To all investors and analysts, thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us today for the dialogue event with Shiseido's outside directors. I am Oshima from the IR department, and I will be serving as the moderator today. Here is the agenda for today's proceedings. Now, let me introduce our speakers. First, we have Mr. Yoshihiko Hatanaka. In addition to his extensive experience and track record as the head of a global corporation, Mr. Hatanaka possesses multifaceted and broad insights into corporate management based on his experience as a head of corporate planning and finance. He joined the company as an External Director in March 2023. Currently, as Chairman of the Board of Directors, as well as Chair of the Nominating Committee and a member of the Compensation Committee, Mr. Hatanaka is leading the efforts to strengthen corporate governance. The next speaker is Mr. Yasuhiro Nakajima. Mr. Nakajima has spent many years engaged in accounting, audits, and advisory services as a Certified Public Accountant, and possesses insights into management of global companies, as well as a keen understanding of the challenges they face. Mr. Nakajima joined our company as an External Director in March 2025, and currently plays a key role as a member of the Audit Committee in ensuring the reliability of financial reporting and overseeing the risk management framework. Mr. Hatanaka, Mr. Nakajima, it's a pleasure to have you here. It's a pleasure to be here. Having gone through a period of structural reform, our company is currently in the phase of implementing our growth strategy for 2030 and generating results. In light of this, the focus of the Board of Directors' discussions and oversight has also shifted. This slide lists particularly important themes currently under discussion at the Board of Directors meetings. First, I would like to ask both of the speakers to provide brief comments on your perspectives and assessments regarding each topic as external director. After that, we will go to a Q&A session with the audience. To begin, regarding the oversight of the execution of the 2030 midterm management strategy, specifically growth monitoring, our understanding of challenges to date, and appropriate risk-taking. Could Mr. Hatanaka please offer your comments first? Yes, 2030. There's the Action Plan 2025-2026. This is the final year of the Action Plan 2025-2026, and this is the first year of midterm management strategy and the turning point for transformation. That is this year, 2026. We need a clear and consistent explanation of how to conclude the structural reforms and the Action Plan 2025-2026, and seamlessly connect them to the growth trajectory toward 2030. We need the consistent explanation, and also to generate the growth is the role of the Board of Directors. The aim and the goal are shown in our business plan clearly. Having said that, things do not go as planned in many cases. Therefore, we will capture the signals. Also, driving the business in the right direction is very important. There are the business environmental conditions, sometimes it's better or worse than our assumption, and we will capture the signs of changes at the early stage to address those changes. We have seen that the profit was higher than we had expected, but not so much with the sales revenue. How to change the outlook based on this capturing the signs of changes is something that we are pursuing. Another point of view is the use of AI, and how to connect the use of AI to the enterprise value. It will be in the area of higher productivity and also value creation. Internally, we will have the FOCUS program with the consistent and comprehensive data to drive the effective use of AI, and we are fully aware of that in our monitoring. Thank you very much. For the same point of view, Mr. Nakajima, could you elaborate? As Mr. Hatanaka also mentioned, this fiscal year, we are on the track of attaining a significant improvement in profitability. We are still facing a visible gap with the annual goal. At this point in time, we will look at 2030 and beyond. We need concrete measures, and those measures have to be verified, whether it's workable or not. For instance, for creating Shiseido's enterprise value, there's a Shiseido Way, which is the code of conduct, and whether it is fully permeated among the employees and is actually showing the good result, we need to monitor. Also technical development, and what would be the sense of speed and impact that would be appropriate for us to attain the added value for both the customers and us, Shiseido. We will work towards improvement of the way we run our business and monitor if the measures are working as expected. Thank you very much. Now, we would like to move on to the next agenda about the profitability, the oversight progress regarding profitability, ROIC, ROE, and cash flow improvements. Mr. Nakajima, could you deliver a comment on this? It may be overlapping what I've just said earlier. In 2030, towards 2030, we have the midterm business plan, and there's a target to be achieved in 2030. This is only a passing point. In order to generate the enterprise value, we need to have the systematic way forward for cost reduction and permeation of a productive way of working. This will result in the profitability improvement and the cash flow improvement. For instance, one of the causes of the sluggish productivity is the ambiguity in terms of the authority and responsibility between the entities within the group and within the organization. Into this year, we have revisited. We have the CEO and the CEO line, and we have the direct reporting line to CEO from different regions and different business units. This is something that would be healthier. Through this activity, we would like to improve the branding and also improve the