Our mission is to continually enhance our corporate value and present an attractive and vigorous company to our stakeholders. We are pursuing the vision of a company that will ultimately be of greater value to society. Management is based on continuity and change, and we must have the courage to make decisions based on a clear definition of what traditions we will preserve and what changes we must make to keep pace with the changing times.

Amid the growing trend in Japan towards a borderless market, the company must surmount a number of challenges, including expansion into overseas markets, the influx of foreign goods, procurement of raw materials, measures to deal with fluctuations in the exchange rate, and application of international accounting standards. We aim to detect and navigate such changes in a positive and appropriate manner.

To this end, in 2003 we established a Committee for the Promotion of Structural Reform to define the tasks facing the company, set management benchmarks and periodically check progress in such areas as strengthening the foundations of the company, expanding overseas operations, reinforcing the R&D system and reviewing capital investment.

The goal of creating greater corporate value must be shared by all the employees. It is important, therefore, to strike a balance between \"enthusiasm and logic\". Our employees are full of enthusiasm, so what we need now is logic-oriented management. Opinions based on good judgement and logic inevitably entail responsibility.

The response we adopt to the changing times and the balance we achieve between \"enthusiasm and logic\" will be the new indicators in our endeavour to create ever greater corporate value.