Hello and happy New Year! I am Shu Ishibashi, Global CEO of Bridgestone. I hope you and your families all enjoyed good holiday season. The business environment last year was a challenging, due to economic slowdown in North America and Europe and rapid inflation. Even in such an environment, each of global teammates worked hard and responded to changes. Thank you for your efforts and contributions.

2023 was the final year of 21MBP. We aimed to become a “strong” Bridgestone capable of adapting changes, carried out our plans with a “challenging” spirit, focusing on “execution” and “delivering results.” There have been many successes, but some challenges remain. In premium tire business, we have strengthened premium focus across value chain and improved productivity, which we will continue to improve these globally. We also made strategic growth investments to lay the foundation for 24MBP, mainly in premium tires, even in a challenging business environment. Going forward, these investments will need to be adjusted based on the business environment and further optimized globally.

In the solutions business, we have improved each solution and defined our focus. The focus is on retail and service solutions, mainly in North America and Japan; B-to-B tire-centric solutions to develop into a mobility tech business, such as mining and aviation solutions; and “Fleetcare" for truck tires, which combines premium tire, retreading, maintenance and mobility solutions. The expansion of Fleetcare will mainly take place in the US. We will make our solutions business more sustainable in terms of profit and value creation for customers and society. In the Diversified Products and Exploratory businesses, we will continue to focus on areas where we can leverage our core competencies sharply. In terms of sustainability, which we consider to be at the core of our management and business, we have successfully achieved the 2023 targets for carbon neutrality and the realization of a circular economy and continue to promote our sustainability initiatives.

These achievements have been made by the effort of each and every one of you, once again, thank you. I am also very pleased to see that the Bridgestone E8 Commitment is alive in all our initiatives towards the vision. With the E8 Commitment as our axis, we will be able to create a new DNA and culture in Bridgestone. So let's continue to focus on creating value based on 8 Es.

With these reflections, we will strive to achieve our vision of "being a sustainable solutions company" in 24MBP, and this year is the starting point. In 2024, our business environment will still be challenging, but we must return to a strong Bridgestone capable of adapting to changes that we did not fully complete in 21MBP. And we have established the basic business scenario of 24MBP with 4 key pillars - "Creating good business quality", "Creating good tires", "Creating good business" and "Creating new business that sows good seeds for the future". In line with these, we will continue to focus on value creation. I would like to emphasize that "Create good business quality" is our top priority and will be the foundation of all activities going forward. Passion for excellence and improving the quality of work and business are what we must all keep in mind. And "Focus on Quality", "Respect for being on site, Genbutsu- Genba", which are Bridgestone's DNA and global assets, will be the basis of our growth. Quality will be enhanced by solid "Plan - Do - Check - Act" cycle, standardization, discussion with data, and "WHY-WHY-WHY analysis" at on site- Genba to solve problems. From my experience, I can say with a certainty that a good process can create a good result.

 "Creating good tires" starts with creating Bridgestone's unique "new premium" such as ENLITEN®, which enables "ultimate customization". The fusion of ENLITEN and BCMA will be the key to our success, enhancing customer delight through ENLITEN and optimizing business costs through BCMA. "Creating good business" will be centered on reinforcing sales channels and developing our brands as "sustainable premium”. Our participation in Formula E from the 2026 - 2027 season will be the cornerstone to evolve our brand power to "sustainable premium," and we will prepare for this in 24MBP. This approach is embodied in our new message, “Passion to Turn the World,” which includes our passion to race, to win, to embrace the ultimate challenge, and passion to undertake new journeys together. "Creating new business by sowing seeds" will mainly be the development of the mobility tech business, with the fusion of real and digital.

So, there are many exciting challenges and opportunities ahead of us. As we have in our DNA – “challenging spirit”, let’s accelerate our journey together. In closing, I would like to ask you to always keep in mind our mission “Serving Society with Superior Quality” as we move forward. I look forward to another healthy and successful year with all of you. Thank you.