capital expenditure efficiency, and we are focusing on that as well. In the Board of Directors meeting, in fact, the directors in charge are reporting, giving the interim report on the effect of changing the reporting line. Also, I am a member of the Audit Committee. From the perspective of an Audit Committee, in the actual site, inside and outside of Japan, we would directly be involved in giving instructions so as the daily practice will be a correct one. For instance, for the overseas entity, we give the direct instruction to conduct the hearing sessions about the impact of the improvement. We actually visit physically to different sites and to learn about their practices. We are trying to capture how the business are run. Based on our understanding, the measures that is put into practice by the executive members of the company, and we see about whether they are effective and what actions are taken to improve the way we run business. We are keeping an eye on those activities. Thank you very much. Now moving on to the next topic about the geopolitical risks, supply chain risk, and cybersecurity risks. Could you share your assessment of how these risks are being addressed and how the Board is overseeing them? Nakajima-san? In terms of geopolitical risks, supply chain risks, and cybersecurity risks. As for these types of risks, as for the Board, we do spend a lot of time to have our discussions continuously. As for geopolitical risk and supply chain risks, with the escalated tension in the Middle East brought to the forefront procurement risks for petroleum-derived materials and other raw materials essential to cosmetics. As for that, we have done prioritization of the materials and production with the necessary speed and agility. This goes back to the changes in the report line, as I mentioned earlier. This has been one of the big keys that has contributed to the improvement in response and speed. Looking at the R&D, the commercial team, the production team, the communication has been very agile and timely, so that as a result, the company has been very agile in responding to any of the changes that needed to be made. However, looking at the evolution of supply chain, there are, of course, many areas to be improved. For example, shortening the lead time or the cost of procurement optimization and improving the ratio of single- source procurement for specific materials. There are areas that can be improved in terms of assessing these risks. These challenges, in order to improve, the company continues to execute on that, and as a board, we do continue to oversee the activities. In terms of cybersecurity, of course, this is also a very important key management priority. As for the Board, we do understand the importance of this, and we recognize the progress and address the cybersecurity closely. For example, in detail in the company, global information security division has been centering in these actions to come with measures and rolling plans focused on preventing and overseeing the risks of the potential cyber attacks. As a board, we do oversee that, especially for cyber attacks. Of course, there is AI leveraged for cyber attacks. It is becoming increasingly sophisticated. So the quality of cyber attacks have been changed. To be able to prevent this 100% in advance is almost impossible as the cyber attacks continue to evolve. If in an unfortunate case, when there is a cyber attack, we have been creating the measures and structures so that we can minimize potential damage and maintain business resilience. Again, the speed of the cyber attacks evolving is very fast and very quick. So the company too has been very agile, quick, and flexible in order to minimize any of the damage that may happen. As for the Board and as for the audit members, we are very closely monitoring these activities. That is it from myself. Thank you very much. Now I would like to shift over to Hatanaka-san. In addition to topics related to nomination and compensation, including enhancing board effectiveness, CEO succession, and executive compensation are also important areas of oversight. Could you share your perspectives on this? Maybe I will start with the compensation of the executives. First of all, the philosophy underlying executive compensation for Shiseido is about including the aim of setting compensation at levels that enable the company to attract and retain outstanding talent in the global talent market. We have established a six-point basic philosophy. The compensation system is designed in accordance with this philosophy. The compensation is designed with global tiers in mind, taking into account the roles and job sizes of individual executives. The compensation practice based on relevant market information and also with the job settings, the positions. As for the global KPI settings, we continue to review the global compensation practices based on relevant markets, including higher levels of compensation and greater weighting of performance-based pay and performance pay to approach the setting global KPIs. For the executives, we want to make sure that we have a very strong incentive to the executives. Of course, for the recipient, it has to be transparent and fair as well, and it also links to their execution and their activities. We look at the compensation from those aspects. Thank you very much. Now, we would like to open the floor to questions. Thank you. Now we are ready. Please raise your hands if you have a question. Thank you. From Morgan Stanley, Miyake-san. Thank you very much. This is Miyake from Morgan Stanley. I want to ask about the future, as for the Board members, the kind of discussions that you have as a board member for the future is what I would like to ask about. As there is the midterm plan, and I'm sure you are monitoring the company to