Message from the President

We will strive to remain "beyond your expectations" for the next 150 years.

In 2008, Marubeni marked its 150th anniversary. Since taking up the position of president at Marubeni, I have become acutely aware of the importance of the reputation that has been handed down unbroken by my predecessors. Even as the times have changed, the business spirit of the Marubeni Group has remained unchanged. In the words of Tetsujiro Furukawa, who was Senior Managing Director during the Marubeni Shoten days of the early Showa period: "Benefiting oneself and benefiting others, that is, devoting oneself to business in the spirit of prosperous co-existence - that is the true value of the merchant spirit."
I regard these very words as the starting point of the Marubeni Group. I believe that exercising wisdom, working hard, doing the legwork, being realistic, and conducting business activities that are in harmony with society and the environment - all for the benefit of all stakeholders and not just oneself - will lead to the sustainable growth of the company.
To mark the 150th anniversary of Marubeni's founding, as part of our social contribution activities, we expanded the scholarship funds that we run in the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia, by making additional contributions. We also established new scholarship funds in Cambodia and Laos. Domestically, for the past 34 years, Marubeni has continued to provide a total of 100 million yen annually in social welfare assistance through the Marubeni Foundation.
In environmental areas as well, Marubeni is working hard for the preservation of the global environment. Examples of our efforts include the promotion of afforestation throughout the world, initiatives for new energy businesses such as bioethanol and wind power generation, and initiatives for uniform and waste paper recycling.
With respect to human resources, which are a trading company's greatest management resource, we promote Work-Life Balance to raise the motivation of employees to work and so that they can fully demonstrate their skills and capabilities.
The worldwide recession triggered by the US subprime mortgage problem has forced economies to slow dramatically. However, it is because we find ourselves in such a difficult situation that we have been able to reflect on problems that were not apparent during the good times, such as past techniques and approaches used in CSR activities. Based on these reflections, we plan to fulfill an even greater social responsibility.
The Marubeni Group will endeavor to remain "beyond your expectations" for the next 150 years, and we will continue our CSR activities unremittingly so that we can leave both tangible and intangible assets for the next generation.