President’s Message to New Employees of 2026
2026.04.01
Mitsui Chemicals, Inc.
1. Introduction
I would like to congratulate all our new staff on joining Mitsui Chemicals. On behalf of the company, I offer a warm welcome to you all.
The entrance ceremony was held exclusively online for a few years from 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but I am pleased that, since last year, we have been able to have all our career-track employees gather here at headquarters while connecting with our general staff at each business site online, allowing us to speak simultaneously with every new employee by tapping into the advantages of both digital and analog approaches.
2. A Changing Society and the Role of the Mitsui Chemicals Group
Due to the ongoing dramatic global changes in the business environment surrounding the Mitsui Chemicals Group, I would first like to share with everyone my understanding of the role that the Mitsui Chemicals Group should fulfill.
Since the inauguration of the second Trump administration in the U.S. in January 2025, radical policy shifts have progressed in areas such as tariffs and security, while growing uncertainty about China’s economic prospects has compounded the situation, arousing unease about the economic outlook. In addition, geopolitical risks, including the destabilization of the Middle East, have emerged across multiple regions, raising serious concerns about major impacts on supply chains.
In the chemical industry, too, market structure changes driven by oversupply in emerging markets and rising technological capabilities are intensifying competition among companies at the global level.
Against this backdrop, last year, our company began to consider splitting off our Basic & Green Materials business (B&GM), a petrochemical business that supports social infrastructure, in 2027. Our aim here is to accelerate decision-making and enhance competitiveness across our businesses to prevail amid fierce competition. The move will separate B&GM and the specialty chemicals domains with distinctive, high-performance products into independent business entities, each of which will strengthen its operations by advancing collaboration and co-creation with other companies.
In B&GM, while proceeding with restructuring measures such as optimizing its production setup, we will accelerate reorganization and collaboration with other companies, and incorporate new green transformation (GX) technologies. In doing so, we aim to transform B&GM into a resilient business entity – boasting some of Japan’s leading petrochemical complexes – that will be indispensable in a carbon-neutral society.
On the other hand, in the specialty chemicals domains, we will steadily increase profits by further developing the technologies we possess and leveraging the distinctive, high-performance nature of our offering that appeals to customers. However, faced with the remarkable progress of companies in emerging markets, we too must work as a cohesive global whole to take on challenges and step up our pace of growth. Based on this understanding, and with the aim of strengthening our R&D framework, we have established development divisions within each business sector to clarify functions and roles, and separate research from development. This move will further refine our core technologies, while accelerating product and solution development with closer alignment to our customers.
The external and internal environments are extremely tough and changing dramatically. However, achieving the goals set out in our VISION 2030 Long-Term Business Plan presents Mitsui Chemicals with an opportunity to reinvent ourselves, and it also means that you will have an environment in which to grow significantly through a variety of experiences in this new phase.
Over our more than 100-year history, we have navigated major transformations. Starting with coal chemistry in Omuta, Kyushu, in 1912, we made Japan’s first shift into petrochemicals at Iwakuni-Ohtake, taking on the challenge of solving the social issues of each era. Now, with the growing necessity of achieving carbon neutrality and momentum for restructuring picking up globally, we once again face a period of monumental change.
Chemistry does not merely provide us with all sorts of materials that support Japan’s key industries, including social infrastructure, automobiles and semiconductors; it is also an industry capable of contributing to the resolution of social issues by offering customers a wide range of solutions.
Guided by our motto “Chemistry for Sustainable World,” we will aim to achieve VISION 2030 as a global solutions company leading this period of monumental change in our industry and contributing to a sustainable future.
3. My Key Messages to You
(1) Safety is our top priority
Mitsui Chemicals is a manufacturing company, and we contribute to society through manufacturing. Manufacturing and selling chemical products is very hazardous, so tremendous skill and teamwork are required for safe operations. Occupational injuries not only injure individuals, but also cause great anguish to their family members and others around them. To protect the lives of our employees, we must all work as one team to ensure safety. Carrying out safe operations and providing a stable supply of high-quality products contributes to our customers’ growth and leads to the development of each and every employee.
(2) Growth and Development
A company only exists through the work of each and every employee; it is not run by executives alone. It is the efforts of each individual staff member that make a company flourish. To ensure a company’s growth, employees must work on their own development. Managers have a responsibility to create an environment that supports employee development and to provide them with opportunities to improve their skills. Employees must contribute to the company and society alike through continued efforts as professionals.
If each person is healthy and enjoys the trust of our customers, their own family members and others around them, we can overcome difficulties as one team, no matter how tough the environment. As we work toward achieving VISION 2030, each of us must be willing to keep taking on challenges and growing without fear of failure.
4. Conclusion
For a while after joining Mitsui Chemicals, some of you may feel anxious, wondering whether the work you are doing right now truly contributes to your personal growth or to society. The company is sustained by many people working together, with each person’s work connected to others. There is no pointless work, and every single person is important. While I think there will be few occasions when the work right in front of you immediately and directly feels like it is supporting your growth, it will undoubtedly become part of your strength and help you overcome various difficulties later on. However, when it comes to how you go about your work, I want you to find fulfillment and interest in it by constantly considering it with a questioning mind, and by devising your own approaches. As that interest and sense of fulfillment build up, they will lead to important skills for developing your career, so please value them.
I firmly believe you are all assets to our business. And that is precisely why you should not feel hesitant about speaking up just because you are a new employee; please voice your own thoughts with pride. Keep taking on challenges and making discoveries every single day; it will allow you to develop outstanding insight, creative imagination and a powerful ability to get things done.
I have high hopes for your achievements, and I will be supporting you. Let’s work together to make it happen.