proceed, that they will move forward with the midterm plan. But if you think about the further midterm, longer term, are there discussions around the portfolio? In the future, I'm sure there will be a phase somewhere along the line where you would consider M&As. If that is the case, then I'm sure there are many lessons from the past, learnings from the past, too, in terms of M&A. So there should be some kind of a structure to be in place in order to execute an M&A in the future. On top of that, if there is to be an acquisition in the future, if in the past, what your company used to look for in terms of asset, it would happen with an overseas company and there will be shortage of the concept, and you're a little bit late in the newly developed market and as a result, end up acquiring the company with a bit of a higher value, a bit expensive. Instead of that, in terms of M&A, will you be looking at, okay, instead of being market first or market led, will you be leading, okay, we need this kind of company in order for us to achieve this. I feel that kind of planning is important, too. So how the portfolio should be and what the structure can be to create that portfolio, is that kind of discussion being held within the Board members? Those are the areas, if you can share, I would love to hear about. Thank you very much for your question. I would like to answer to your question. Thank you. For the midterm planning, in terms of the discussion around the midterm plan, of course, we discuss about the market, the competitors, and keep that in mind as we do our discussion. But at the same time, we also consider greatly about the strength of Shiseido. Where do we elevate the strength of Shiseido? For example, R&D. In terms of R&D, in the longer term, what can Shiseido do? The technology that we have, it's like an innovation map. So we have that for the longer-term vision. Also, if it's in the short to mid-term, then to the marketing. What kind of technology within Shiseido can we bring to each of the brands so that we can maximize the brands across Shiseido? So the assets that Shiseido has, the strength that Shiseido has, based on that, we have the discussions and have continued with the discussions. With that in mind, or with that as a basis, when we look at the future, there are areas where there are possibilities and potential. For example, if it is medical dermatology, or it could be a diagnostic area. The opportunities looking ahead, we discuss, can we do it internally within Shiseido or do we maybe look at assets outside of the company? That would be the kind of order we would have the discussions. Therefore, it is not that we are shopping around. "Oh, there is something good out there, we will go for it." No. We are looking at what do we want to do? We want to do this, and what can we do? Do we have the capability internally? Where do we have the capability, and where are we short of internally? That is the kind of discussion that we have been having. Also in the Board of Directors member for the past investments, what can we learn from? The learnings from the past M&As, that is something that we are doing within the Board of Directors member too. As you have mentioned, it is true that in the past, the past investment cases, there were cases we do have to agree that there were acquisitions that were made that were not that valuable or adding value to the company. But when we look at the mid-term to longer term and going forward, we do consider the learnings from the past as well, and so that we will be much smarter about our investments going forward. I hope that I have answered your question. Thank you very much. Next, we would like to take question from Koguchi-san from Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management. Thank you very much for this opportunity. I am Koguchi from Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management. Now from myself, I have a question to Mr. Hatanaka, I suppose. In the integrated report, what left me the strongest impression is that the end, that our strength is not fully exerted. We are more powerful and stronger than what we are now. How do you materialize or externalize that potential strength? I think that will be the question towards the next set of generation for the future. Shiseido's brand value are fully polished, and there are so many attractive brands, but it does not seem that attractiveness of each brand are not directly translated to the attractiveness of the brand as a corporate for Shiseido. How are you going to increase the enterprise value by increasing the share price and the asset? Would you mind explaining how you would achieve that? Thank you very much for your question. As pointed out well, and for your question the other day between the executive members and the Board of Directors had a discussion. There's the stories for each brand, but now as Shiseido as a whole, what would be the brand value that we would offer? That was a question. In the midterm business plan, we are indicating parts of our aspirations, but the overall story is extremely weak and the connection between the product brand strength and the corporate brand is not so strong. Our CEO is fully aware of this situation, therefore the story making for Shiseido as a corporate, the CEO will be fully committed in making that. Also, as I mentioned earlier, we tend to not to tell stories with the timeline in mind. I suppose you have seen this before. What will be the new technology deployed and what new technology? These are all laid out in the product calendar. These are the things that we cannot disclose from the competition perspective. But what technology will be incorporated into what brand for monetization is something that we have been discussing amongst the management. Including the sense of time frame for