Ajinomoto Co., Inc. (2802) Earnings Call Transcript & Summary

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much for taking time out of the busy schedule to attend Ajinomoto IR Day. My name is Kaji, IR Department, I'll MC the event. At the outset, I'd like to introduce the attendees today. Member of the Board, Representative Executive Officer, President and CEO, Fujie san.

This is Fujie speaking. Nice to speak to you all.

Shiragami san, Executive Senior Vice President and CIO.

Nice to speak to you all.

Sasaki-san, the Executive Officer and Vice President.

Nice to speak to you all.

Professor Davis Chair, SAC, Sustainable Advisor Council; Nakano San, Executive Officer and Vice President of Finance and Investor; Executive Officer In Charge of Sustainability and Communications, Morishima-san.

Nice to speak to you all.

Yamamoto-san, General Manager, Global HR Department. Those 7 attendees will be attending the session. And as announced earlier, Nosaka-san who was scheduled to give his presentation. However, he is unable to attend. Therefore, instead of him Yamamoto-san is attending the session. And the entire session will last 1 hour and 30 minutes. We'll give presentations during the first 1 hour, then we will entertain questions from the audience. Today's presentation materials are posted on the IR website of Ajinomoto. Please have a look. And also today's session is recorded, including the Q&A session and will be posted on the IR website at a later date. Please be advised. Now we'd like to begin the program. Fujie-san, the floor is yours.

Ladies and gentlemen, good afternoon. Thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule to attend our IR Day event. During the -- well, for the Evolution of ASV Management, Sustainability and Human Assets, those will be today's main topics, and I truly look forward to this event. Therefore, I'd like to enjoy -- I'd like you to enjoy this program today. There are 3 takeaway messages today. Next slide, please. One is, under the new management system that was inaugurated in April this year, ASV, as Ajinomoto Group Shared Value in order to evolve our ASV management, we are steadily accelerating the speed of management and the entire group is working towards this call. One slogan is, to full fledge the ASV, we will pursue. That is our slogan. Under the 100-day Plan, we changed the gears, and made a jump start. So we are making a steady progress towards that goal. Number two. ASV management is buttressed by sustainability. This must be incorporated into ASV management further in order to help solving social issues, but we also need to create economic values. So this is a co-creation and that the opportunity is raised. And the intangible assets is the driving force. And in particular, human assets need to be strengthened as the driving force of the intangible assets. We will need to solidify the ASV value creation process in order to accelerate our evolution. Number three. Midterm index management, which is named 2030 Roadmap, this will be formulated in order for us to enhance core value sustainably and exponentially. Those are the main topics for today. And today's agenda, please show the first topic. Next slide, please. I'd like to start with the Ajinomoto Group vision. Our purpose by unleashing the power of amino acid, we will help solving the -- solving food and health-related issues, Purpose X Passion and X OE and Speed Up and Scale Up. We will try to enhance corporate value sustainably and exponentially. This is our vision. There are initiatives. Outcomes are to half environmental burden and to extend the health longevity for 1 billion people. Those will be the outcomes that we are working towards. Next slide, please. This is ASV value creation process. Speaking of sustainability, well, we are working towards sustainability. And as you are aware, all the -- sustainability buttresses any company's strategy -- core strategy. And that's the same for Ajinomoto. From various perspectives, we envision the future and then backcasting from there. Then during -- amid sustainability, what is truly unique about Ajinomoto. We are trying to define the materialities that is unique to Ajinomoto. And then Professor Davis, Chair of SAC, will announce later, but in October, they will finalize the report to BOD. And by January, we will deliberate the matter carefully. And then in March, 2030 Roadmap will be formulated, including the sustainability perspective when we announce it later in March 2030 -- excuse me, in March next year. And then materiality is the source of the intangible assets by harnessing the strengths through we will create innovation and help solving the social issues, so that we can further evolve ASV management. So we can enhance our corporate value. Next slide, please. This shows the formula to derive corporate value. This was newly set up. As you can see, financial value as well as intangible assets, the value is created, and then we take the sum of this. So well, in terms of the general formula to derive corporate value, but we added our own element, which is Speed Up and Scale Up. By adding this, we'd like to accelerate the speed of corporate value creation so that we can attain a higher level of corporate value. And then the numerator is cash flow generation. This needs to be steadily implemented under the midterm ROIC or other KPI management. We need to ensure that we meet those ROIC targets and others. And the denominator capital cost needs to be minimized. We need to enhance our risk management ability and then ensure sustainability management. So we can win more trust from stakeholders. This is the key element. In order to do so, these SAC or sustainability committee initiatives are enhanced. They are enhancing their initiatives. And we would like to emphasize the importance of dialogue with stakeholders. And regarding the -- well, human asset enhancement as well as sustainability management, we'd like to convert the trade of relationship -- trade on relationship so that we can further Speed Up and Scale Up to maximize our corporate value enhancement. So under the topic of sustainability and human assets, this -- well, these touch upon the denominator of this formula. So please take a closer look. And next topic is sustainability and management strategy. As I mentioned earlier, from diverse perspectives, we are to identify materiality for Ajinomoto, which will be incorporated to ASV management. Next slide, please. And in terms of Sustainability Advisory Council, this has been set up already. And then under BOD, the SAC Council is already set up. And then under Executive Committee, we have a Sustainability Committee as a separate entity. Next slide, please. Also in the Sustainability Advisory Council, we have those members the names and photographs are shown here, what are they strong at are indicated here. So this is a diverse member and very advanced in the world and Ajinomoto, what should be sustainability like. They would like to discuss and deliberate. And in the October, they will provide us a final proposal and I'm looking forward to seeing them. As for the roles of the Sustainability Advisory Council, this is written here. And as was mentioned earlier, the Roadmap and midterm management plan, I think, is going to be reflected in that. Next is about strengthening of human assets. Next, please. This is 4 intangible assets that we value at Ajinomoto Group so the human resources, technology, customers, organization. Out of that, today, we would like to focus on human resources. Next, please. And as for the strengthening of human assets, we would like to strengthen both individuals and organization. So we would like to backcast from the vision and we will create the plan, and we would like to visualize the processes and train -- and develop the human resources. This is enhancement of motivation in the human assets. I think having -- we want Ajinomoto to become a company providing high motivation for the employee to work. We are now in top 1% ranked as a motivating company but still at the rank of 47. So myself, I want to become #1 in Japan, even #1 in the world. So the motivation, morale, the long-term training and the valuation, we want to visualize them all and report to you all. This is very valuable human asset needs to be enhanced in our company. And this is part of that initiative as for employee stock ownership. In this we have some measures, especially special incentives, the 1st of June next year. Those stock owners, the 100 stocks is one unit and that unit is going to be provided so that the employee would be shareholder. So that we, together, could enhance our corporate value. And we want to make a happy company, a good well-being for the world in summary. So under a steady ASV value creation process in order to realize and achieve sustained and dramatic enhancement of our corporate value, we would like to formulate our 2030 Roadmap for medium-term indicator management, and we hope to announce them to you. Thank you very much. That was all from me.

