Happy New Year, everyone.

I hope you are all refreshed after the holidays.

First of all, the new year started with heart-wrenching disasters and accidents, including the earthquake in the Noto region of Ishikawa Prefecture and the Haneda airport plane collision. I would like to express my deepest sympathies to all those who were affected by these disasters and accidents, and my deepest condolences to the victims and their families and relatives.

Looking back on the last year, it was a particularly memorable year for Japanese sports. Japan won the World Baseball Classic, Shohei Ohtani became the first Japanese MLB home run champion, Japan’s national men’s basketball team qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics, and Japan’s rugby team made a spectacular effort at the 2023 Rugby World Cup. At the same time, it was a year in which we faced a rise in geopolitical risks—the continuation of the Russo-Ukraine War that began in 2022, the military conflict between Israel and Hamas, and escalating tensions between China and Taiwan.

With the progression of the borderless economy and free movement of people, we must remain cognizant of regional tensions between neighboring countries as we make decisions regarding our business activities. I predict a similar environment in 2024.

Creating a Sojitz growth story for the next stage
This year, Sojitz will celebrate its 20^th anniversary. In this milestone year, we will also embark on the new Medium-term Management Plan 2026 from April. In our financial results for the last fiscal year, we succeeded in surpassing JPY 100 billion in profit for the year for the first time. I believe it is possible to achieve JPY 95 billion for this current period as planned. In our next medium-term management plan, our goal is to build a business foundation for achieving JPY 200 billion by realizing the objectives of our Sojitz growth story for the next stage.

Let us first consider how to define Sojitz’s unique identity. How would you describe the merits of working at Sojitz to a new employee or friend? Can you wholeheartedly recommend the company to prospective employees? Some might say they enjoy working in an environment of global business creation. Others might say they’re inspired by their colleagues to reach new heights of personal development through friendly competition. Fundamentally, I hope Sojitz can become a company that all employees are proud to work for and that each person can communicate the merits of the company in their own words.

Furthermore, what actions can we take to create a Sojitz growth story?

What strengths should the company cultivate to develop business and pursue value creation so that we become the first choice for customers and business partners? Let us use this 20^th anniversary as an opportunity to reevaluate the value and functions we provide as a company.

What strengths should the company cultivate to develop business and pursue value creation so that we become the first choice for customers and business partners? Let us use this 20^th anniversary as an opportunity to reevaluate the value and functions we provide as a company.

I consider Sojitz’s identity to be defined not by our business fields, but by our hands-on approach to business and our commitment to follow-through. No investment project unfolds 100% according to plan. Unexpected events occur and present difficulties. However, Sojitz is a company where we tirelessly innovate, conduct trial and error with speed, and follow through until we succeed. We can gain recognition from those outside the company and earn trust through this process, which will eventually become part of Sojitz’s unique competitive advantage and growth story.

Let’s look back on the growth of our retail business in Vietnam. Since 2010, Sojitz has been engaged in the wholesale, convenience store, and cold chain logistics businesses in Vietnam. These retail businesses remained in the red for an extended period, and our path forward has by no means been smooth. However, instead of imposing a Japanese style of operations, we took a market-oriented approach to identify which products matched the needs of local consumers and what functions we could offer to contribute to the development of the Vietnamese economy. With these questions in mind each day, we repeated a process of trial and error to eventually get businesses in the black.

The impacts are not limited to individual businesses. Through these initiatives we have built trust and business networks. Recently, we accelerated our business initiatives in Vietnam with investment in Vietnam’s largest food wholesale business as well as investment in a beef farming, processing, and sales business alongside Vinamilk. We have succeeded in realizing a unique Sojitz growth story through our investments by connecting the dots and building a solid framework for expansion.

Making our next move with foresight
We have announced a new management structure ahead of the start of the next medium-term management plan. As Chairman & CEO, I will continue to be involved with the implementation of the next plan. Please support the new President & COO Uemura as we build a business foundation for Sojitz’s next stage of growth.

The key to Sojitz’s growth lies in digital and decarbonization fields. How quickly we capture growth in these fields will have a major impact on the company’s overall growth. Our business projects over the next decade will therefore prove decisive. Alongside changes to our management structure, we have created new organizations to promote the energy transformation, decarbonization, and digital transformation fields in order to advance these business areas through a company-wide effort that spans all organizations.

However, our business opportunities are not limited to digital or decarbonization fields. As Covid-19 cases abated in 2023, I was able to fully resume overseas business travel. I had the opportunity to visit many business sites in Asia, the U.S., and Europe. For the first time, I was also able to visit Nigeria and Kenya. In Africa, I felt the same economic growth potential that we formerly saw in Asia. Even in mature countries such as the U.S.—which I have visited on multiple occasions—I noticed that people’s values and lifestyles have shifted as a result of the pandemic. While market needs are constantly changing, business opportunities lie in these transitional gaps and times of change. Never be limited by past convention or past successes. Think carefully about how you can make your next move with foresight, so that we can continue to create new businesses and value moving forward.

Maximizing employee capabilities to foster pioneering business leaders
Our people are the driving force behind our company’s ambition to take on new challenges. It is essential that each employee continue to build on their individual strengths. However, there are limits to individual effort. Shohei Ohtani could not have won the World Baseball Classic for Team Japan on his own. Team Japan’s victory was attributable not only to superstar Shohei Ohtani being on their roster, but to the coming together of highly skilled professional baseball players—each with their own pitching and batting strengths.

Moving back to Team Sojitz, I ask that you continue to proactively improve your skills under Sojitz’s diversity management program and to demonstrate your individual strengths as future leaders and professionals capable of realizing the company’s growth strategy. If we can unite individual talent to form collective strength, we can build a powerful driving force for creating businesses with impact as a general trading company.

During this period of rapid change, it is more important than ever for all to maintain good physical and mental health to achieve peak performance. Last year, we held the Sojitz Health & Fitness Day, where employees participated in fitness tests and seminars. At Sojitz’s sleep seminar, we learned that there is a direct correlation between company profit and hours of employee sleep. This seminar helped to reaffirm the fact that not only does raising health consciousness among employees result in improved health, but also raise the company’s corporate value.

Sojitz will continue to promote health management, including annual medical checkups and follow-ups. Be sure to get ample sleep and take vacation days to recharge your mind and body during this new business year.

To conclude, I wish all our Sojitz Group members around the world and the families who support them good health in the new year.