introducing new technology and new products. I'm sure that the story for the entire Shiseido will be fully communicated, and you should be able to bridge the gap between the corporate brand strength and the corporate strength. We have a question via chat from Moriya-san from Nippon Life Insurance Company. Corporate governance code have been revised, but will be reflected to the new corporate governance code. What would be the more progressive area of Shiseido and areas of challenge within Shiseido? This could be from both of your own perspective, but would you assess Shiseido's board members as effective board? How would you assess yourselves? Thank you. First of all, for Shiseido, as we have been disclosing, from 2024, we have the [three- committee] structure, and I myself have been the outside director, but as I'm also the Chair of the Board. From that perspective, the transparency that has been brought is quite high, I would say. As a result of the structure, I believe the transparency has been quite high. However, when we compare that to the other overall picture, are we progressive or not? That is another area of discussion or room for discussion, and everybody would. Many of you may have your own assessment on that. Especially for us, when we think about the midterm strategy, the allocation of resource, and allocation of the management resource. For that, for quite some time as the Board of Directors, for example, looking at the all of 2025 Board of Directors meetings, about half or majority of the time has been allocated to this discussion of allocation of resource. Of course, we are not just having discussions. We have to actually show it to you with the actual company results and performance. But I would say that that kind of discussion done by Board of Directors has been, I would say, quite progressive amongst the peers or in the market. Looking at the office in an area, we have been more monitoring and closer focus on the office as well. Also look not just quantitative and qualitatively. In the past two years, we have changed the way we run the Board. From that perspective as well, it would be hard to see from the outside the changes that have been made, but I myself, including my other outside experience as well, Shiseido's Board of Directors, I would say, is strong with the actual execution. As for myself, the discussion with the Board is very active. I would like to mention about how active the discussions are within the Board of Directors. Each of the committee members, it is not just asking questions, but it is often we would talk about the challenges of the company and think deeply about the topics and challenges of the company and give advice or perspective. To that, the executive team, the Shiseido management team, take this very seriously and take that into consideration, and I feel that we have a very positive cycle of communication. When we think about the Board of Directors assessment, that is also, it could be somewhat superficial. However, looking at Shiseido's company's discussions, I believe that the Board really goes deep into the real challenges and discussions. As a result of that discussion, what the management pursues within the company could also change and alternate. I believe that we have a very good relationship where we can speak and discuss and where it is actually portrayed into the actual company business. Thank you very much. Next, I would like to take a question from Osada from JP Morgan Asset Management. Nice to meet you. I am Osada. From a buy side, whether to buy a share or not, that is the decision I am in a position to make. The existence of external board member is very important in this regard. I would like to ask a question. The track record of M&A, in fact, Shiseido does not have a very good track record. Running this aspect of the business, meaning the M&A, I would like to ask about it, because I heard that there is extensive discussion underway. What is the learning and what is the specific findings that you can share with us? What is your awareness about the M&A performed by Shiseido, and what would be the future key tasks? Thank you very much for your question. In regards to the individual M&A cases, some of them are in action at the moment. To what extent I will be able to share is something I need to be cautious about. The most important thing is that when we acquire a company, we may put a lot of focus on acquiring the company and how we are going to grow the acquired business. That line of discussion was not fully done in the past. In our series of discussions on M&A, that was the most frequently heard voices. Now once an asset becomes part of asset, then we will be able to add more value. For the divestiture, the company will be able to increase the value by way of Shiseido letting go of that company. That was a line of discussion in the past. Now our focus is on how to grow the business once we acquire it. Also in my previous role, I was involved in a number of M&A and divestiture. A single transaction does not solve all the problems when we acquire a business. What will be the next step, including the PMI aspect. We need to make an additional investment to drive value creation through M&A. This type of holistic storyline tended not to be covered in the past. Shiseido used to simply focus on each individual M&A or divestiture project. That was the thing of the past. Thank you very much. I am afraid it was a bit of a sensitive topic. I have a few more questions, but I would like to wait for my next turn. Thank you. Thank you very much. Next from Sumitomo Life. Hirohashi from Sumitomo Life. Hi, thank you very much for the opportunity today. This may overlap with some of the questions or already been said, but I believe that with the Board of Directors centering around governance, the execution