Congratulations on joining our team! I am pleased to welcome 153 new colleagues today: 129 members in general work positions and 24 members in business expert positions.

On the occasion of celebrating your first step in your careers, a large number of officers and employees are participating in today's ceremony, as well as guests, including Messrs. Shigeru Itoh and Yutaka Itoh from the founding family and Eizo Kobayashi, Director Emeritus. I would like to take this opportunity to express our gratitude on behalf of the company. I am very pleased to hold ITOCHU Corporation's grand welcoming ceremony with you all. The venue is filled with cherry blossoms in full bloom, which are a regular feature of this event.

First, I will speak about two important things that you should keep in mind. I always talk about these things in the welcoming ceremony every year.

The first is ITOCHU’s Guideline of Conduct, I am One with Infinite Missions.
This is one of the most important phrases that I always think about when revitalizing and improving myself. Leaning from the mindset of merchants described by Chubei Itoh, the founder of ITOCHU Corporation, they symbolize the attitude of addressing social issues and enriching people’s lives through business activities as the mission of merchants. To rephrase, each ITOCHU employee is expected to engage in their work with a great awareness that they are tasked with the mission of taking on and solving countless social issues through the fulfillment of their assignments.

Secondly, I would like to talk about the Sampo-yoshi spirit.
Recently, with SDGs becoming increasingly important in corporate management, we sometimes hear people say “sampo-yoshi.” This Sampo-yoshi spirit, which is based on the idea of co-existence and co-prosperity, is a situation where sellers, buyers and society are all equally satisfied. This is ITOCHU's current corporate mission and it is rooted in the management philosophy of the Omi merchants. It is not just a commercial spirit. It is also a harmony-oriented mindset that has been passed down as ITOCHU's founding spirit for over 160 years.

You may feel worried or fail at things in your careers going forward. When faced with difficulties, the Sampo-yoshi spirit and "I am One with Infinite Missions" guideline remind us of the importance of going back to the basics and energize us to overcome difficulties. I hope you will keep these two phrases in mind.

Today, ITOCHU has grown to be a leading trading firm that attracts public attention for its unique work-style reforms, in addition to its management strategy under Chairman & CEO Okafuji’s command, “Market-oriented perspective: Profit opportunities are shifting downstream.” I suspect that you see ITOCHU as a general trading company that aims to be at the top of the industry. In June last year, our market capitalization exceeded 12 trillion yen. In September, we were ranked ninth among publicly listed Japanese companies in terms of market capitalization and first among the sogo shosha companies. Looking back, however, I would like you to know that ITOCHU started as a non-zaibatsu (conglomerate) and has overcome many challenges in its transformation from a textile wholesaler in Osaka to a general trading firm, during the wars and postwar periods, experiencing various successes and failures. We had fewer staff members than our competition. Everyone's hard work has helped us overcome the challenges we have faced in the past. The power of our employees has vanquished the various hardships we have faced, and it will also shape our future. You have joined ITOCHU today. Going forward, I hope that each of you will become strong employees and help ITOCHU to shape its future.

Today is the start of your apprenticeship for becoming ITOCHU merchants. Now, let me request two things of you, apart from learning about your work.
The first is that you develop your interpersonal skills and sensibility. Highly polished interpersonal skills will naturally charm those whom you meet and help grow your network. Next, by honing your sensibility, you will acquire the ability to be one step ahead in your preparations and to capture the essence of what our customers are seeking. You should develop these skills independently through experience. ChatGPT will not be any help. Our chairman and CEO Masahiro Okafuji said in a media interview and also in a recent “My History” column in the Nikkei newspaper that merchants must be like water. This means that merchants should hone their sensibility so that they can catch the tides and trends of society in business and respond flexibly to customers' needs which change in different ways. After developing your sensibility, you will be able to work out where in the business value chain you can create added value, what value you can create for society, and how you can be a leader in business and organize your work. Generative AI and other tools that are currently much talked about are useful, but real business situations are not at all simple. They are multifaceted. It has always been humans that make important decisions with an eye toward the future. I hope you will sharpen your interpersonal skills and sensibility through business so that you will gain insight into the essence of business, make complex decisions flexibly and perform fantastically in the global arena.

The second request is that you earn trust. Humans are deeply involved in the front lines of business, where interactions between people matter. The trust you will earn in the process of developing your interpersonal skills and sensibility will lead to future opportunities to earn trust in business, and that will lead to still more opportunities to earn trust. This will form a chain of trust. I suspect that the basic business principle of our founder Chubei Itoh was also to earn trust. The front lines of business are training gyms for your trust building skills. Step onto the front lines with curiosity and accumulate achievements in the earning of trust. Gain experience in the chain of trust. Make sure that you listen to customers saying, for example, "ITOCHU personnel involved in the current project are punctual, sincere and considerate," "They have a good understanding of our situation and make good proposals in a timely way," and "We will contact ITOCHU for the next project." Accumulating hands-on experience begins with the observation of customers. It should help you develop into professional merchants that have earned the trust of customers and their colleagues. I hope you will become a person who is relied on as a partner by the people around you through lots of excitement and different experiences that you will have in business situations. Let me remind you that there are two types of trust. One is trust in individuals and the other is trust in the company. Bear in mind that a careless word or the conduct of any single employee may ruin the trust in the whole company.

Lastly, I wonder what dreams do you all have as we welcome you here today? I believe that the real joy in life lies in making more dreams into reality. At ITOCHU, there are opportunities, resources and, more importantly, invaluable colleagues that help you shape your different dreams into reality. If I can compare life to a canvas, I hope you will use the many different colors we have to paint your unique big, colorful and brilliant dreams on it.

I think the 153 members of ITOCHU that are present here today come from many different backgrounds. Today, all of you stand on the same starting line and start your journey towards becoming ITOCHU merchants. Make good use of every single day and do your best.

I would like to close this address by once again welcoming you and congratulating you on joining ITOCHU Corporation.