p class="paragraph01">ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it has won the Grand Prize at the Nikkei Annual Report Awards 2013, hosted by Nikkei Inc.

The Nikkei Annual Report Awards are granted to outstanding annual reports published by Japanese companies. The competition has been held each year since 1998, with the aim of encouraging improvements in annual reports and increased use of the reports. This year 70 companies submitted their annual reports for judging, and one Grand Prize winner, two winners of the Award for Excellence, three winners of the Special Award, seven winners of the Regular Award, and nine winners of the Honorable Mention were selected from among them. A panel of judges consisting of fund managers and analysts, among others, selected the winners. They strictly judged the companies’ IR activities themselves based on a wide range of criteria, irrespective of the size and business performance of the companies. Having won the Award for Excellence in the previous year’s competition, ITOCHU believes the receipt of the Grand Prize demonstrates the higher evaluation it has earned for its annual report this time.

The reasons for the award being given to ITOCHU, as noted by the judges, include the clarity of the CEO’s message embodied in his declaration regarding “Brand-new Deal 2012”: Turning Words into Accomplishments. Also highly appreciated by the judges were the persuasive description of an implementation process to realize the achievement goals, a story-rich historical description of its diverse business, and positive disclosure on internal control procedures. ITOCHU believes that its annual report was recognized because of its successful initiatives to promote a better understanding of the Company among its shareholders, investors, and other stakeholders.

ITOCHU will continue its efforts to improve its annual report, and will strive to improve the usefulness of non-financial as well as financial information disclosure to all of its stakeholders.

[Reference] ITOCHU’s Annual Report (for the year ended March 31, 2013)
http://www.itochu.co.jp/ja/ir/doc/annual_report/