is strengthening, and I feel that there is a lot of hopes and expectations as to how the company is turning around to growth. Now looking at the executive management team, many of the business planning and value creation story, the strategy that the company creates. Do the Board of Directors discuss? Has there been cases where the company management team has come up with a strategy, brought it to the Board, and board has said, "No, we should do this," or, "Advise you to revise this," and pushed it back. I just want to check with you, is that kind of conversation done? If there's any examples, if you could share with us, that would be great. Sorry, this might be two questions, but for the two of you, both of you. Agenda that you have requested, has that been brought to the Board for full discussion, or are the agenda at the Board brought up from the company side? These are the two areas I would like to know. First of all, for the midterm planning, it's usually something that the plan was that we would come up with this a year in advance. However, there were a few discussions that were done, and as a result, was brought back and gone back and forth. Once in the Action Plan 2025-2026, looking at the current profit structure. To enhance the current profit structure, we have revised it, changed it, and then after that, okay, then look at the growth for mid to longer term based on that. In big ways and with a great meaning, we did take a lot of time for us, the Board, to request to have the management team to really think about. Within that kind of discussion going back and forth, the Board of Directors' side have said to the executive team side, we said, "Well, continue to consider." We keep on telling them to consider, but is this really going to create value? Because it is an important fiscal year, we as a board actually pushed back to go back to the executive team about certain areas. If we were to divest a specific business area, what would happen? That kind of simulation. We have requested the executive team to do that kind of simulation, and the executive team did a great deep dive into this, and they have done a discussion. Have come back to us and have that discussion. That kind of communication is also there too. As to the second point of your question, my position is the chair of the Board. In every Board of Directors meeting, the agenda is created by the head of the management team, which is Fujiwara-san and Hirofuji-san, and the team, the office that runs the Board. They will request, "Well, we would like to discuss this agenda in the Board." As the representative of the management team of Shiseido, they will request to us and come up with different agenda. If we have any, we will share with them as well. Currently, it is not that the management team will raise the agenda, but rather what did the Board take notice the most at the time, and as we communicate with the shareholders, what are the areas that we want to discuss the most? The request that the Board raises is heavily reflected in the agenda of the Board of Directors. Thank you very much. Next, I would like to invite Mr. Michael Jacobs from [inaudible]. Thank you very much. My name is Michael from [inaudible]. Thank you. Can you hear me? Thank you. My question is, up to now, Shiseido has been working on the structural reform and resulted in a great effect, but the effect kind of dissipated. There has been repetitive action for the structural reform. From looking at that from the outside in terms of the reform of the company, there seems to be the party that does not agree with the structural reform, and it is making it not possible to make Shiseido as one and a monolithic try for the reform. It did not seem to be possible. For both the management and the general employees to become one team and how to encourage the people who cannot agree with the reform to go away. If you wait for the entire organization to agree, it is going to take too much time. Even if you have a great idea for the structural reform, if there is an opposition, then you cannot drive it successfully or to the fullest extent. What do you think about that? Thank you very much. That is, I think, a quite sensitive topic. At least since Fujiwara-san took office as CEO, there has been a lot of reforms underway and Action Plan 2025-2026 and towards the midterm business plan. I find it most encouraging that there are discussions based on numbers taking root, driving away the ambiguity and discussions are taking place based on evidence, and that is a welcome change. Another is the cross-functional initiatives are becoming more active, such as your brand portfolio discussion or calendar-based activities, and also the value chain agenda. In the past, for an agenda in Shiseido, the CEO or the head of the department in charge took part in the discussions, but now several functions take part in the discussion. Thirdly, the speed and flexibility of the business management is something that is quite visible within Shiseido currently. From this evidence, we do not think that our reform will be just a one-off thing, and I trust that the result and the effect of the reform will be lasting. Thank you. Next from BlackRock, Kodaira-san. This is Kodaira from BlackRock. Can you hear me? Yes. Thank you. In the midterm plan, one of the important key points is leveraging technology for the growth of innovation. Looking at how you have moved forward with technology R&D, how do you assess that? Also for product development and marketing, how do you see as outside directors, what do you see as the biggest challenge in those areas? Thank you very much. Especially around R&D. What is the future value that is created by R&D? As for the Board of Directors, BOD, it has been a bit difficult to bring that to the center of the BOD discussion and