Message

Contributing to Sustainable Development

Chemical products and materials help in improving and enriching the quality of life around the world, being used in automobiles, electronics, general commodities, medical and health care, foods, housing, energy and countless other products. It is not an overstatement to say that material development in the chemical industry is a key factor in many breakthrough innovations.

The chemical industry has the potential to be a solution provider to some of the world’s most pressing societal issues and must rise up to meet such challenges. Just a handful of these issues that the chemical industry can help to resolve include reducing greenhouse emissions, one of the major causes of global climatic change; helping in the development of new renewable energies; bolstering agricultural produce to meet the needs of explosive population increases; and responding to requirements of an aging society around the world.

Toward VISION 2025

The Mitsui Chemicals Group has made it through a number of tough times in recent years, including the global financial crisis and the European sovereign debt crisis. And we have been relentless in working toward portfolio reform with VISION 2025, our long-term business plan for 2025.

Turning our eyes toward the world, we have used SDGs and ESG initiatives as keywords to help us respond to the rising calls for companies to bring about a sustainable society. Our efforts here have focused on climate change, plastic waste, the circular economy and more. And with the likes of digital technologies and biotechnologies touting rapid progress as well, the current environment is changing so much faster than what we had assumed when we first settled on VISION 2025. Against this backdrop, Mitsui Chemicals Group is to further speed up portfolio reform, providing a sturdy business portfolio as a base from which we can – as quickly as possible – realize a sustainable corporate group with a global presence.

Fiscal 2020 will be an opportunity for us to look back on VISION 2025 after first creating the plan five years ago. Considering the rapid change we see today, I believe that if we are going to explore means of how to carry ourselves as a business and organization while also managing perpetual growth, we should all discuss just what it is that the Mitsui Chemicals Group does and what it is that we are aiming for, then use that as a framework from which to redefine ourselves.

I would also like to work to incorporate concrete policies free of traditional thinking, bolster the group’s overall ability to get things done and speed up efforts to realize our corporate targets.