ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keita Ishii, President & COO; hereinafter "ITOHCU") and ITOCHU ENEX Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Kenji Okada, President; hereinafter "ITOCHU ENEX") announced today it contributed in organizing a Motomiya Interchange Hydrogen Refueling Station project which can serve for large fuel cell (hereinafter "FC") commercial vehicles that will be constructed by Air Liquide Japan G.K. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Virginie Cavalli, President & CEO; hereinafter "Air Liquide"), as a part of the strategic collaboration on the development of a hydrogen value chain, in line with a memorandum signed by the three companies in February 2021.

The Hydrogen Refueling Station(hereinafter "HRS"), which will be constructed on land adjacent to Enex Fleet's Motomiya Interchange Service Station in Motomiya-city,*¹ Fukushima Prefecture, is scheduled to start operation in the first half of 2024 as Japan's first HRS which serves for large FC commercial vehicles^*2 and operates 24 hours a day and 365 days a year. This HRS can provide services that are offered to conventional commercial viechles, such as the carwash and the rest area, for large FC commercial vehicles as well.

The three companies will continue to work together to find out more HRS opportunities with similar concept that are expected to be rolled out along with highway and to attract usage of more large scale FC commercial vehicles.

Motomiya-city, where the HRS will be located, is in the center of the Nakadori region of Fukushima Prefecture and is close proximity to an important transportation hub where the Tohoku Expressway and other highways run through it.
In Fukushima Prefecture, a demonstration project in ongoing to establish and implement energy management systems toward the popularization of electric vehicles led by Commercial Japan Partnership Technologies (headquartered in Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo; Hiroki Nakajima, President). The HRS will supply hydrogen to some of the FC commercial viechles to be operated by companies participating in the demonstration project.

The opening of the HRS is in line with the hydrogen/fuel cell strategy roadmap set out by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry with the goal of ensuring that hydrogen refueling stations are opened in 320 locations and 200,000 FCV (fuel cell-based vehicles) are in use by 2025. Fukushima Prefecture has been taking a range of steps toward the creation of a hydrogen-based society in which hydrogen is used as energy in people's lives and for industrial purposes. We believe this project of opening of a large scale hydrogen station follows these initiatives. Subsidies have been provided by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry and the Fukushima Prefectural Government for the construction of the HRS.

Going forward, the three companies will continue to promote the development of the hydrogen market, leveraging ITOCHU's wide-ranging networks in consumer-related sectors, Air Liquide's expertise in the production and supply of hydrogen and the customer base and energy distribution systems of ITOCHU ENEX.