It is time for us to start the financial results briefing for the fiscal year ended March 31st, 2023. This briefing is streamed live on the Internet. I would like to introduce to you the speakers for today. Kinya Seto, Director, Representative Executive Officer, and President and CEO. Sachio Matsumoto, Director, Representative Executive Officer, and Vice President and CFO. Kayo Hirano, Senior Vice President, Leader of the Investor Relations Office, Leader of the Finance and Treasury Corporate Accounting and Treasury and Tax. I will be serving as the facilitator. My name is Kawai from IR Office. The material for today's briefing is uploaded on our website. I would like to talk about how we proceed the meeting today. First, Mr. Seto will be providing you the financial results information about the fiscal year ended March 31st, 2023. That will be followed by question and answers. If you have any questions, please press on the Q&A button at the lower portion of the screen. Please put your affiliations, your name as well as questions and submit them. We would like to ask you to ask two questions max at first. We would be able to take the questions as we go. We will be concluding at six o'clock. I will be handing over to Mr. Seto to explain about the financial results of fiscal year ended March 31st, 2023. Hello, everyone. I will be explaining about the financial results for the fiscal year ended March 31st, 2023, as well as the prospect for the fiscal year ending March 2024. In terms of fiscal year ending 2023, up the three quarters up to the December and the last three months, the situations were quite different. For the first nine months, starting from the beginning of the fiscal year, we had been conducting the price optimization, and due to Forex, there was an increase in both profits and revenue. Because of the raw material cost and the yen depreciation, there was an increase in the cost. We conducted the price optimization, but there was a time lag, and because of that, there was a decrease in the profit. On the other hand, for overseas markets, there was Ukraine crisis and also disruption in the supply chain due to COVID. Because of this, there was a significant decline in the profit. That was the situation for the first nine months. In terms of the disruption of the supply chain, the problem is almost solved. On the other hand, the raw material costs that had been hiked, that impact has been mitigated. In January, we had thought that things will turn out for the better. However, the demand, especially in Japan, had deteriorated very quickly. As for the last quarter, it says increase in both revenue and profit, but we had expected higher increase in the profit. However, Even though the increase in the cost has been mitigated, the production had declined and the fixed cost had increased. The break-even point for us tends to be higher, and when the production amount comes down, the fixed cost will be going up. Even if the revenue goes up, with the price optimization, etc., when the production amount decreases, that would negatively impact us. The new housing starts. In January, we had considered that there would be 900,000. However, in February, the forecast had come down to 800,000. There was a significant decline for the detached house new starts, housing new starts, and there would be a drop by about 8%-11%. The new housing starts for the detached housing had come down in Japan. As for the overseas market, when there is an interest rate hike occurs, after six months, there is a decline in the housing starts. We had expected that the interest rate hike would be about 5% compared to the, compared to January of 2022. From May to June, we believe that there would be recovery, but because of the interest rate hike, there would be a decline in the demand. For the fourth quarter, there was an issue of decline in the demand, and that's why we had seen smaller amount of increase in the revenue and the profit. That's the summary of what has happened in the last quarter. In terms of the fiscal year ending March 2024, we are expecting JPY 1.53 trillion with the profit of JPY 40 billion. The dividend is expected to be JPY 90 per share on an annual basis. In terms of the demand for six months, will be severe for us, especially in Japan. Another point is that we have been responding with price optimization for a cost increase. Price increase had been conducted frequently by LIXIL faster than the other players. So there is a time lag in the increase in the prices of the competitors. While we are increasing the prices and when the competitors are not, then the orders will be concentrated to competitors, and for us, that will pose a struggle. After the price hike, there would be guarantee of the original prices for some time and for several months. There are cases where the amount of the increase is restricted to certain amount. We believe that in the first half, we will struggle with the decline in the demand as well as the issues with the price hike. Our business should be differentiated with high value added. As for the commodity products, we need to work on restructuring. In the first half, we will be investing for restructuring of the business. Because of that, the profit will be bottom-heavy, and we are expecting JPY 40 billion in profit, but 80% will be generated in the second half. That's what we are expecting. The demand is sluggish, but because we are facing that, we really need to work on the restructuring. We now have the subsidy for the window renovation, and I think that there would be demand for insulation, and also there would be more demand for replacing the windows of the environmentally friendly windows. We need to continue the transfer of the passing on the cost to the price, and that would have a positive impact for us. Even though the fixed cost increase will hurt us, by overcoming this, I think that we can become a more resilient company. This is the review of what has been happening. Since two years ago, there has been increase in the raw material prices, transport costs, et cetera. Also there was a time lag in booking, and also there was a disruption in the supply chain in the U.S. and in Europe. As a result of that, the amount of the profit was JPY 25.7 billion. The raw material price cost, the component cost hike will continue, we believe. The price optimization will be positively impacting us for the full year. Also, there will be improvement in the supply chain. Because of that, for fiscal year ending March 2024, we are expecting JPY 40 billion in profit. On the other hand, we have to think more in the longer term. What will be important for us, as I have said, is that because we are working in the hardware industry, we need to improve our profitability continuously. If we can be profitable, then we would be able to respond to the fluctuation in the demand. We need to increase the gross margin for sales. We need to decrease the manufacturing cost. We have been explaining repeatedly about LIXIL Playbook, but we need to streamline our organization and focus on the core business. For growth, we will be optimizing the Japanese business, but also we will be providing the products that would fit the environment. We would be able to grow our overseas business, and then, we can create new core businesses. Inflation, supply chain disruption, those are the challenges that we need to tackle. This chart, the next chart shows how we would respond. First of all, for the inflation and the supply chain issues, how we will be responding to it? We have to do various things. The easiest is to increase the price, not just that. Where things change is where it's important. Our material that we use, we have the brass and also aluminum. Those