Thank you very much, Mr. Fujie. Next, Professor Davis, please.

Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. My name is Davis. I'm the Chair Person for Sustainability Advisory Council or SAC. Thank you very much for giving me the opportunity to present my materials in front of you. Ideally, I would like to report the details of our report or proposal that has been worked on for the past 2 years. But the final proposal will be announced next month on the 27th, so we cannot disclose the detail yet. But today, I'd like to take this time to reflect Ajinomoto group's approach to Sustainably Advisory Council. And what -- through what processes -- what process that has been created by the members of the council. And we have reached to a stage where we have established an unprecedented level of council. So I'd like to lay out the details of our Advisory Board and Advisory Council, excuse me, in my presentation today. Next slide, please. This is my agenda for today. And if you could turn the page, because we are the Advisory Council, the Board has assigned us the brief. And to that brief, we are compiling a proposal. So we received this Board's brief and then I'd like to lay out the priorities we have reviewed during the discussion. Basically, sustainability-related issues not only the main issues, but we take this as an opportunity and we've made a constructive and future-oriented deliberations. From a third-party perspective or objective perspective, including the multi-stakeholder perspective, we defined a long-term view on this matter. Well, speaking of management, there are things what to do and what not to do. That is important for any management and we completely agree. So the Advisory Board was established first. And during the first 2 years, we discussed what to discuss. And we also identified what not to discuss at the SAC. Why is that? because well, it is actually important to appreciate what we appreciate from the external point of view. But the previous history or track record or the current products and services, how to define a company in the past tense or how to define a company in the present tense? These need to be clarified and then we compile a list of materiality. That itself is good. It's not bad. But apart from that, we needed to be more constructive and future oriented. That was what decided first. And then, well, we capture Ajinomoto as a future-oriented platform. And then Ajinomoto needs to achieve an innovation process. And then we define the vision of the future for Ajinomoto. So there's a subtle difference here between the past tense and future-oriented approach. But we wanted to focus on the future-oriented approach rather than the previous perception of Ajinomoto. So we thought outside the box or the conventional image of Ajinomoto. And then in terms of the formality, how we positioned our council it's -- in this organization chart? As Fujie-san mentioned earlier, we deliberated this perspective sustainability, but in parallel with management, well, we do not actually separate management from sustainability. Rather, we needed to encompass everything through the dialogue with the members of the executives, not only the information in the past, but also their future vision. So from the executive side, we wanted to actually explore what their dreams are and how they want to take Ajinomoto to where they want to take Ajinomoto? Those are the perspectives that we incorporated from the executive members. And what to focus here is the Sustainability Advisory Council, which is on the upper right portion. So the counterpart here is AGS. So there is a counterpart here a Sustainability Committee as well as AGES, which are both future-oriented organizations. So the SAC as well as sustainability committee has an ongoing dialogue within themselves. So we are independent in terms of the meeting structure. However, within Ajinomoto, these 2 organizations or committees are both embedded and well ingrained within this corporate structure. Next slide, please. At the outset, we defined where to without thinking the -- without defining the definite goal, but we explore the direction. And by looking ahead to 2050 or super long vision, the former CEO, Nishii-san, wanted us to discuss our sustainability issue in 2050 in super long-term. And we wanted to make Ajinomoto to be an essential or an integral part of society. And that was the vision for Ajinomoto during Nishii-san's tenure. So from multistakeholder dimension as well as -- without creating consensus, we wanted to explore multistakeholders' perspectives to deep dive into this matter. And then when the proposal was announced or when the brief was issued, we first defined the direction and backcast from there and then incorporate that into their management vision and did find a clear road map as to what needs to be done by when. These are the milestones and KPIs that will follow suit after our final proposal will be submitted to BOD and those deliberations need to take place within our council. Next slide, please. So taking 2 years, we have not yet ended, but what have been -- have we been doing. One dialogue to narrative free discussion for definition it says here. Yes, in reality, before dialogue one, we had zero recession because we could not wait, members wanted to gather as early as possible. So in Kawasaki, there is an R&D center of Ajinomoto. So the first presession was held in that location. Although it was during COVID-19, there were some participating remote, but we had also face-to-face meeting. We had a study meeting there. We had heard [ Dr. Placido ] he is a very famous person for amino acid. So what amino acid can do, starting from sugarcane, what is amino acid, ammonia production with a co-competence, we thought about the business model. And in Thailand, cassava production with very high value added. This type of introduction was made by him. And starting from that, we had learned much about the actual Ajinomoto's business. And we had introduced ourselves. And then we've started to run and provided that into the next person in the dialogue. We had -- in the precession, we talked about what Ajinomoto can do and what they were thinking, we knew that. So as a stakeholder, what is expectation that we have towards Ajinomoto. Based on that, you can see in the red corner, AGS, 5 taskforce teams had taken that back and they talked about it, what Ajinomoto should do, can do, and they had compiled that. And at the second narrative meeting, they had explained that. And based on that, we had discussed on that on a pinpoint situation, what we really expect the outcome from Ajinomoto and there was very active discussion. And as a result, the executive officers, they had thought about the story of Ajinomoto growth. And on that agenda, we had the discussion, the third discussion. Each session, we took a long time. But the discussion was not enough. We wanted to have a more and more meeting, the SAC members had expressed it. So we had -- before these formal sessions, we had presessions. So to SAC each members, there were presentation, explanation. And taking that, we had the final discussion and the feedback. Based on that feedback, the executive officers had prepared various things. And we would like to define materiality, and we are now preparing for that. This is a very fresh story just last evening, the total draft of the materiality had been decided. And on 27th of next month, we will be reporting that to the Sustainability Advisory Council. I'm off to go into that content. But of course, because I'm not able to, I would like to talk to you about the process. This is not a conclusion. Well, this is not the report. But what was the overview that we started to discuss, this is just prenotice, maybe for your reference. Next, please. Next slide is the 6th slide. Those participating today, investors and analysts, I think there is no need for me to talk about this chart table. But in order to recheck for myself, I want to explain to you what we mean by here with this picture. In our discussion, this was a focus. What is this? As you can see, at this point of time, human beings well-being the cost to maintain that is very expensive. The current we -- we mean not just Ajinomoto, but for the human being as a whole, our health and are well-being in order to guarantee that -- secure that the industry, the society that is enabling that the cost benefit profile for that is very low, The cost is high, but the benefit is not enough. So if this was an investment, the return on investment is going to be bad. So environmental footprint is so huge that because of that health and well-being from the value of the human beings, the value that is created from it is too small, too low. What do I mean by this? When you talk about sustainability, the word trade-off comes out. Trade-off in telling sustainability, we have the word of trade offer. Because of this picture in the background, this story comes up. So we have discussion, trade-off. We have some mechanism, and we have that mechanism created by the human being. So trade-off is not the starting point. That's what we really picked up. So what was discussion and the overview that we had, this is trade on, trade on -- not trade-off. Sustainability value creation. So even though you have the trade-offs trying to change anything, nothing will come out. Trade on, if you have a trade on and if we want to achieve that, do we need transition and transitional innovation. So you can see this picture. This is on the left-hand side and right-hand side separated. On the left-hand side, you can see Ajinomoto. I am not really a person from Ajinomoto. So although I talk about Ajinomoto this is not the boasting about Ajinomoto. So let me talk about Ajinomoto. I've looked a lot of things about Ajinomoto, what I can definitely say that AminoScience is a bioscience. AminoScience, there is no one that has the capability than Ajinomoto. Ajinomoto was very serious in AminoScience and studying about this. The knowledge Ajinomoto has for this amino acid, and based on that, trying to create value, come up with product and services. This is a scientific possibility that is written on the top. We can tell as well-being story, which has not been told before. Ajinomoto knows not just about amino acid, but have sales and marketing channel around the world, and they have a very good relationship. So from the viewpoint of consumers, they can provide the vision in each community, reflecting each society what is the necessity there. And there is a scientific potential and possibilities. So they have these 2 perspectives. So you can see the negative loop that I showed you on Page 6, they have the possibility of synergy. As you can see, the red arrow towards the environmental footprint, they can make it smaller using the scientific possibilities. And then we will be having -- enjoying the social sensitivity and story of well-being. As of this final beneficiary, what are the value that you can get. That is going to be heightened. On Page 6, the circles and circulation would be on the other way around. And the next page, please, I'm going to end with this slide. So in various areas, sustainability committee exists. And a lot of places they're trying to lower negatives and come up with positives. This is not a bad thing, and I'm not going to criticize that. But we're not expecting that kind of level to Ajinomoto. What we expect Ajinomoto is using this picture, opportunity space. Currently, those can be expected and the perception of the reality lies the gap. You can see if it's on the left-hand side too much, then it is negative, if it goes to the right hand side, it's a positive gap. So this is an opportunity space. So holistically, we should take it as a space, sustainable growth in order to achieve it. And to lead to the sustainable value creation, I think the negative gap should be shifted to a positive gap in this opportunity space. And that is how the management should be doing. So I think this is the third idea that we've been talking and discussing in SAC. So on 27th of October, we will be reporting materiality. So at that time, the report and materiality is not going to be just a plain list. The real multistakeholder, multidimensional by stakeholder perception, we will provide what we expect, what we request, what we require Ajinomoto. This is 3-dimensional, very meaningful significant, not the 2030, but even to 2050. This could be referred by the management of Ajinomoto. So this is going to be the kind of report we will be present into Ajinomoto management. So I have 1 more minute. So I'd like to report to you one more thing. This is not the end for the 2 years' time as a Chair of SAC I've been working hard. And I have talked Nishii -- President Nishii and President Fujie and all the executive officers and those researchers, employees. I have had engagements and discussions communications. And as an individual member of SAC, I think all of those employees and executives work toward open and are very positive toward our council. So I never thought that there would be no company that could be so enthusiastic and passionate about this. Maybe Fujie-san, you said it, the honky, true meaning and your motivation. So with this great feeling and sustainably, internally, you want to create value together with the shareholders by having dialogue, engaging with the investors. They're trying to do that. This is a very boldly -- I think you are having a mind and the strong will to do it. So I really felt the real seriousness about the employees and executives toward this. So taking this opportunity, investors, analysts, shareholders, together with you, I think we would like to have dialogue -- opportunity of dialogue. I'm very happy to have it. So thank you very much.

