It's just over a month since you were appointed as president. However, before that you were serving as assistant to Hiroyuki Nakanishi (the former president and current chairman), and as the person in charge of corporate business plans, you complied the mid-term business plan, and came up with ideas for the restructuring of business and strengthening of corporate profitability, in rapid succession. Dr. Nakanishi was so impressed by that speed and he had no concerns about following through on your suggestions. You also have a great reputation within the company, with employees saying, "When you talk to him, he is a frank and cheerful person."

Q: What are the urgent management issues that you currently face?

For our company the urgent issue is how to strengthen the Performance Materials Sector, which we made slow start. As I emphasized in the mid-term business plan, I'd like to change business structure so that our profit contribution ratio by Performance Materials Sector should come up to 50%. The petrochemicals and basic chemicals sector is performing favorably, and we have made sure of our profits to a certain extent through cost reduction and other measures. But we made siow start in the Performance Materials Sector.

There are two major causal factors. The first is that, although we proceeded with cost reductions for products such as PDP films for optical filters, the price decreased even below that. The second factor is that the market grew beyond our estimation, so the supply could not keep up with the demand.

As a whole, it seems that we really do not yet have a thoroughly accurate grasp of the needs of customers in the information and electronics materials field. Although it is a time when we should offer customers some ideas ourselves, we haven't yet reached that stage. For items like CCD packages, semiconductor materials, although we have a great deal of business experience, I think that we did not have a clear view of the IT and electronics industry itself. From now on I want us to increase our speed to better match customer needs and expand our results.

Q: Since you have set up a new system, has the company changed in any way?

In order that the petrochemicals and basic chemicals section, and the performance materials section become the "two wheels" of our company, I have established two vice presidents to lead each respective section. And then, to serve as the "axle," I have set up three senior managing directors in charge of research & development, production & technology and respectively. Overall, this means more rapidity in decision-making. In the case of performance materials, the business field is broad, in which there are many things we want to do, and we will actively carry out, whatever we can do. I like to proceed the management based on that kind of image.

In the healthcare materials field, we have many products that have a top-level share of the world market, such as medical intermediates, agrochemicals, lens materials, and non-woven fabrics. This also overlaps with the functional polymer fields, so we plan to expand in these various fields, while working closely together.

Our goal is to achieve operating income of \100 billion in 2007, which is the final year in our mid-term busuness plan, with the performance materials sector covering half of this income. Moreover, 2007 will mark exactly the tenth year since Mitsui Chemicals foundation. That makes us even more determined to achieve our goal!

Q: Will your business tie-up with Idemitsu Kosan lead to other new developments?

Affiliations between oil refining and petrochemicals will be even more important in future business strategy. We have set up a committee comprising staffs from both companies and are currently considering the kinds of further tie-ups we can make in the future, and already openly discussing various possibilities.

In the past as well, especially with the establishment of Prime Polymer in the polyolefin business, we have decided to restart production of benzene based on LNR facilities, and joint shipping allocation for imported naphtha, using large-scale transportation vessels. In the future too, various positive ideas are sure to arise. Rather than focusing on making a large basic framework, our activities are based on the viewpoint of steadily continuing to do whatever we can.

Q: You have a large PTA Plan in China, but some say that things look rather doubtful in China. Do you have any concerns about that?

We have a plan to construct a large-scale PTA plant producing 600,000 tons per year in Zangjiongang,Jiangsu Province.Expansion in the Asian area eiming at strengthening profitability in the petrochemicals and basic chemicals sector is one of our company's basic strategies, and the PTA Plan in China could be considered our most important project. We are currently waiting for investment approval from the Chinese authorities.

Of course, if we choose to work overseas, there will be many things that do not work in the same way as in Japan. Therefore, considering the various risks involved, we have come up with three principles for overseas projects, within our company. The first is that, if we are going to operate overseas, it will be in our core business areas only; the second that a project will be within the investment risk we can take, it will not affect our main business; and the third is that we must already have customers of the business. In other words, regarding risk, we have definite plans with a strict decision-making process.

In the case of this PTA plan, all three conditions have been met. Especially, concerning the customer noted in the third point, we already export PTA to China. The local demand for polyester fibers and PET bottles will expand further in chinese market. The geographical conditions are also extremely good.

Our company already has several projects in China. For PP compounds, we established a group joint venture early on, and set up a plant in Shanghai, which is performing very favorably. Also, a 100% subsidiary PP automotive materials company completed a factory recently in Zhongshan City, Guangdong Province, which has begun operations. Our plan to make business operations for Bisphenol-A, through the joint venture with Sinopec Corp. is also making progress. Each one of these cases represents an important base in terms of our future global development.

Q: Will the mood in your company change from now on?

I'd like to make Mitsui Chemicals a company that has a more animated, cheerful atmosphere. It's not that it isn't already like that, but I think we have lacked an atmosphere in which people can freely express their own views. From now on, I'd like to provide ways to improve so that employees do not wait to be told what to do from above, but instead actively exchange opinions. I'd like our company to have that kind of mood.