News Room 2023
Fiscal 2023 Message to New Employees from President Miyuki Ishihara
April 3, 2023
Hello, everyone. On behalf of all members of the UACJ Group, I would like to welcome you here today.
Over the past three years, as restrictions were placed on people’s activities during the COVID-19 pandemic, I imagine that many of you confronted serious difficulties in your studies and daily lives. I would like to commend you for getting through such tough times, and congratulate all of you for joining the UACJ Group. Together, we can look forward to celebrating the 10th anniversary of UACJ’s establishment in October. This year also marks the 125th year since one of the Company’s founders began producing flat-rolled aluminum.
Now that the pandemic has subsided, economic activities have been resuming around the world. Due to various factors, however, the outlook for the global economy has worsened. Many countries, including Japan, have also been facing labor shortages and rising prices of goods and commodities. Nevertheless, the UACJ Group’s operating environment looks bright because demand for aluminum products remains strong as more and more people around the world recognize the environmental benefits of aluminum. Industries and people around the world depend on our products, so we have a responsibility to them. Therefore, I want all of you to help fulfill this responsibility by working together with your colleagues as a team in the years to come.
When I Imagine a team, I think of all the members of a baseball team. Each of them plays a different position, but they strive to accomplish the same goals. By participating as a team member, each employee can contribute to fulfilling our purpose as an enterprise and to realizing the UACJ Group Philosophy. This philosophy provides an essential framework for the Group’s employees to work collectively towards the same goals, regardless of how the operating environment changes in the future.
The UACJ Group Philosophy is comprised of three components: Our Purpose, Our Vision, and Our Values. Our Purpose is to “contribute to society by using raw materials to manufacture products that enhance prosperity and sustainability.” Our Vision is stated as follows: “Aluminum is our passion. It inspires our work in building a better world and a healthier environment.” Our Values is a set of three values that make up the UACJ Way, which we created as a means to put the philosophy into practice and provide basic guidelines for all of the Group’s members to follow. I expect each of you, too, to take these values to heart while channeling your youthful energy and abilities in your workplace, so that you grow and thrive as the Group’s next generation of talent. Whenever you are unsure about a decision to make or are starting something new in your work, I hope you will look to the UACJ Way for guidance and proceed based on whichever values are applicable. I will talk about each of these three values in more detail.
The first value of the UACJ Way is to respect and understand your associates. The workplaces where you have been assigned are made up of diverse groups of people who have a wide range of backgrounds and standpoints. We promote diversity, equity, and inclusion to encourage our diverse members to mutually accept each other’s values and individuality, as well as to foster each employee’s personal growth and strengthen our organizations. Once you have joined your workplace, please interact with your colleagues in a positive manner, and be open to broadening your viewpoints and activities. In that way, I expect you to develop as well-rounded individuals.
The second value is to embrace honesty and foresight. Over the Company’s long history, our predecessors were very sincere about meeting customers’ expectations for quality, delivery times, and costs, based on a belief that businesses should serve society. Building on this legacy, the UACJ Group has been able to earn the trust of customers by manufacturing products in an honest manner. To do this, we believe it is essential to take actions based on five basic principles: understand how our factories operate, know our products inside and out, recognize how everything actually works, act rationally, and make decisions based on established rules. Accordingly, you should always be sincere when dealing with people and our products, and try to learn new things while refining your skills and techniques whenever possible.
The third value of the UACJ Way is to be curious and challenging. As the world tackles major issues, such as overcoming the pandemic and combatting climate change, technology has been advancing and people’s lifestyles have been changing at a faster pace than ever. Therefore, we can expect all kinds of new technologies, products, and services to appear over the next decade. To effectively adapt to such changes, we must always maintain a sense of curiosity and go beyond conventional wisdom and past precedents. Only then can we devise solutions needed by the world today. Therefore, I want all of you to continuously innovate rather than just recycling old ideas, and draw on your passion and imagination in your new jobs so that we can expand the possibilities of aluminum products.
The UACJ Way offers a path for building your character and strengthening our organizations. As you newly interact with your colleagues, remember that teams of people can find solutions for problems that are too difficult for individuals to solve alone. You can be sure of that.
Next, I would like to discuss sustainability. We created a roadmap called UACJ Vision 2030 to clarify the kind of enterprise we want the UACJ Group to become by 2030. As the first step to realizing this vision, the Group launched its third medium-term management plan in April 2021. One of the major policies of this plan is to promote sustainability, because we recognize that the environmental problems and other issues confronting the world today cannot be left for future generations. By supplying high-quality aluminum products that reduce environmental impacts because they are lightweight, durable, and easy to recycle, we want the Group to help build a brighter and exciting future.
Aluminum is an essential metal for building a sustainable planet. From that standpoint, I believe that a supplier of aluminum products must also operate as a sustainable company, itself. Toward that end, every employee, including each of you, should become actively involved in sustainability initiatives. Please take time to consider what kinds of contributions you can make and what would be necessary to do so. UACJ aims to create a brighter future by playing a leading role in building a circular economy, and I hope you will contribute to these efforts.
Now I would like to talk about safety and compliance, which are at the heart of the UACJ Way. Ensuring safety and compliance are fundamental approaches and principles of conduct for any manufacturer. I chose to discuss this topic now rather than from the outset because I want all of you to remember what I have to say.
Safety is so fundamental that people routinely convey it with a greeting in some countries. In Germany, for example, the word, glückauf, was originally used as a greeting by miners to express their desire to return safely from the mine. Similarly, members of the manufacturing industry in Japan often greet each other with the phrase, go-anzen ni, which literally means “stay safe.” At UACJ, too, employees greet each other with this phrase every day as a way of maintaining a shared awareness of safety. I would like all of you, as well, to wholeheartedly greet your co-workers this way in your respective workplaces, as it reflects our long-standing tradition of giving priority to safety in everything we do while taking responsibility for one’s own safety.
Compliance is a minimum requirement of any organization operating in society. Accordingly, we do our best to fully comply with laws concerning health and safety, the environment, and product quality. We also follow various rules, including our own internal regulations along with requirements specified by customers. As new employees, all of you should start learning these rules and make sure to follow them in the future.
From today, I want each of you to participate in the UACJ Group as a team player and strive to make the most of your abilities. In the spirit of the Group’s slogan, “Aluminum lightens the world,” let’s work together to create outstanding aluminum products and devise solutions needed by people around the world.
I hope you never forget the significance of this day in your lives. I wish you great success in your careers as members of the UACJ Group and as working adults. Thank you, and stay safe.