Thank you very much, Professor Davis. Now I would like to invite Yamamoto-san, the Global HR Department General Manager.

Nice to speak to you all. This is Yamamoto speaking. Now I'd like to give the corporate value enhancement activities through human asset initiatives. And speaking of human assets, this is -- which is drawing attention, but our initiatives are still halfway through. But thank you very much for giving me an opportunity to present my materials today. And this is my takeaway messages. There are two: Number one, human assets is the driving force or the source of all intangible assets, and this will lead us to enhance corporate value sustainably and exponentially. Number two, we need to -- ASV-bound and diverse individuals will grow together with the value-creating organization. And this will be the pillar of our HR strategy. And as you can see on this tree chart, the intangible assets sits at the root of everything we do. And this is a source of intangible assets -- excuse me, the human assets is the source of the intangible assets. And this is today's agenda. First, the human asset-based value creation story. Our story is as follows: Through growth of diverse individuals and value creating organization, we will create innovation in order to enhance corporate value. This is the concept. On the right-hand side, each individual will resonate with the story -- value creation story. And then we will take new challenges to grow. And then on the organization side, the diverse individuals will be leveraged. And then we will get work with external bodies to grow. And it's underpinned by health and well-being, which needs to be promoted, too. And this is another conceptual mindset or framework. But in terms of D&I, in terms -- speaking of diversity, gender and integration, but there are other aspects of attributes cross-section talent is another Ajinomoto's own perspective. To be well-versed in R&D as well as group companies both in and outside Japan as well as AminoScience and food products. And then on the left-hand side, we have one team inclusion spirit. Through the cross-sectional networking, we would like to create a chemistry that is unique to Ajinomoto. Next slide, please. And based on such concept, we will include diverse individuals starting from this slide. In the red, I'd like to detail one by one, starting from #1. And starting with the gender perspective. Previously, by 2030, we wanted to increase the number of female manager ratio to 30%. And in ASEAN and other regions, more than 30% are female, but the issue here, the challenges in Japan, starting from the 2020s, in order to deepen the bench for female workers, we have participants of cumulative 676 participants. And this is the third year since we launched this academy, AjiPanna Academy. And on the left-hand side, according to each stage, there are 4 approaches being implemented. And including the supervisors and executives both mutually, they are participating in the event. And according to their talent, the initiatives are defined. And on to step three, I'd like to introduce our mentoring activity. Mentor program is called [indiscernible] mentor. And the intention here is that instead of the vertical reporting line, we focus on the hexagonal reporting line. Those who are not -- who you do not often communicate with. And then by expanding your perspective and through this one-on-one session on hexagonal session, you need to deepen your perspective. And then the mentor side, well, gain better understanding of each individual employee. In terms of the production department, which has a lower female manager ratio, then this mentoring session is very helpful. Please review the video. This is only available in Japanese. [Presentation]

