Message from the President

As mid- to long-term sustainability, including ESG factors, is an important management issue, we believe that the promotion of ESG, as represented by the SDGs, is a fundamental activity to realize sustainable enhancement of corporate value as well as to promote it as part of our corporate social responsibility (CSR). We also position CSR promotion and efforts to address sustainability issues as the mainstay of our corporate activities.

In terms of environmental response (response to climate change), we have set a new environmental target of "reducing CO2 emissions in FY2030 by 46% from the FY 2013 level" in FY2021, and has also set a next vision of achieving carbon neutrality as a group in 2050. In fiscal 2021, we started full-scale solar power generation at our Fujisawa Plant, promoted the use of LEDs, and planned replaced air conditioning and machinery with more energy-efficient equipment. Starting from fiscal year 2022, we have implemented new initiatives to promote energy conservation such as procuring renewable energy and visualizing energy usage in production processes, and we will continue to promote initiatives such as further strengthening the environmental awareness of each and every employee.

In addition, we are intensifying our efforts in our core business to provide products and technologies that contribute to reducing environmental impact. Particularly in the bearing business, we are strengthening our initiatives in areas such as automotive electrification, renewable energy, and hydrogen energy. With a strong determination that our technologies and products have significant potential to contribute to the global environment, we will continue to advance in technology and product development. To achieve our goal of carbon neutrality by 2050 as a corporate group, and to provide products and technologies that contribute to solving global challenges, we are committed to relentless pursuit of innovation in our quest for technology.

Our mid-term management policy states that we will "respect the diversity of our employees and create an environment and culture where they can grow with the company." Based on the recognition that human resources are the source of value creation and corporate value enhancement, we are also promoting initiatives related to human capital investment, including the promotion of diversity and human resource development. In terms of respecting the diversity of our employees, we aim to realize a workplace that is both diverse and inclusive. Although the percentage of female employees is low due to the characteristics of industry, we will promote initiatives from a medium- to long-term perspective, such as setting a diversity target for FY2021 to increase not only the percentage of female managers but also the percentage of female new graduates to about 30% of the total workforce. In addition, we believe that human resources are the human capital that create value, and we will promote the development of an environment in which employees can grow, and we believe that increasing "employee engagement" more than ever before will drive our business forward so that the company and employees can move forward on the same vector. We believe that we cannot contribute to the realization of a sustainable society without investing in both the growth of our business and in the human resources that drive it forward, and we will address this as a management issue.

With regard to governance, we have made a new start as a listed company by shifting to the Tokyo Stock Exchange Prime Market in April 2022. In June 2024, we also plan to change to a company with a Audit and Supervisory Committee. We will further enhance flexible management decision making and strengthen the supervisory function of the Board of Directors, and promote reforms from the perspective of diversity in order to increase the effectiveness of the Board of Directors and further enhance our corporate value.

Finally, we will work tirelessly to achieve sustainable growth, and now that we have celebrated 70 years in business, we will work hard as a group to become a 100-year company and beyond. We would like to ask all of our stakeholders for their continued support.