Ever since taking on my earlier role of President, I have managed ITOCHU Corporation with the aim of continuously enhancing our corporate value and broadly returning the profits we have earned to society, shareholders, employees, and all other stakeholders. Enhancement of corporate brand value through dialogue with all stakeholders is featured as a key area of the management policy we announced in April.

Corporate brand value is enhanced not only by building a stable revenue base with continued upward growth, but also by refining qualitative aspects which cannot be numerically measured. Enhanced brand power attracts new information, leading to earnings, part of my “earn, cut, prevent” principle. Furthermore, it leads to corporate growth. ITOCHU Corporation’s continued growth is the result of gaining the support of our customers who believe that doing business with us is profitable. As a company, we aim to continue this virtuous cycle.

We can say that a brand is the accumulation of confidence and trust from various stakeholders. Conversely, there is a risk that a single employee or a single incident can cause all of that confidence and trust to be lost instantly. Based on the “prevention” element of the principle above, it is important that each individual thoroughly prevents damage to our brand value and holds an awareness of the impact their actions may have on external evaluations and society.

The driving force behind this steady enhancement of corporate brand value is the growth of individual employees. We are currently producing a virtuous cycle: our business performance is good, which also motivates our employees to work hard. This in turn leads to a positive evaluation by society, attracting excellent student graduates to the company. I hope to maintain and improve this virtuous cycle going forward. We will strive to strengthen human capital by creating an environment which facilitates a cycle of trust and expectations between employees and the company, including by giving employees meaningful work and thorough training that leads them to produce results.

Through these efforts, we will aim to achieve ITOCHU’s corporate mission, “Sampo-yoshi” (good for the seller, good for the buyer, and good for society), put “Sampo-yoshi” capitalism into practice, and steadily increase our corporate value.