Next slide, please. And I'd like to report you on the progress of this initiative. This is a good news, which is highlighted in the lower half. According to our engagement survey, there was a clear gender gap in certain score surveys -- certain items. But the gap is narrowing in the recent years. In terms of the mindset, speaking of decision-making participation and the equal opportunities, which are important for carrier development, but the gender gap in mindset is reducing or narrowing, which is good. And this is a very positive results that is generated throughout this initiative. And in terms of reality, which is also a good news, as the chart indicates, the female executive and line manager ratio is increasing up to 13% in the most recent year. And the 36% of the all directors are female. But it is important to further the advancement of women's appointment in this top level decision-making post. And speaking of the cross-sectional networking, or assignments, this is a highly challenging team, but we would like to harness what's unique about Ajinomoto. So that means the mutual reciprocal interaction between AminoScience and food products. And by assigning an R&D person in business units, then they can harness area expertise in business arena and also sometimes can work at the group company level. So those are the interactions we'd like to create through our job transfer. And let me cite a recent example. Speaking of business, both general managers are well versed in the counterpart department before by -- so this promotes the integration of the 2 entities. In Ajinomoto Brazil, management candidate was assigned to work in parallel as well as in Thailand. So this intergroup exchange or job transfer was available in the past. But this is actually the first time that we assigned those individuals outside its own country. And then speaking of external HR resources utilization, currently, of the Ajinomoto employee, midterm careers account for 13%. In the past, this was just to there to fill up the vacancies in the head count. However, that is different. According to our strategy, we are trying to attract more specialized talent as midterm career -- mid-career hirings. And the midterm carrier hiring accounts for 35% in the last 3 years. And this year, the ratio is likely to increase further. Speaking of the new business development, we are trying to attract more and more specialized talents through midterm -- mid-career hires. And in terms of leading this diverse set of talent, how are we going to educate group management? We have 3 layers of talent pools and trying to enhance or deepen the bench of future candidate managers. On the left-hand side, we have members of corporate -- executive committees. And then the management leaders as well as youth -- young leaders in next generation. Those are the 3 layers of talent pools. And on the right-hand side, as you can see, Nomination Committee is the core. And then each business division as well as regional headquarters are partnering together to formulate the training programs. And speaking of the cross-sectional experience, this is one of the strategies in order to accelerate cross-sectional appointments. We have been talking about the diversion -- diverse individuals perspective. And now we'd like to reach a high-level discussion of HR development. In the red -- in the slide where it says in the red, please have a look. So this is the big level -- high level picture of HR development. We need to keep studying and hands-on -- provide hands-on experience as well as motivating employees. We need to enhance measures to encourage people to take on new challenges and people to develop their own careers voluntarily. We are expanding opportunities of programs that are based on voluntary participation and the hands-on training programs will be announced later. In terms of motivation, the most important one is the key -- assignment to key post at an early stage, but they need to visualize their own career development. And in order to have a better matching service, 360-degree feedback is important. Another one-on-one mentoring approach is being enhanced. In terms of coaching, we introduced the interview horizontal mentoring service called [indiscernible] Mentor. Those coaches are solicited on a voluntary basis and managers are taking the opportunity to be service mentors and they need to undertake a training program to be mentors. So there is a motivation for the both mentoring side -- mentor side as well as a mentor side. And let me now detail the moonlighting applications. As the bar indicates -- bar chart indicates, recently, the number of occasions for moonlighting is increasing on the right-hand side, by age, those into their 20s and 30s account for more than 40% of the total applications in various occupations and areas. Moonlighting experience is being strengthened by occupation. Consulting, advisor and lecturers come at the top, leveraging their expertise. And the food was the most prevalent area. For example, online cooking teacher and table coordinator, those are the examples of moonlighting experiences. And in the years, filmmaking and flower arrangement and are creating opportunities are popular too. And without confining their workspace in -- within the company, we'd like to encourage the moonlighting experiences for employees. Next slide, please. This will start as a new program, which is the hands-on training program that will be rolled out next month. And this is called Ajinomoto Group Dialogue for the future. Aoki-san who sits on the SAC panel is one of the contributor for this program. We -- our aim is to develop talent who can provide -- who promote ASV management. For example, sustainable fishing, local food and other social issue related areas. Those will be -- the programs will be based on those areas where people can gain first-hand experience. In the context of ASV, what roles they would like to explore and what the -- what future they would like to envision and they will communicate externally the results of the program later on. And I truly look forward to what they have to say at the later point in time. Next slide, please. And so I'd like to now talk about the introduction and utilization of a human resources management system. From July of 2021, we've started this, it doesn't have long history yet. At last, we have now visualized HR management system. This is making information public to our employees so that they can access to those information. And of course, they can declare their skills. Those who leads HR development, they can discover and find a new person and can provide a right person to the right places. So this could be utilized in those areas. Next, please. And I'd like to now -- this is going to be talking about the last slide of the diverse HR. Thanks to our efforts. The popularity of our company had been 1 ranked in the top 10 for the science. And for those graduating humanities, we are also very popular. As was mentioned by Mr. Fujie at the outset, after entering this company, we are trying to make this company so that they can actually work and enjoy. So next, please. Here, I'd like to talk about cogrowth of individuals and organization. Next, please, on the left-hand side, from the organizational viewpoint, I'd like to explain various things. First, ASV engagement, what is the management cycle to increase that? The gray cycle in the middle, we have been introducing this -- this is the third round of the cycle for this year. Understanding empathy of ASV and monitoring process empathy. We have various measures globally being carried out under a new structure, our President, the management and various officers, we have direct dialogue communication with the management around the world. Next page, please, is a monitoring improvement, we have the Engagement Survey, and this is the fifth round of the survey. From last year, we have been -- regarding this year as autonomous use period, that means through online workshop, we are providing various information about this 240 employees in and out of Japan has participated. The bar graph shows the results. The engagement sustainable, in yellow and also green. As for the health and productivity management, they are increasing. And group KPI, as for the "ASV as one's own initiative" score, I would like to explain that more in detail later. The full engagement survey has ended. We are analyzing the relationship between that survey results and the business performance. As a result of the full surveys and because of our business performance, I think sales per employee, empathy for purpose, enhancement of productivity, customer focus, they had high empathy. And through this continuous analysis, I think various measures that would provide favorable results to and contribution to our business performance, we would like to continue those. Next, please. From this year, we will be introducing ASV Realization Process. The target here is that including ASV making your own, we would like to visualize how you would be realizing ASV starting from understanding individuals to organization, to the result creation, we have divided into 4 stages. As mentioned earlier, this information could be added. The engagement survey it is going to be linked, and we will be monitoring the result, not just the group as a whole, but in each of the company's and organization, these information could be utilized and evaluated so that it will be contributing to further growth. This is the ASV award, example of initiatives. This is the sixth year of such award recently. I think we have -- for the purpose of more participation, we had a different screening criterias. And the Smart Salt [indiscernible] as a grand [ prize ]. This is linked to Ajinomoto guideline, and this has been made into a video, and this is going to be real learnings to all the employees. This is not just going to end as a grand prize. And 2 more slides, I'd like to talk about the core growth of individual and organization. So network-based work style. The challenging theme that we've never had before, we should exceed the past thinking, and we have to introduce a new way of thinking. On the left-hand side, you can see the second item it says here, from corporate to marketing to production, we have more than 15 organizations, about the 30 members. They are leading the group companies. So that is this internal cross-organizational type. And later, I will talk about the nutritional things. This is written in the middle. The nutritionist in our company, they had participated, and they made the content of e-learning. They made it by themselves. And I think ASV empathy is shared throughout this. So including the voluntary participation, internal and even from outside, we would like to have organizational things happening for the value creation. This is the internal cross-organizational type of initiative, from various backgrounds the member had participated, and they had talked about the picture of the future. And food, health care with wellness, those are growth areas, this triggered what we should be thinking about the business transformation in those 4 areas. Changing the topic here. Now I'd like to talk about human resources investment. First, per Ajinomoto, how much are we investing per person. So the definition of the investment tier -- as is written here, on the 4 key areas in the blue box, we wanted -- in addition to directly involve costs, we also emphasize opportunity investment also. And for fiscal '21, as for direct cost, this is plus 12%, JPY 250,000 per person and opportunity cost. These are the training to 4 key areas about adding that portion, this is about JPY 500,000 per person. So how are we going to make investment to the human resources. We are still making this and thinking about how to do this in -- we would like to further more deepen our definition and investing to our people. Next, please, opportunity costs. In order to improve the literacy and provide training sessions, this is 1 example. ASV in order to educate more, we think that individual development is very important, but they are important to improve the literacy of 3 areas. And we started this in fiscal '20 and in fiscal '21, about 2,600 people had participated in this. And I'd like to explain a bit about e-learning. This is about nutritional element, the nutritional element are 3 functions: one, energy for moving your body, making and building your body; three, conditioning your body. So my question out of staple food main dish, side dish, soup, this shows -- this is given in all of those 3 nutrition elements. What is it? This offers the 4 elements. What is it out of those 4 diets? Yes, and this, the answer in soup. Yes. Yes. But soup, you may have excessive salt intake. But if you have rich flavored broth or stock, then you make a simple taste, but rich taste because of Umami of amino acids. And in recent studies, Umami said it would help digestion and absorption. Yes. Thank you very much. These are the materials that was meant to be produced by the nutritions in our company. Next is DX, business DX training program. On the left bottom, you can see it started from fiscal '20 and I think 2,000 people, about 2,000 employees, took classes in 2 years. So I think you can feel the high motivation of our company. So 2,000 people were awarded finishing this program. I mentioned about opportunity cost. So those areas we focus, how much we had to spend. And we had calculated into money, monetary value, and we are monitoring that. And the result of those investments, what is the productivity. Hourly productivity, as you can see, the line -- the gray line, we can -- if you see the growth rate, this is sales per hour, and the dark gray line shows consolidated business profit per hour. We have started the monitoring. Of course, we have time lag in the return of the investment coming out. So continuously, we would like to monitor them, and we would like to make effective investment group as a whole. Of course, Ajinomoto is a driver, and we have started this monitoring. Next page. This is going to be the last slide that last. Yes, please, at the outset, I mentioned the story of value creation. As I've explained to you, we have that pipeline ASV engagement cycle, cross-sectional exchange of human resources, diverse knowledge and experience, human resource development, pipeline development appointment. So with those pillars and core-growth we want to enhance value creation for the company. That was my presentation. Thank you very much.

