At the Beginning of the Year 2023

Happy New Year, everyone!

I hope you had a good New Year's holiday.

I did not have time to borrow books on weekdays because my nearest library was closed for renovation work.

Therefore, on the first day of the holidays, I borrowed 10 books from a library a little further away and spent my days reading.

During the year-end holidays, I left home after 6:00 a.m. as usual and went walking in a nearby park.

Going out at the same time every day, I could feel the sunrise time getting earlier and earlier each day.

I went to the nearby zoo and botanical garden and paid a New Year's visit to Atsuta Jingu Shrine. The crowds were back and I could feel firsthand that the economy was approaching normalcy.

During my first visit of the year to a shrine, I renewed my mind and thought about the way things should be this year.

Although the flow of people in and out of the country seems to be returning, the situation regarding new coronavirus infections continues to be unpredictable, especially in China.

The health of our employees and your families is of utmost importance.

Please take precautions to prevent infection.

As for our business, it has been on a recovery track since the second quarter.

Regarding the impact of rising raw material and fuel costs and transportation costs, the members of the Sales Department are leading the negotiations to reflect the steep rise in costs, and they are persistently working on the negotiations.

We are afraid that there will be an increase or decrease in production this year as well, and some regions and plants may experience extremely high workloads.

Let us get through this by demonstrating the effects of the Kaizen efforts we have accumulated so far.

In addition, as I have been telling you from before, let's maintain a solid management structure and achieve steady results through flexible business operations.

At the Beginning of the Year

The effects of the social changes of the past few years are clearly visible.

What we need to pay special attention to this year is how to respond flexibly to the speed of these changes.

This is a point I would like to make especially to older people who have experienced success in the past.

I believe it is important for us to flexibly follow changes in the working environment and society, seize new business opportunities, and quickly advance product development.

My New Year's greeting is posted in various media (the internal newsletter, President's Channel: video, etc.), so please take a look when you can spare the time.

This year's slogan is "Building a team that responds flexibly to change without being bound by past concepts," continuing the approach we have taken in the past.

Not just being satisfied with conventional work, but let us grow in cooperation with our colleagues both inside and outside the company to keep pace with the changing times.

This year, also, let’s do our best in our daily work with S.E.C.Q. (Safety, Environment, Compliance, and Quality) as the pillars of our business operations, faithfully observing “Shinyo-kakujitsu” and “Fusu-furi” based on the principle of “Banji-nissei”.