My gratitude for your hard work in fiscal year 2021!

Dear all employees, thank you for your hard work in fiscal year 2021.

FY21 was another year of searching for appropriate business operations, as we continued to be affected by the Corona pandemic from the previous year.

I would like to express my gratitude to all of you for your resourcefulness and flexibility in carrying out the work.

Thank you so much.

Looking Back on FY 2021

Looking back on FY 2021, the spread of the corona infection and shortages of materials such as semiconductors and other applications led to repeated adjustments in automobile production.

In addition, raw material and logistics costs soared to unprecedented levels, and I feel that it has caused everyone a great deal of hardship.

On the other hand, I have heard good news, and I am glad to see that everyone's efforts are beginning to take shape.

・The use of the test course at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST) has begun.

Since it is now possible to test CASE-compliant products on actual vehicles, we expect that new products and services will be created at an even faster pace than before.

・ The fact that the thin-film high heat insulating material "Finesulight" is now known to contribute to carbon neutrality as well as heat and cold insulation products.

・The number of companies with which we collaborate on "MONILIFE", our product that can acquire vital data, has been increasing.

We believe that by visualizing sleep conditions and other data, we can contribute to the maintenance of people's health, and we look forward to its future development.

・While the automotive products division is struggling due to the severe external environment, the general industrial products division is doing well and generating profits.

I am just happy to see that we have received commendations from customers in many fields, which we have introduced in our company newsletter and on my blog.

Toward FY 2022

Fiscal 2022 is the final year of the "2022 Sumitomo Riko Group Vision (22V).

In particular, we are planning to accelerate our efforts toward carbon neutrality, digital transformation, and diversity and inclusion.

I would like to ask you all to think again about what you can do in your own divisions to achieve the 22V vision.

The expectations for each department will be published as a message from Chairman Matsui and myself in the April issue of "Mitsukumi," our in-house newsletter to be issued at the end this month.

You can also view it in Mitsukumi2, so please read it.

I am afraid that the severe external business environment is predicted to continue in FY2022.

Let us all in the Sumitomo Riko Group unite together to overcome these difficult situations.