The new Medium-Term Management Plan starting in FY2023 is positioned as Phase 1 of "Shibaura Vision 2033". As outlined above, investments in the semiconductor industry are forecast to decline through FY2023, before rebounding again. In contrast, the FPD segment is currently undergoing the transition to next-generation devices. In both segments, strengthening the foundation toward achieving new growth forms the top priority in this Mid-term Management Plan, and we will be driving investments in earnest for this to once again aim to achieve our target of 10 billion yen in operating income for FY2025.
The first initiative will be "Further expansion of the SPE segment." This will involve increasing market share by broadening the scope of GNT product groups to different applications, customers and areas. Along with this, continual development of new models and new products will cultivate the basis for next generation GNT.
The second initiative will be to make a positive effort toward "Investments aimed at sustainable growth." The Shibaura Mechatronics Group traces its roots back to various companies coming together to form a single entity—we have a sense of pride in the knowledge that there are very few individual companies around the world with such a technological foundation like ours, complete with engineers capable of covering the front-end and back-end processes of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, front-end and back-end processes of FPD manufacturing equipment, and vacuum processing equipment. We have planned total investments for research and development at 20 billion yen over three years, some 6.3 billion yen more than in the previous Mid-term Management Plan, and these funds will be used for facilitating R&D expenditures, setting up assessment facilities, and securing human capital required for R&D.
The third initiative of "Identifying challenges and needs" involves all our employees playing a role in a sequence of process flows, from sales to development, design, evaluation, production and commissioning, and servicing. It is of great advantage for us to possess the capability of covering all processes for providing customers with value. Everyone at the Company works to identify the needs and challenges that customers are facing and come up with instant solutions, while focusing efforts toward new development topics by determining customers' future issues and potential needs. With this approach, we will be able to bolster mutual understanding with our customers and build up a strong relationship of trust, and become a company that grows together with our customers.
The fourth initiative is "Implementing sustainability management tied with materiality."

In June 2022, the Shibaura Mechatronics Group identified and announced its materiality. The Group had been implementing CSR activities as part of its sustainability initiatives, but with management emphasizing ESG becoming mainstream around the world, we embarked on reinterpreting our past activities in light of issues related to current sustainability related issues, to identify material issues that needed to be addressed.
We first formulated the Shibaura Mechatronics Group Sustainability Basic Policy, and then established the Sustainability Committee with the aim of implementing specific actions in line with the policy. We then established the parameters for identifying ESG issues, and from the plethora of issues raised, identified ESG issues that were deeply connected with the Shibaura Mechatronics Group's management strategies, and assessed them as materiality. As a result of these steps, we identified four areas of materiality relating to our businesses, and five areas of materiality that form our value creation foundation. We have assigned targets to these key issues, and will be working to achieve each target.
While I personally think that all nine of these matters are of great importance, I am particularly focusing on the target of reducing the amount of CO₂ emissions (Scope 1, 2) by 50% by FY2030 (compared with FY2019) related to climate change, as I recognize that operating businesses that meet this target is the key to ensuring that a company continues to exist. We have already rolled out various measures that include initiatives aimed at accomplishing this target.
"Ensuring diversity among our core human capital recruitment" is another significant challenge that the Shibaura Mechatronics Group is yet to achieve, and we are working to achieve the target of ratio of female managers 10% or more by FY2033.

With keywords like IoT, AI, 5G and 6G appearing more often, technical innovation throughout society is advancing at a rapid pace today. Looking forward, there is no doubt that the importance of semiconductors will continue to grow over the medium- to long term. Similarly, long-term demand in the FPD segment will grow steadily, and there are high expectations for the release of innovative new devices.
As an individual company with the unparalleled capability of covering the front-end and back-end processes of both semiconductor manufacturing equipment and FPD manufacturing equipment, the Shibaura Mechatronics Group has forged a distinct position in these key growth areas. I am confident that our technologies will facilitate technical innovation and market growth for semiconductors and FPDs, while also achieving growth for the Shibaura Mechatronics Group.
I hope all our stakeholders are looking forward to what the Shibaura Mechatronics Group has in store over the next three years, or even the next decade.