly, this situation calls for awareness and the need to modify our actions and behaviors.

When we look back 10 or 20 years from now, the changes that have occurred over the past three years (2020-2022) may be said to constitute a major turning point in terms of work, living environment, and technology.

I would like to ask all employees to reflect on the past three years of rapid global changes. How have you changed, and how have you adapted? Rowing a boat requires a different technique depending on whether the direction is upstream or downstream, due to the different speed and strength of the river's current. Failure to change the technique will cause the boat to capsize and the rowers to drown. Likewise, we need to develop the ability to read (be sensitive to) the current of the times and to respond to change (think and take action) in order to successfully navigate through it. Let's hone our ability to be sensitive to the current of the times and to think and take action accordingly so that we can continue to play an active role in the Company's business for the next three years.