Thank you very much for your presentation. Now we'd like to open the floor for questions. [Operator Instructions] Now we'd like to take the first question from Araki-san.

This is Araki speaking with the Tokai Tokyo Investigation Center. And in terms of human assets or human resources, thank you very much for giving the wonderful presentations, very detailed presentations on human assets. I'd like to raise 1 question. In Japan, the wages are down actually starting from April until July. So consumers themselves are on tight budget. From Ajinomoto's perspective, this is pertaining to labor cost. So it may be a separate angle from the HR investment. But in terms of remuneration or compensation, you mentioned that there is a global approach or you would like to enhance -- encourage people to be assigned overseas. But each individual employees' compensation table, what is the ideal situation for the salaries, for the salary level or wage level, the Japanese economy is in this predicament. And how do you assess this matter? What is your view?

Thank you very much for the question, Araki-san. This is Fujie speaking. Well, as Yamamoto-san indicated represented a global HR department. Well, I'd like her to address that question, if that's all right.

Yes. Thank you very much for the question, Araki-san. This is a very difficult question. In terms of salary level or wage level for our employees. For those who contributed to generate results, they need to be rewarded in a right way, that is the basis of our policy for wages. And depending on the economic status, we are impacted slightly. However, the overall revenue will be enhanced and raised through corporate activities or business activities. And we'd like to continue this basic policy of wages.

