Message from the CEO

Fujikura Group 's consolidated settlement of accounts for fiscal year 2024 showed record highs for both sales and net profit. This marks the second consecutive year that sales have reached new record highs, and the fourth consecutive year that net profit has reached a new record high. It is particularly noteworthy that almost all business units were able to achieve the targets of the medium-term management plan (25 Mid-term), which began in fiscal year 2023, one year ahead of schedule.

In fiscal 2019, Fujikura recorded a net loss of 38.5 billion yen and, in order to recover from what was described as a management crisis, has been implementing structural reforms based on a 100-day revitalization plan. As a result, the company has achieved a V-shaped recovery from rock bottom, and has now built a resilient corporate structure that is incomparable to what it was five years ago.

Against the backdrop of this strong performance, we will continue to focus on the core business areas of information infrastructure, information storage, and information terminals. We will continue to take on the challenge of new business such as high-temperature superconducting wires and fiber lasers, which we have set forth as "Beyond 2025." On top of that, we will explore new business areas for the next stage, and we will policy further growth and increase corporate value by investing resources in a well-balanced manner.

To achieve this, we must further hone Fujikura's strengths. However, while I have previously said that Fujikura's strengths lie in its combination of new product development capabilities and manufacturing technology, I now believe that Fujikura's strengths lie in four areas: its customer base and advanced Corporate Management.

In the case of infrastructure business, customers are mainly ultra-good companies with high public interest, such as electric power companies and telecommunications companies. The customers I work with in the automotive business units and electronics business units are all very good companies. In data center-related businesses, the majority of the world's top 10 companies by market capitalization have Fujikura Group customers. The fact that such customers are using our products and technologies is undoubtedly a strength of Fujikura Group, and such an excellent customer foundation is a valuable asset to Fujikura.

Another strength is the advanced Corporate Management, but I believe that management also needs continuous reform, and we are brushing up our Corporate Management methodology every year. For example, we have standardized the format of documents we use when discussing management plans, and we have also standardized the perspective from which we view management and business. We have also made improvements such as visualizing the gap between the monthly plan and actual results so that we can discuss in numerical terms whether sales have increased, costs have decreased, or margins have increased. As a result, it has become easier to understand where and what kind of problems exist, and discussions have become more active than before.

Of course, we will also continue to improve our "new product development capabilities" and "manufacturing technology capabilities," which underpin the core of Fujikura, a Technology Leader. However, technology often comes down to people. From my experience, there are cases where "for this technology, this person is the best." It would be ideal if we could do this systematically so that it doesn't become dependent on individuals, but it's not that easy. This means that it is more important than ever to develop excellent engineers.

Fujikura's ^SWR® / ^WTC® manufacturing is mostly done in Japan, which is why we are able to manufacturing high-value-added products and also because we are able to develop the necessary human resource and pass on the technology. Even if it means slightly higher costs, including for the sake of human resource development, Fujikura itself should retain the key technology and maintain domestic manufacturing. At the very least, we should have a production base like a mother factory in Japan.

I believe that unless we not only develop but also mass-manufacturing, technology will not remain and engineers will not be able to acquire skills. That's why we cultivate excellent technical human resource by Monodukuri at our mother factories, even if it is on a small scale. At the same time, we transfer technology overseas according to aspect of the products, and conduct operations that are in line with the local culture, leading to the improvement of local skills. By consciously doing both, I believe we can maintain Fujikura, a Technology Leader.

The future of market trends and economic conditions is becoming increasingly difficult to predict. Even in terms of global environmental issues, there may be a major shift in the policy of each country. However, global environmental problems are still a major social issue for mankind. At the same time, there must be some business opportunities there. In "Beyond 2025," we are promoting initiatives with a strong awareness of these aspects and aiming to contribute to carbon neutrality through business itself. In particular, we are looking forward to power generation using fusion energy, which uses Fujikura's high-temperature superconducting wires. Fusion energy is a power generation technology that uses energy obtained by fusing deuterium and tritium, which are abundant in seawater (fusion energy), and has the strong point / feature of not emitting CO₂ and not generating high levels of radioactive disposal. This is a very promising power generation for Japan, which has scarce resources, and if this is realized, it could become a much safer and cleaner energy source than nuclear power. In the past, Optical Fiber changed the world a lot. I believe that superconductivity has comparable potential.

Fujikura celebrates its 140th anniversary this year. In the next 10 years, we will celebrate our 150th anniversary. Looking ahead to those 10 years, we would like to further contribute to society based on Fujikura's technology. In doing so, we must give back to everyone in stakeholder who supported us during the business crisis. Among them is Fujikura Group Fujikura employee. The reason why our business is growing rapidly now is because of the hard work of Fujikura employee. I believe that the best way to give back is to hand over better business, better products, and better companies to the next generation, and with this motivation, Fujikura Group will continue to do its best to take on challenges.