also because we would be focusing too much or I would say much of the focus of discussion is about the sales and profit. But recently, I think we have been focusing more on the R&D. Shiseido has great power, and Shiseido prides itself in R&D. How can we lead that into the profitability of the company? We have been spending more time in those discussions within the Board, and I feel that we are at a stage where the Board can actively talk about that topic. Currently looking at the R&D, looking at the theme of research. How do we select that? Right now, we have about 20 themes, or have been selecting about 20 themes to do our further research. How is that going to create value? In which fiscal year or what timing? When can it create value? That is the kind of discussions that have been made or that has been ongoing. For the future, the value that will be created from R&D, we are at a place where we can have a clear discussion as to the value that the R&D can create in tangible ways. I feel that we are at a position where we can do that kind of discussion now. Thank you very much. Next, from JP Morgan Securities, Kuwahara-san. Next, please. My name is Kuwahara from JP Morgan Securities. Thank you very much for this opportunity. At the beginning, there was a mention on the use of AI and the connection to increasing the enterprise value. I would like the speakers to delve into it. AI use seems to be prolonged in terms of the timeframe and costing more than the initial assumptions. For instance, the book value of the software is reaching as high as 8%. However, in comparison with the global competitors, there unfortunately has not been evidence that introduction of AI is not showing a visible result. On the other hand, keep investing into the intangible asset without any evidence of effect may not be so right. There are some aspects of business that needs more governance or less governance. I would like you to elaborate on that. Do you think that Shiseido is done with the reform so we can move to the next step? What is the situation? Thank you for your question. At this point in time, in regards to FOCUS program, the major investment, I do not know whether it has come to an end of the first cycle, but it has now settled. That is true. As I mentioned, the data, well, integrity or the consistency and the comprehensiveness obtained from a FOCUS system, we are going to bring it to the next level and associate it also with the business efficiency. This is something that each entity is working on. Another aspect is to connect that with the enterprise value, such as maximizing the customer experience. In particular, in regards to AI, what we are interested in is the technology of Shiseido and data owned by Shiseido. Are they AI searchable? Across the world, in terms of the AI recommendation, the customer behavior would be changed. If Shiseido data is actually being reflected in the AI computation or AI learning, this is something that we will be aware of. This is the discussion we are having at the moment. Therefore, going forward, I will not mention all the actions. For instance, for the prescription of the new product, already there is something that generated by AI, and this will then become a product and will be delivered to the consumers. This, I hear, will happen in the short run, soon in the future. I would not say that we are making full use of AI as of yet, but investment made through FOCUS program is gradually beginning to generate the return in the form that I have just explained. We still need a sense of speed for this. Thank you. Thank you. We have 10 more minutes left. From Meiji Yasuda Asset Management, Hikichi-san. Meiji Yasuda Asset Management. My name is Hikichi. Thank you for the opportunity today. Can you hear me all right? From myself, it links to Kuwahara-san's previous question. After the structural reform, the profitability improvement, there has been a lot of progress. Going forward, I think for your company, it is about how much you can grow the top line. With that, from your explanation or looking at the midterm planning, et cetera, if there is a great new product or if there is an M&A to fill in the missing piece, then the top line will grow. Could be one way to interpret what you are saying and what midterm is saying. When you think about FOCUS, the FOCUS operation, has it really been led to marketing after having some of the production challenges in the past? I feel like that kind of explanation has been missing. Now going forward, if you think about how you grow the top line, looking at the current structure, and also as an outside board member, as a board member, where do you see is lacking? From the perspective of how to grow the top line, what is missing or what is necessary? For us, in the short to mid-term, the current core three and next five, these brands, we need to maximize. We want the executive team to really focus on those brands. For that, we call it the core science of Shiseido. The technology that comes from R&D of Shiseido, we want to penetrate that or bring that, spread that through all of the different brands where it can be leveraged, so that we can maximize its brand value under the Shiseido Group. That is what we think of right now. After that will be the growth, the possibility of growth. So areas where there is the potential for growth, R&D and marketing will both look at it. Then what should we invest in to grow? The management team will look at the accuracy or the reality of the return of these investments and the timing of the return on investments. That has been monitored very strictly. Yes, currently, it is true to your point that it may be interpreted as the growth of top line may feel weak from a certain perspective, but the areas where there can be growth, and as we saw in this first half, there