Keita Ishii, President & COO of ITOCHU Corporation, delivered the following 2026 New Year’s message to employees.

Happy New Year to you all.

As we welcome the new year, I would like to extend my greetings to all members of the ITOCHU Group working around the world.

Last year, in my New Year’s remarks, I shared my sense of urgency that those who fall behind in today’s digital revolution risk being left out of the global marketplace, and I encouraged everyone to actively embrace AI. Since then, our company has united to share specific AI use cases and to develop ideas leading to the transformation of business, such as the implementation of AI Challenge Month.

Meanwhile, the evolution of AI is accelerating. As former Digital Minister of Taiwan Audrey Tang pointed out, last year marked the beginning of full-scale AI adoption in Japan. When I speak with leaders and top innovators in the global AI and digital industries, I am struck by how the future once depicted in movies is rapidly becoming a reality. While I do not expect society to instantly become like the worlds seen in those films, I am convinced that, just as it was with mobile phones and the internet in the past, AI will steadily be integrated into various fields.

At first, I expect AI will be adopted in areas such as office work (routine document preparation, administrative procedures), the automation of tasks, and outsourcing service to mitigate labor shortages. At this stage, AI remains primarily a tool and an assistant, providing us with numerous opportunities and insights enabling businesses to evolve, transform and create added value. Especially for our company, which excels in downstream businesses with frequent customer contact, we are well positioned to access frontline information in various domains and to take the lead in the adoption of AI, making it easier to launch new businesses.

Furthermore, even in existing businesses where we may feel there is stagnation, the utilization of AI can increase efficiency and lead to the development of new revenue models through cost reduction. Through AI, valuable information and ideas once confined within vertical hierarchies may be more widely shared, promoting new horizontal collaboration. I believe that leveraging AI in this way will refine our business and systems, with the potential to create our next revenue model. With this in mind, I am looking forward to each of you further accelerating and promoting AI utilization.

Let me conclude this New Year’s message with a call for us all to strive towards our consolidated net profit target for FY2025, 900 billion yen, and with the hope that the ITOCHU Group enjoys continued success and prosperity in its businesses. Finally, let me wish ITOCHU Group employees and their families around the world good health and much happiness in the coming year.