And let me expand on the matter. Well, speaking of HR investment, which will be enhanced. And in investment, we used to -- well the intangible assets as well as the intangible assets. Speaking of tangible assets, they accounted for a larger volume, but now we are reaching -- trying to shift to reach a 50-50 breakdown between tangible and intangible. And intangible assets are the ones we'd like to focus more -- and regarding this, corporate shareholding policy for the employees, depending on the labor market rather than the labor market, we need to enhance our business activities for the betterment of company performance, and this is the -- this is what we'd like to focus on. And depending on each region as well as professional talents that will be flexibly hired within our organization. So we would like to create this multiple track of talents within ourselves. And those are the evolutions which need to take place within Ajinomoto -- [ Araki-san ] you are the expert in this matter. So we'd like to improve ourselves and for the betterment of HR department as a whole. I would like to confirm 1 thing. So in -- on a global level, the economic indicators or KPIs globally -- in order to develop HR, those global indicator will be added in order for you to assess HR. Yes, that's right.

Mr. Saji from Mizuho Securities.

I think I've asked that question to Fujie-san before. Today, we have -- we want the comment from Fujie-san as well as Scott-san, country risk -- risk management. In the presentation on Page 7 of Mr. Fujie's paper, it says to reduce the WACC, in the regional strategy, you have the country risk. So what is your idea for this? So as a regional strategy, future, what should be? How should the Ajinomoto do, your work? And another point is that you had -- exposure was very big to the risks because you were doing in the emerging countries and things like that. But as a whole, not -- we have the separation of the world now. So towards 2050, you are thinking about various sustainability works, but such a regional geopolitical risks as Ajinomoto, how do you take that regional risks, geopolitical risks?

Thank you very much, Mr. Saji. Yes, that is a very important issue for us, item for us. Regional things, when you have the proposition, we have to have a good balance of our business regionally. First, food was 2/3 and amino acid was 1/3 of business or profit. But in 2030, I think amino acid and food should be 50-50 contributing to the profit, and in addition B2B percentage. Well, 70% was B2C. But depending on the business, B2C and B2B balance rather we want to go more to B2B. AminoScience, we are strong in B2B. So I think that is what we should be doing. In addition, region. We have to think about that for food, as you say. Yes, North American frozen food. As for Latin America, we should expand the business for ASEAN. Yes, we want to expand and deepen our business. In Europe,[ ASEAN ] frozen food, will increase for Africa by -- if we include 2050, I think we have a possibility to do business there. And also China and India, what should be the strategy and things that we have to be thinking and that will be shown in the midterm management plan. So I think geopolitical risks, regional risks, business risks, we have to think about the balance. And management as a whole, we should control over that. And Scott, please, Professor Scott. Thank you.

Thank you. Unfortunately, I am not on the management side. So this is going to be just an expression of idea. Ajinomoto, when you think about the future, what is the risk that they would be facing? And what are the things they should be facing and engaging. That means -- so in order to achieve the sustainability that is achievement by co-creation and also they need transformation. So in doing that transformation, that should be inclusive. That's a very important challenge for them, I think. Earlier in my presentation, I showed you Page 6. On the left-hand side, we have a very big negative asset, environmental negative footprint and we have the well-being is very small, on the left-hand side, I mentioned to you earlier. So in that, we have more challenges, that means that we have to pay a lot -- and there are benefits out of that cost. The allocation is not equal. That I think is to do with the inclusivity, those who are benefiting from that, I think, are inclined. That means developed nations are benefiting. So we do not want to see that the inequality of the allocation. In SEC meeting, we had discussed that we should be multi-domestic for Ajinomoto, multi-domestic should be what Ajinomoto doing and have the competitiveness in there. That's what we thought about it. So by region, global risk, regional risk as a multi-domestic they should take and they should provide a solution and create a solution for each individual regions. And in that sense, in our discussion, I don't know how this is going to be actually exercised by the management. But I think -- I think good, so you should think locally. But for knowledge, you should globally think that good's good. They should be limited and produced and moved in the region. But I think in knowledge we have to think about globally. So inclusive transformation, inclusive means co-value creation. And that needs to be done, and that structure needs to be built by Ajinomoto, and then for the investors and for the consumers and for the workers, I think this is going to be a very rewarding company and attractive company, I think, very attractive with good partnership. I may not be answering your question directly, but that's my answer. Thank you for your question.

We'd like to take the next question from Yamaguchi-san, Goldman Sachs.

This is Yamaguchi speaking from Goldman Sachs. I have 2 questions to raise. Regarding HR development, my first question. Ajinomoto's KPI, how do you define your KPI for talent development, could you elaborate on this matter? My second question pertains to the last page of the sales per capita and business profit per capita. I wonder whether these are the ultimate KPIs. Maybe the story is different for the backside workers. So could you please elaborate your KPI for -- or the process for HR development? And my second question pertains to the business portfolio that was previously highlighted. I wonder whether this is perfectly fit for today's topic, but there are nonprofitable or unprofitable businesses that were streamlined under previous rounds of business transformation or structural reform. Speaking of frozen food in the past, well, the stock market wonders whether or not Ajinomoto should continue providing frozen food business, and Professor David highlighted the fact that the council actually debated what to discuss and what not to discuss at the council level? I understand food versus nonfood, but -- if you could detail about the business portfolio, that will be wonderful.

Thank you very much for the questions. I'd like to take -- address the second portion of the question, and then I'd like to ask Yamamoto-san to handle the first element of your question. So starting with the business portfolio, in the midterm index-based management plan, we will deliberate on this matter or the detail on this matter. Asset-light approach will be further evolved. As earlier announced, by 2015, JPY 200 billion asset-light approach will take place by 2025 and then we are even accelerating the pace. So not waiting until 2025. And we already achieved JPY 150 billion asset light. So there is remaining JPY 50 billion left to be achieved by 2025. It's not one single project worth of JPY 50 billion, but there are multiple projects to be explored in order to complete this JPY 50 billion worth asset-light approach. And then towards this midterm goal, we will have this executive training in September to consider ways of business portfolio, and we'd like to explore multiple directions or possibilities on this matter. Speaking of business value, not only economic value, but that also encompasses social value. In order to generate value to the society, and that needs to led to the economic value. And this process is visualized. For example, with frozen foods, regarding economic value, maybe the economic value of frozen food may be low, as you point out. However, on our part, going forward, in order for people to attain better balanced diet, especially in North America or ASEAN or Western countries, high unit price [indiscernible] our products, frozen foods, will have a greater contribution to society and also greater value for the economy. And we are actually preparing the plan to achieve that. We'd like to formulate a detailed plan on frozen foods to the shareholders. And also that detailed plan needs to be executed fully, and those will be the details that we'll be reporting in the midterm plan. Speaking of electronics materials, which is the current growth driver. But 7 to 8 years ago, people wondered why Ajinomoto initiated this electronics business. And those were the advises we received already from shareholders. And that helped us to evolve the Electronics division, to this level. And this led to a concrete investment plan. So I believe that we can do the same for frozen foods. So we need to make sure that the concrete business plan will be submitted. And regarding business portfolio, once we compile this concrete plan, it needs to be executed fully. And within the next MTP, we will focus on this business portfolio so that we can enhance business activities. And we'd like to ask Yamamoto-san to answer the first question.

