ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Masahiro Okafuji, President & CEO; hereinafter “ITOCHU”) announced today that it has been awarded the Second Prize in the NIKKEI Annual Report Awards 2014. The award follows on from the Award for Excellence (now, Second Prize) received by ITOCHU in 2012, and Grand Prize received in 2013.

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 enhancing the quality of content and facilitating widespread dissemination. This year 54 companies submitted their annual reports for judging, and one Grand Prize winner, two Second Prize winners, and 12 Excellence Award winners were selected from among them. A panel of judges that included fund managers and securities analysts selected the winners, rigorously assessing the entries based on a wide range of criteria.

The reasons for the award being given to ITOCHU, as noted by the judges, include the clarity and power of the CEO’s message, the lucid explanation of business model, the detailed presentation of topics carefully selected to appeal to the interests of readers, and the incorporation of qualitative and quantitative information in the descriptions of each business segment. 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.

The introduction of the Japanese Version of the Stewardship Code places greater importance on dialogue between companies and investors in the capital market. ITOCHU will continue its efforts to further improve its annual report, disclosing financial and non-financial information to all its stakeholders, centered on its investors.

[Reference] ITOCHU’s Annual Report (for the year ended March 31, 2014)

• http://www.itochu.co.jp/ja/ir/doc/annual_report/