Fiscal 2019 Employee Initiation Ceremony Opening Address from President Miyuki Ishihara

I would like to begin by congratulating all of you for joining the company. On behalf of the UACJ Group, I am delighted to welcome each of you to our organization.

You are now just beginning you journey as working adults in the aluminum industry. Since UACJ was established on October 1, 2013, the industry has undergone major changes. While trade friction between the United States and China has recently had an impact, demand for aluminum has been rising steeply due to its adoption by the auto industry, which is shifting to lightweight and electric vehicles. Against that backdrop, UACJ has begun expanding its facilities for manufacturing automotive body sheet at Fukui Works as part of efforts to optimize its manufacturing systems in Japan. The company has also been carrying out strategic investment overseas, particularly in Thailand, the United States, and China. R&D centers were recently set up in the U.S. and Thailand to provide the Group’s factories overseas with the research and development capabilities they need.
At UACJ, we are very conscious of our customers and other stakeholders involved in our business. Accordingly, in our latest mid-term management plan launched in 2018, we set important tasks corresponding to each type of stakeholder in order to meet their expectations, with a view to “maximize the possibilities of aluminum in ways that contribute to society and the environment.” We will maintain our firm dedication to making the most of aluminum’s potential while aiming to raise corporate value as high as possible.

I expect all of you here today to get involved in these initiatives in the future. I also hope you will thrive and succeed in each workplace where you are assigned from now, contributing youthful energy and new ideas as valuable members of the company.

I spoke of maximizing the possibilities of aluminum, but I also want each of you, over the course of your career at UACJ, to make the most of your own potential and contribute to society and the environment. To do that, I believe two basic principles are important to follow.

The first is to make sure to understand the places in which the company operates. That means the workplaces where we carry out research and development, manufacture products, deal with customers, and provide back office support for all of those operations. Each of these places has a completely different standpoint. Perspectives will differ even in the same workplace. In a factory, for example, what happened five minutes ago on a hot-rolling line is different from what is happening now. To understand what happens in each place, the standpoints and roles of the people working there, the challenges confronting them and their capabilities, it is extremely important to first visit those places and learn about them. In the example of the hot-rolling line, if someone has not actually observed how it works, it will be practically impossible for him or her to understand the nature of the problems that arise, help solve those problems, and explore new possibilities just by listening to explanations. Likewise, you will experience many things at UACJ that are completely new to you. When that happens, be sure to go to the place where those things happen and learn about them.

The second principle is to get to know our customers and your associates. We need to know about the customers who use our products as well as all of the people we deal with, whether in or outside the company. Getting to know a company that uses our products, for example, means going to its worksites to both experience what it needs and learn about its production facilities. Then you can accurately grasp what exactly the company wants. It is important to conceptualize what a customer requests, but if my concept is not rooted in the customer’s own circumstances, it will just be a product of my own imagination, and, consequently, will not meet the customer’s expectations. Therefore, I want you to learn about the circumstances of customers as well as your associates by getting to know them.

Understanding the places in which we operate and getting to know customers and associates may seem rather daunting to you now, but you should be able to apply and understand both principles as you build up experience. If you stop consciously putting them into practice, however, you will not be able to understand our workplaces and really know the people you deal with. By repeatedly putting the principles into practice, you will learn countless things and grow as a person. That is how you can make the most of your own potential. Furthermore, operating at your full potential will enable you to raise the quality of your work to a level that others can rely on. Then you will be in a position to help UACJ contribute to society and the environment.

I would like all of you to imagine how each new employee here today and each member of the UACJ Group will deal with customers in their respective workplaces, and devise ideas and action plans for achieving goals. It is as if we are all members of the same team, like a baseball team, for instance. To promote good teamwork and unity , we are now implementing various reforms in our workplaces, including measures for improving operational efficiency, and have created the UACJ Way as a set of shared principles of conduct for all members of the Group worldwide. Through these initiatives, we want to foster a workplace environment that allows employees to develop and grow, offer their own ideas, and put them into action. If we achieve that on an organizational level, the company will have a long and bright future ahead. My mission is to lead the company in that direction.

I hope that each of you will make the most of your own potential as members of the UACJ Group, and in that process, be a part of our vision to maximize the possibilities of aluminum in ways that contribute to society and the environment.

I have explained a few principles that I hope you will follow in the future, but I would like to conclude by asking all of you to take good care of your health and pay close attention to safety while working at the company in the years ahead. You should always remember that placing top priority on safety and living a healthy life are sound principles for all members of society.

Finally, I wish you great success in your careers as members of the company and as working adults. Thank you.