We would like to express our deepest apologies for the recent misconduct by our executive officers and employees, which has caused concern and inconvenience to all of you. We take this incident very seriously and will make every effort to recover the trust of our stakeholders by thoroughly investigating the cause of the incident and preventing its recurrence.

I would like to report on our performance in the first half of the fiscal year ending March 2025.

During the first half of the fiscal year, the global economy as a whole was sluggish due to continued inflation in major countries and the impact of conflicts in various parts of the world.

Production trends in the manufacturing sector in Japan, where the Group is located, remained firm due to the yen's depreciation, a review of selling prices, and a recovery in demand for some semiconductors. However, the recovery in capital investment was delayed, and uncertainty remained overall.

In this operating environment, while working to secure earnings, the Group continued to strengthen its operating base in line with the new medium-term business plan NF2026 launched this fiscal year, with a view to achieving further growth in the future.

As a result, the NF2026 strategies made steady progress and performance in the first half of the fiscal year was generally as planned, both in net sales and profits. However, due to the impact of a decrease in large-scale projects, net sales and profits declined year on year.

We recognize that building up results is essential to regain the trust of our customers. From the third quarter onward, we will steadily implement both offensive and defensive measures to achieve sustainable growth over the medium to long term, while securing a path to the recovery of business performance through measures such as increased orders from the Tech Market.