Congratulations on joining our team! I am pleased to welcome 151 new colleagues today: 128 members in general work positions and 23 members in business expert positions.

On this occasion, which marks the first step in your professional careers, I would first like to offer you my heartfelt congratulations on joining the Company.
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 truly delighted that we are able to hold such a grand entrance ceremony together with you all.

To begin, I would like to speak about an important principle that I make a point of sharing every year at the entrance ceremony.

First is the “Sampo-yoshi spirit”

In recent years, the phrase “Sampo-yoshi” has often been quoted in connection with ESG and SDGs in corporate management. “Sampo-yoshi” is rooted in the philosophy of coexistence and co-prosperity, whereby the seller, the buyer, and society are all satisfied. Originating in the management philosophy of the Ohmi merchants, it is now our corporate mission. It has been handed down as our founding spirit and has served as the foundation of our business and a spirit of harmony for nearly 170 years. I hope that none of you will ever become self-centered, and that you will use your imagination to cultivate a broad perspective. In fact, ITOCHU’s practice of “Sampo-yoshi” has been adopted as a case study by Harvard Business School, one of the world’s leading business schools, and has received high acclaim globally.

Second is our Guideline of Conduct, “I am One with Infinite Missions.”

This is also one of the important phrases that I always return to whenever I need to reset myself. Based on the merchant mindset and lessons of our founder, Chubei Itoh I, this phrase expresses the fundamental idea that the mission of a merchant is to solve various issues facing the world through business and to enrich people’s lives. I hope that each of you, too, will keep that origin in mind—the mission of a merchant—wherever you are assigned, and approach your work with a strong sense of purpose.

And there is one more phrase I would like to share with you today: “A merchant should be like water.” Have you seen our corporate television commercial, the “Merchant in the Pineapple Field” edition? It tells the story of a young employee in charge of Dole in Tokyo, who is posted to the Philippines and grows by working side by side with local employees in the field. At the end, the phrase “A merchant should be like water” appears. This, too, is a phrase coined by our Chairman Masahiro Okafuji. In today’s world, where information moves quickly and the future is difficult to predict, it means that it is important to observe the flow of the times carefully and respond with flexibility. The commercial depicts a young employee like yourselves leaving the Tokyo Head Office and developing the powers of observation and adaptability that can only be cultivated on the frontlines. I encourage you to watch it carefully.

In the course of your future lives as merchants, there may be times when you struggle or experience failure. At such times, what will bring you back to your origins and give you the energy to overcome difficulties are these three phrases: “Sampo-yoshi,” “I am One with Infinite Missions,” and “A merchant should be like water.” Starting today, I hope you will keep these three phrases in your hearts and act upon them.

Now then, today all of you have gathered here at the Tokyo Head Office Building in Aoyama, where the cherry blossoms are in full bloom. In fact, ITOCHU is scheduled to temporarily relocate to Akasaka Trust Tower in Tameike-Sanno this August. As you will be the last group of new employees to enter the Company at this Head Office Building, I would like to take a few moments today to talk about the building’s history.

This Tokyo Head Office Building was completed in November 1980, 46 years ago. At the time the final decision was made to proceed with construction in 1977, ITOCHU was still in the midst of streamlining the entire Company and strengthening its earnings capacity, while also dealing with a major issue in the energy field in addition to the recession that followed the oil shock. In 1967, Tokyo, which had previously been a branch office, became a head office, and the dual-head-office structure in Tokyo and Osaka began. The principal head office functions were transferred to Tokyo, but the Tokyo Head Office Building in Nihonbashi-Honcho at the time could not accommodate all employees, and the Company had to lease six or seven office buildings in the surrounding area. Under these circumstances, and in pursuit of further internationalization and diversification as a sogo shosha, plans to construct the Tokyo Head Office Building here in Aoyama were launched during the tenure of then-President Masakazu Echigo, aiming to bring ITOCHU together in one place. The next president, Seiki Tozaki, made the final decision to proceed with construction at a management meeting, despite opposition from other executives.

As many of you may have noticed, there are two stone monuments at the main entrance of this Head Office Building. One is engraved with our Guideline of Conduct, “I am One with Infinite Missions,” and the other is the cornerstone. In the dedication statement by Mr. Tozaki enclosed within the cornerstone, the following wish is recorded: “As our business expands as a sogo shosha, we will consolidate our head office functions, which had been dispersed, into the new Tokyo Head Office Building. In response to the various demands and challenges of each era required by industrial society, and with the determination to continue opening up new ages, we hereby lay an unshakable foundation and set a cornerstone that shall never decay, expressing our hope for the further development of this building and the prosperity of the Company.” This Head Office Building embodies the same aspirations reflected in the ideas of “Sampo-yoshi,” “I am One with Infinite Missions,” and “A merchant should be like water” that I mentioned earlier.

For the past 46 years, this Head Office Building has watched over the lives of countless ITOCHU employees. From joining the Company to marriage, raising children, multiple overseas assignments, and interactions with senior and junior colleagues, this building has been an irreplaceable hometown of memories where people laughed and cried, and sometimes even stayed overnight, sharing together in all the joys and hardships of working life.

Today, together with this Tokyo Head Office Building, ITOCHU, under the leadership of Chairman & CEO Masahiro Okafuji, has grown into one of the top general trading companies and has achieved considerable prominence in society, not only through its non-zaibatsu management strategy of “Market-In” and “The Brand-New Deal: Profit opportunities are shifting downstream,” but also through its unique work-style reforms. The ITOCHU Corporation you know today is a sogo shosha that is always competing for the top position. At the same time, I would like you to understand that in the course of growing from a textile merchant in Osaka into the sogo shosha it is today, each and every employee here gritted their teeth and fulfilled infinite missions in this very place. This may sound like “learning new things by revisiting the old,” but please do not forget that there is much to learn by understanding the history passed down baton-like by our predecessors.

Lastly, starting today, all of you will begin your apprenticeships to become ITOCHU merchants. Today may well be the true start of your adult life. I hope that by weaving together the knowledge and experience you have cultivated to date with the many experiences that await you at ITOCHU Corporation, each of you will deepen your insight, refine your human qualities, and become the people who will lead the next generation of ITOCHU.

In the United States, where I was once posted, conversations often begin with the question, “Who are you?” In the U.S., a nation of immigrants, people are asked not about their title, but about who they are as individuals and what kind of career they have built. Each and every experience you accumulate at ITOCHU Corporation from now on will become your career. That career will help you grow and will enrich and color your life. I encourage you to make full use of your individual personalities and experience the business frontlines of a trading company with curiosity. Time passes in the blink of an eye. First of all, I hope that you will firmly master the basics that you are about to learn and grow greatly both as merchants and as human beings.

I look forward to the day when the 151 of you gathered here today will return once again to this place in Aoyama as accomplished merchants.

Once again, I sincerely congratulate you on joining the Company, and with that, I conclude my welcoming remarks.