are areas where we are holding back intentionally. For example, Anessa. A brand like Anessa. When there is product value, a brand that is losing its brand value at the moment or product value at the moment, we won't push for it at that time. We will hold back intentionally and look at the brand and work on initiatives that would not lose the brand value overall. So the mix and timing of all that is actually reflected in the current top line. For us, we do not have the stance that as long as we have good products. I believe that if we continue doing that will not be for the future. So for the executive team, we call it the consumers, our consumers. What kind of things do the consumers having their everyday lives needing? What kind of value story do they have, and we can fill in their value and needs? Those are the areas of focus when we think about product and brand strategy. Those are the things that as a board, we have been telling and sharing with the executive team and monitoring. So that for the future, looking ahead to the future, for the midterm plan 2%-5% growth, yes, you may feel that that is still low in terms of growth. However, looking at a market that is so complex, I don't think that it makes sense to be overly optimistic without a basis. When we look at this complex market, I believe it makes sense to be more realistic in terms of the growth story of what can be really achieved. That's what we as a board member focus on as well. Sorry. I'm sorry to make it long, but just following up. Americas. How do you see the sales of Americas? Sales of Americas is struggling a little bit, but do you think that too is the timing of persistence and holding back? For the Americas market, the Board. Yes, there are several topics to be covered, but as one of the top challenge is Americas. The cosmetics market is one of the biggest markets within Shiseido, but the profit there in the Americas is finally turning into the positive. That is not something that can be accepted. It is not acceptable. That should be actually a market where it leads the overall company. Otherwise, the future outlook does not look very positive. That is how severely we look at the situation. Unfortunately, some of the brands, especially the brands that have been acquired through M&A, we do see some challenges. From many of the stakeholders, we do get many concerns around that. However, for Americas, looking towards the future, the current core three and next five brands, then where do we focus on for the midterm? Where do we invest in, whether it is fragrance or sun care? Including fragrance or sun care area, we look at each of the categories in detail to make sure that we can secure growth. These are the activities that we are working on and the executive team is working on. True to your point, the Americas, even after the six months have passed, we do have concerns around this market. But the reason for the concern is very clear, and we know it has been clarified what will be the next growth story going forward. As for myself, I believe that this is an area where it needs to have growth, and that because within Shiseido too, it can be an area where it could have a lot of potential for high sales and high profit within the Shiseido Group as well. That is what we hope for, and that is what we try to push from the Board side. Thank you very much. The investors, I believe, keep on looking at Americas and what countermeasures you have. I feel like to the investors, some of the countermeasures are unclear. So we look forward to further clarity on information around Americas as well. Thank you very much. As we are running out of time, we will make the next question the last one. Mr. Miyazaki from Goldman Sachs Securities. My name is Miyazaki. Nice to talk to you. My question is about top line. Also, when we look at the current status in the first half at the beginning of the fiscal year, there was the goal, and the progress doesn't seem to be very strong. To be specific, what is the discussion that has taken place in the past six months? In the second half, we hear that there will be many new products to be launched. The underachievement in the first half, how is it going to be recovered in the second half? What is the discussion amongst the board members? So, about the top- line growth is something that BOD discusses, taking a long time. As you mentioned, the new product calendar is something that we base our discussion on. There are some products that were better than expectation, something that is as expected, and there are some products that did not go as expected. These are the core or the center of discussion. To answer your question, for instance, the Anessa in China. This type of product, well, we are in the period of perseverance. As we will deliver the true value of the brand until the market begins to appreciate it. We will also monitor what our competitors are doing and the movement of our own products. We try to assess the pricing of our current products, whether it is appropriate or not. There is partially discussion to increase prices. The valuation of our products is something that we are having very focused discussions on. Individual brands and region and products that is launched. We as board members, we discuss, and we have the results analyzed, and we have been able to discuss what we will do in the second half. The market is shifting, and the market trend is also shifting. I would not say that everything that we have in mind will go successfully, but we have already embarked upon the actions that we think are the best measures that are thinkable at this moment. Thank you very much. Now, we would like to conclude the Q&A. With this, we would like to finish the event today. Thank you very much for joining us in this event out of your very busy schedule. Thank you.