Message from the CEO

Fujikura Group 's performance in fiscal 2023 saw sales and operating profit reach the same levels as last year, which recorded record highs, while ordinary profit reached a record high for the second consecutive year and net income reached a record high for the third consecutive year. In order to achieve sustainable growth and further increase our corporate value, the Group formulated the three-year medium-term management plan "2025 Mid-Term Management Plan (25 Medium-Term)" with fiscal 2023 as the first year. In fiscal 2023, the first year of the plan, we achieved the plan in both sales and each profit level.

When I announced this 25th Mid-term Plan last year, I emphasized at the beginning that we are "Fujikura with Technology." The DNA of our Group, which has built up a history of nearly 140 years, is truly "Fujikura with Technology."

However, although the expression "Fujikura of Technology" has become quite well known now, when I first joined the company I didn't really know why it had come to be called that. So I asked a senior Fujikura employee, and he told me the following: Founded as a private company, our company was a small private company compared to our competitors, and our human and financial resources were far weaker. For our company to beat our competitors,
The only way to win is through technology. That is why the company has honed its technology thoroughly, and this has resulted in the company being known as "Fujikura of Technology."

Another thing I emphasized at the 25th mid-term briefing was "enterprising spirit." Fujikura Group has survived for a long time by creating and turning into business what the society and customers of the time want. In order to constantly renew ourselves and manage our business portfolio, it is essential to create new business, and for that reason, Fujikura's DNA of "enterprising spirit" is important.

These two principles have remained unchanged throughout the history of our Group.

Fujikura's strengths as a company of technology can be broadly divided into two categories. The first is our ability to develop new products. Our group has several products that are world-class, being the first in the industry or at the industry's top level. This is the result of Fujikura's commitment to creating new products with a strong awareness of differentiation.

However, we believe that simply incorporating Fujikura's unique technology often leads to self-satisfied differentiation. It is easy to think that because it contains Fujikura's technology, it must be a good product, that customers will be happy, that it should sell well, and that it should be profitable, but unless the differentiation leads to value for customers, it is meaningless. Ultimately, what is important for Fujikura's products is differentiation that leads to value creation for customers and contribution to society.

The second strength is manufacturing technology, or our Monodukuri capabilities. For many of our competitive products, manufacturing equipment used to make them is developed in-house. We also design and manufacturing in-house the molds that are essential for making high-quality parts. We also have many elemental and fundamental technologies, such as the ultra-fine processing technology required for this, sophisticated analytical technology, and advanced simulation technology that incorporates fluid dynamics. We were also one of the earliest companies to introduce AI in order to carry out advanced quality inspections. By combining these diverse technologies, we have built up our highly competitive manufacturing technology.

I always tell our employees to develop new products and new manufacturing technologies together. If we take apart and analyze the latest products, other companies may be able to make similar products. However, it is difficult to know the manufacturing technology behind them, and they are a kind of black box. Excellent manufacturing technology is essential to stably and efficiently produce excellent products, and it is this technology that supports the foundation of "Fujikura Technology."

As part of our efforts looking beyond the 2025 mid-term, we will also use carbon neutrality as an opportunity to sow the seeds for the creation of new businesses. Carbon neutrality is a global issue and an extremely important theme in terms of realizing a sustainable society. It goes without saying that we should reduce the CO2 we emit, but we also believe that our group's business and products can contribute to reducing the CO2 emitted by other companies and organizations.

Currently, we are taking on these new business initiatives under the banner of "Beyond 2025," and are challenging ourselves to create new business in three areas: superconducting wire, fiber lasers, and EVs. In particular, in the field of superconducting wire, we have world-leading performance and mass production technology for rare earth-based high-temperature superconducting wire. Superconducting wire is a key component of nuclear fusion power generation technology, which is expected to solve environmental and energy problems, and we intend to contribute to the realization of nuclear fusion power generation with this wire at the core.