Thank you very much for the question. Regarding talent development, what KPIs are we deploying for HR development? To answer to that question, as I announced today, speaking of investment evolution and productivity, those are the KPIs. However, outside that, speaking of HR development, or HR asset development. As I mentioned in my presentation, female decision-making participation, which needs to be raised and its expertise in cross-sectional networking interaction as well as KPI relating to human assets and HR development within the survey engagement survey. And this year, we will introduce the realization process approach, which needs to be finalized, but by 2030 road map, when we present it in March next year, we will introduced new KPI on this topic? I hope that answers your question.

Next question Fujiwara-san from Nomura Securities.

Thank you. Fujiwara from Nomura Securities. I have a question to Professor Scott. In the slide, you mentioned that from trade-off to trade on, you talked about this. Honestly speaking, many companies are going into trade off. That's my perception, and that's how I really feel. In Ajinomoto, what is the differentiation factor, so that it enables it to change it from trade-off to trade on. For example, top management seriousness or AminoScience technology and assets. So what would be the driver for Ajinomoto to go into trade on. Professor Scott?

Well, this is embarrassing question, and it may be very difficult to understand. Fujie-san is sitting on my left-hand side. So what is the seriousness of President Fujie. So I would have to really say that he is really, really serious, but this is true, yes, this is true. Well in [indiscernible] holdings, Suzuki-san, [indiscernible] I think they are good at transformation, and I learned a lot from them, and I smell a lot from President Fujie. I think this is a common thing for those people. They are not satisfied with the current status. So that's a starting point. So, so far, they have been doing various things, and they have the results, yes. But in the future, in order to go, who is going to be the enemy, it's you in the past. So we have to evolve, transform. So the top management's determination, the boldness. That's very important. Yes, I am teaching management in university, and I am using very theories and talking to students that there are so many theories and so forth. But I think the difference here is mindset, I would say, seriousness. This company is very good at this -- not just that -- but as you mentioned, intangible assets, Ajinomoto have a lot of intangible assets that could be utilized, developed in the future. So this could led to the scientific possibilities. AminoScience, I mentioned. Yes, I was matured in this field. And in the past 2 years, I learned a lot about it. Yes, not just human beings body, but in animal body, amino acid is working. What is the effect and function? What is the potential? And they told us a lot -- so yes, I'm saying to Ajinomoto people that you have to explain it to other people. And more and more should be utilized in your product and services. And not just myself but a member of the SAC were mentioning that they are doing it. For example, in Thailand, high value-added agriculture -- cassava production is done. This originally was a very severe farming as a cycle. But I think Ajinomoto has partnership in Thailand, so that it could create more values and create more in the future. Of course, the cassava should just be eaten at that site, but that is going to be utilized amino acids material. And based on that solution, they are providing various added value and products and profits and making another investment. That is a reality. So the SAC members say that it is easy to say, difficult to do. But we're doing -- we're saying that we should do more and more. So I think those people outside the company do not know about the story. So we're telling them. You should tell others more about it. And I see present Fujie determined showing us. Yes. So maybe President Fujie, you should tell that, your determination. Thank you very much.

Yes, maybe. Yes, I should. Yes, passion to our purpose. I think that's the important thing. Trade on. The word trade on recently, and we're using it internally. But relatively speaking, we are one of the company that was doing trade on naturally. I was a President of Brazilian company. Amino acid and Ajinomoto, we are fermenting the sugarcane and making amino acid. And of course, in a side product, we have a lot of amino acid. So we are providing that back to the ground or may be utilized as a fertilizer. But that profit is creating a lot -- so we have the circulation type of business. And as a result of that, the cost will be reduced or maybe, in some cases, more profit. So not just myself, but many of our employees are experiencing that and globally found in that. And that's our strength, I think. So in new location, what should we be doing. So I think that's how we could create business, yes. Thank you very much for your good question. But still, we are not yet achieving our goal, so we would like to evolve more.

We'd like to take more questions, Morita-san from Daiwa Securities.

This is Morita speaking. Nice to speak to you all. I'd like to ask you 1 question pertaining to materiality, which will be announced next month. But what is the likelihood of achieving that materiality? I'd like to ask each one of you for all the presenters, starting with Professor Davis in order to execute materiality, you have set, I'm sure, concrete set of materiality, but is there any -- well, what can be attained? What is the difference between what can be attained and what cannot be attained in order for you to identify materiality? And this might be a repetition of previous questions, but where does Ajinomoto potential lie? And how are they promising? How viable is it? And that -- in order for you to execute materiality, you require HR resource to be allocated on this matter. And this question pertains to Yamamoto-san. You need to advance your HR reform. And well, how are you going to permeate Fujie-san's enthusiasm across the organization in order for you to achieve a higher creative level and what is the driving force for the further reform? And finally to Fujie-san, in order to -- well, I understand your full commitment, it's very keenly felt, but to be more specific, speaking of organization structure; well, apart from your passion, could you please be more specific about this matter?

