New Year’s Greetings from President & CEO (Summary)

I would first like to wish all of you the very best as we begin the new year of 2019.

Safety as a Top Priority

In June last year, a fire accident occurred during regular repairs and maintenance at Osaka Works. To minimize the impact on customers, the manufacturing site made earnest recovery efforts in cooperation with the business divisions and was able to achieve an early restoration.
At the start of the year, I would like each of you to brace yourselves and keep our policy of “placing safety as a top priority,” which forms the basis of all activities of the Group, in your heart once again.

Reflecting on 2018

Two years have passed since we put the 2025 Long Term Business Plan (LTBP) into action, and our performance in fiscal 2018 anticipates that operating income will reach a record high of 106 billion Yen by overcoming a range of environmental changes. Full operation continues at many works, and I believe that this is thanks to hard work of all of you as a result of your sincerity.

World Becoming More Complex

US-China trade friction is becoming world's big headache, Brexit is unpredictable, and there are still geopolitical risks in North Korea and the Middle East. Because the global economy is facing risks and uncertainties such as these, there are growing concerns about the slowing of economic development in the future. In our business, in particular, I would like you to gear yourselves up to be prepared for a range of risks by keeping a close watch on them.
Since last year, an issue of marine plastics waste has been receiving rapidly increasing attention worldwide. This problem must be handled beyond individual companies and across the industry. As the chairman of the Japan Chemical Industry Association (JCIA) and the JaIME^*, I will continue to actively send a message in Japan and overseas, in collaboration with the government and related organizations, the efforts for waste management and information that Japan has been working on.

*Japan Initiative for Marine Environment

What is “a good company”?

In this dramatically changing world, will our company be able to make innovation happen with a vision for the future in its mind toward its long-term goals in 2025?
Mitsui Chemicals is becoming “a strong company” after achieving its numerical targets as a result of working on them as struggles for restoring our pride in the past several years. However, I believe that having intangible values, or fairness, transparency and governance, which do not show up in figures, along with an ability to contribute to society and the environment and be in harmony with them at the same time is the requirement for being “a good company”. I believe that for the Mitsui Chemicals Group to be recognized by society and grow, both of these aspects will be increasingly important. I hope that all we will have a compass in our hearts and think about what constitutes a good company, and that we will take actions to that end together this year.