I would like to congratulate each of you on entering our company.

As the representative for all Group employees, I offer my warm welcome to all of you in this young, energetic group who will carry the Fujikura Group forward.

This year marks 132 years since our company was founded in 1885. Our work in building infrastructure since our company was founded has helped to build our nation. Starting out as a private company, Fujikura became known and valued among customers for our technology. We achieved this by refining and providing proprietary technology that eclipsed the technology of other companies.

Unfortunately, the infrastructure market in Japan has matured and is now shrinking. Demand is strong overseas, though, and our group has also kept pace with the changing market. Today, 101 of our 142 group companies are overseas, and over 60% of net sales are derived from customers overseas. We have also grown our four business segments of Power, Telecommunication Systems, Electronics, and Automotive Products to the point where they each contribute nearly equally to sales. However, reality dictates that all businesses must eventually come to an end. It is important for us to capture market trends and provide the products and services our customer desire, ahead of our competitors. We will rely on the strength of our excellent technologies as we continue to expand our global business with a strong awareness of providing not just "things" or products, but "services" or solutions as well.

The Fujikura Group embarked on a new five-year medium-term business plan entitled "Change ourselves and bridge to the future! 2020 Mid-term" in April of last year (2016). The entire group is united in pressing ahead on a daily basis to become a company that holds future promise and will continue in the future based on high earning power and the power of strong "metabolism" as a company that shoulders the responsibility for contributing to society. This business plan focuses most on the profit margin rather than net sales. We are aiming to achieve an operating margin of 7.0% or higher on sales of around 900 billion yen in 2020. This is a high goal, but we have steadily improved our "earning power" over these past few years and these numbers are certainly attainable.

It is our "people" who will achieve these plans and create even greater prosperity for the group. It is the power of each and every employee. The metabolism to keep creating new technologies and new products is also important. It is, of course, "people" who fuel that metabolism. All of you who are entering the company today are a new "fuel source" for that metabolism, I look forward to you settling in at the company and in your work as quickly as possible, changing the company, and becoming the drivers of growth that will cause the company to flourish.