Thank you very much for the question. This is David speaking. This is a very difficult question to address. But this is a very risky question. If I were to answer that directly because we have yet to submit our proposal to BOD, I don't want to disclose the details. So this is very tempting, but I cannot comment fully. However Morita-san I said, well, on the very next day of our announcement, I can visit you to explain the details once we announce the -- once we submit our proposal to BOD, Well, maybe Yokota-san may be mad at me, but I cannot disclose the detail. I'm very sorry. However, I can tell you a very similar story, 2 points. By 2050, materiality we've identified by 2050. Unfortunately, the council, there is no fortune teller for profit within the council, we cannot tell what's going to happen by 2050. So there may be a story of science fiction equivalent, but -- that is not attainable. So rather than focusing on a scientific fiction, by 2050 or 2040, what is the situation where Ajinomoto will be fully appreciated. If that's true, then what can we do in order for Ajinomoto to reach that stage? So by when and how and what to do, what must be obtained by what year? Those were the process we have investigated or adhered to -- so rather than focusing on scientific story, we wanted to be process-driven. We call it a grand design, which was created. And then right next to it, TDC of KPI, which is the materiality. On top of that, that process is realized -- I skipped the explanation, but a few years ago, maybe it was 3 years ago, Morita-san, yes, yes, we had a more quiet materiality identification process, which was completed within a separate forum. But it was only about few years later, we were solicited to be the Sustainability Advisory Council member. And why -- what is the purpose of us seemingly duplicating the effort. I already mentioned that materiality is already identified. That's what I told to Nishii-san, the previous CEO. But those materiality that were already identified that were transferred to the process that we are adhered to. But there were something that we're missing which was later incorporated into the long-term plan. Maybe that's different from 1-year or 2-year cycle, but this was conceptualized and then incorporated into our strategy, and then we measured and then we disclosed, discussed with stakeholders, and we performed this cycle that was what we advised. So it was a process-driven based. So materiality is not just cake in the pie in the sky. And I cannot -- unfortunately, I cannot disclose the detail of our proposal. But on the very next day, I can even visit you to discuss the details of this.

This is Yamamoto speaking. -- in order for us to complete this materiality, how are we going to reform the HR department or HR system?

Well, there is no single solution to this matter, but I'd like to raise 2 points. Within Ajinomoto and outside of Ajinomoto; first, within Ajinomoto, to put it simply, we'd like to encourage people to take on new challenges. Those will be the measures to be implemented. For example, if they are passionate about one thing, we need to provide the opportunity. There is very few participating in this voluntary based participatory training programs or programs. And -- but those need to be encouraged, those fully motivated need to be encouraged. And also in-house, well we should not just keep deploying internal personnel. We should actually deploy external HR resources as well because there are talents out there who are well-versed in this matter. So we can work together. So across the boundaries of our organization, the boundary is becoming more blurred. We'd like to ensure that we provide a work environment where everyone -- every single person can shine. So I wonder what Fujie-san has to say. He's very enthusiastic about this whole approach. Could you please comment?

This is Fujie speaking. I'm too passionate about this. Please refer to Page 7 of my presentation materials. In terms of the midterm index-based management, which will be executed down the road, this is a key point. Traditionally, we used to announce a 3-year midterm management plan, but then met uncertainty of the global economy, we have a detailed plan -- it was all about the plan itself, but we decided to abandon this 3-year MTP, rather, we wanted to focus on a long-term approach and a very ambitious one and very bold one. So in order for attaining a lofty ambition, or reach a next higher level, this is the midterm KPI that we call. While our goal is not to 100% achieve this goal. But in order for us to reach to a higher level, what is the path that we must follow. This is what we'd like to focus on. Speaking of sustainability, or materiality that was identified by the council. The final report is about to be submitted. And the capital cost which will represent corporate value and how to lead to growth rate and how to generate cash flow in order for us to attain a higher level, the MTP midterm -- excuse me, midterm KPI will be formulated in order for us to achieve those midterm KPI, then a path must be identified or explored. There may be 20 different roads ahead in order for us to obtain this midterm KPI. And once we identify each path and if we go along with the path as planned. If we are outside the path, then we should seek another approach to attain that midterm KPI. At the executive level and the mid-management level, we'd like to explore different opportunities. Speaking of my passion, I hope that I'm not overly passionate about this. We need to carefully monitor this at each stage so that we can monitor rigorously about the progress to present the shareholders.

Although the time has surpassed the scheduled time, but we would like to take one more question from Miura-san from Citigroup Securities. This is going to be the last question.

Yes, this is Miura from Citigroup Securities. I have 2 questions. One, well, I was really impressed. The presentation was excellent. Ajinomoto, I thought it was a complicated company. But in a sense, that is diverse, about women, about the social initiatives and also the personnel structures. You have a diverse type of things and taking advantage of that, you are making good management. So I felt innovation in your company. So talking about diversity and valuing diversity, I think we have positive factors evidence, I think, is shown. I would like to hear some of the examples of such evidence and diversity, I think for the coming years, will create benefits to you. And I think you have the image of harvesting things from that benefits. Could you talk about that?

Thank you for your question. Yes. Diversity, what are the positive facts and what has been generated. I think that was the question. And thank you very much for commending, thank you very much. And I would like -- we would like to do our best more. Of course, there are many facts there. To be specific, first, so how many diverse employees do we have and how many people are there out in the field doing their work. I was not able to comment on that today. But for example, through the HR management system, we became to know the facts. So that is a direct diversity factor. What we expect, et cetera, from diverse people, employee. I think they should challenge on new things so that they can create new things that has not happened before innovation. So we want to mix people that creates innovation. Through that, we want to see new ideas leading to new products. So quantitatively, maybe not, but not from the cause-effect analysis, maybe, will no show up, but we will try to do that.

And last -- another question to President Fujie. In one word, what is the corporate value of Ajinomoto? We see market capitalization as a benchmark. But sustainability was talked today. What is the value creation for you?

Yes, I think that including market capitalization, financial value and the sum of financial value and the future value created by intangible assets, I think, is a corporate value. So that is shown on Page 7. So with the plan, we'd like to come with the specific results.

Thank you very much indeed. Thank you very much, Miura-san. That is the end of the Q&A session. Lastly, but not least, from Fujie, we would like to hear a few words.

Thank you very much for participating in our event. And I'm sure -- we're sorry that we went over time, but thank you very much for sharing your time with us today through the dialogue with you. Today, we noticed a lot of things through the dialogue with you and through our executive -- the executive committee meetings. We'd like to introduce what advice we received from the shareholders in order for us to keep evolving ourselves, there is no end to our transformation. Therefore, I truly look forward to our continued dialogue with the shareholders like you. And for that, I'd like to solicit your continued support. Thank you very much for today. This concludes our A/I Day event. Thank you very much for your participation. That concludes our meeting. Thank you very much. [Statements in English on this transcript were spoken by an interpreter present on the live call.]