are the two major raw materials that we use. For this yellow copper or brass. Brass main material is copper, that is the strategic material for the product. The price is quite volatile. As a commodity, it has the highest volatility in terms of raw material price. In the long term, we are thinking of changing that to plastic or zinc. It's not just reducing the cost, the cost will stabilize. As for aluminum, it's rather a stable raw material in terms of pricing. Being considerate to environment, we would like to make the raw material as the scrap aluminum, not bauxite. By doing that, we will be having customers continuously purchase our products. In that sense, the materials that we use, we will be shifting it over to ones that are more stable. As for the procurement side, as much as possible, where the product is manufactured and sold, we would like to make it one place. In the United States, typically, there were many that were purchased from Asia, but we will make it in a way that they can purchase it over 80% from Mexico and or China. We would like to close the loop of the production and purchase within China itself. Maybe not up to the core materials, but knock down in a knock down form in India or Saudi Arabia. We'll have the plants there and increase the value. Therefore, for the supply chain challenges, by doing so, we will be able to respond appropriately. Also for the second point, for the Japanese business, the price, finally, we're able to change it or have the price optimization in a timely manner, and we are promoting the digitalization. By conducting a platform production within a very short cycle, we're able to launch new products. All other products, we will convert them to an environmentally friendly products, and we are in the process to do so. By this, we are increasing the value. By promoting the digitalization, we'll be able to reduce the cost. We have a no-code or our RPA until now, and we're able to monetize on that now. Next, introducing AI, we would like to increase productivity more. For the international business, by shifting over to more higher value added products, we'll do the shower products and the commodity business, where we've been impacted by the foreign exchange. We will be coming out from that. By focusing on that as our basic strategy, we'll be making investments to where we can make money. Is something, of course, we have to do. This time, just not limited to this. However, this business is a global business. This business is a regional business. Regarding the topics, we would like to have clear differences in where we place the focus. As for the water-related business, we have quite of a world number 1 share. In terms of efficiency, that can become a weakness to us. To make that a strength, we need to focus on more of a product development that can be sold globally. As for innovation, we are going to focus more on the environmental issues. Carbon footprint and CO2 reduction. For water, the clean water, we would like to conserve that and have that contribute to the improvement of the environment and also recycling to realize circular economy. We will be focusing our investment in these areas. As for the CO2 reduction, where we are contributing the most in Japan is the remodeling of the windows. The window remodeling, what this means is that we see potential as of 2015. If we make the windows, all the windows, to a triple-pane windows, we will be able to reduce a large amount of CO2 at their end. We will be able to reduce to 6.6 million tons through window remodeling business. Not just by our company, but as a whole industry, we need to do so. This is going to largely contribute to the environment, and we need to continue to launch such products. For the usage of recycled aluminum, we are increasing the percentage. We are now up to 70%, and we'd like to make it 100% by 2031. The product that is using 100% recycled aluminum, the demand is quite high, and we are receiving many inquiries. Globally, there's only a Hydro company in Norway and us in the world that has products using 100% recycled aluminum. When we reduce CO2, it's not just about the operational carbon reduction. The embodied carbon and recycling carbon is also included. We need to look at the life cycle carbon. The PremiAL that can be manufactured with 100% aluminum is going to be the focus of attention. Aluminum has a large portion within even a building. 30%-40% is from the construction material. 30%-40% of the CO2 is from construction materials, so we can contribute a lot. In terms of water conservation, the... Not just limited to the water used for our product production, but also to provide clean water and make an environment so there's no black water or the black water will not be emitted into the environment so that people in the world can use, all of them can use toilet. We have the SATO. Towards the discharge from the toilet, we have a project that will improve that. It says, is a stream shower. What this means is once warmed water will be reused. A KINUAMI is this water that is comes out in foam from the beginning. We were able to reduce the amount of water and also reduce the heat that is required to warm the water. The last part, circular economy recycling. We have Revia that has a high recycling% of plastic and PremiAL, which I have touched upon before. By selling these products more in the long-term perspective, we will be able to acquire a higher margin, is what we are thinking. As for the performance highlights is as I have already explained to you, revenue is JPY 1,496 billion. We face a 5% increase year-over-year. The most is due to foreign exchange and price optimization. In terms of product sales volume, it has not increased that much. Actually, in terms of number of units, it has declined. Thinking of the demand right now, this is something that cannot be helped that much, is what I think. For the core earnings. Excuse me, for the first three months, we didn't for the nine months, we didn't able to respond to the cost increase appropriately. For the last month, the demand did not increase as much as we thought. Those were the factors that impact the core earnings. As for the fourth quarter, in a normal stage, the building percentage goes up and the profit slightly goes down. However, this fiscal year for the last three months, we are able to show that the cost has been reduced largely. I was expecting a better result, but it is a slightly disappointing result. By segment for LHT in the first half, the yen depreciation has largely impacted the negative side, but that has recovered now and on a year-on-year basis, it's a plus, positive number. The profit source is the exterior business. For the exterior business, our competitors finally are going to increase the price in April, from April. If this penetrates in the market, we will be able to bring back the market share and with this, the profit margin will increase. The water products or water business internationally, it's more water faucet, but in Japan it's the kitchen and bathrooms where the margin is lower to begin with. There are some vendor situations and we are still struggling. We will go to the next page. At this time, regarding the asset, unfortunately, this time, we had the direction and policy that we will be downsizing it. However, due to the foreign exchange and also various things that happened due to COVID, we had to accumulate the inventory. Also, as written here, the Declaration of Partnership Building, we had to shorten the payment period, and this was the instruction from the government. As for the equity capital percentage, it has declined, so we would like to improve that from next fiscal year. The explanation will be the same for cash flow. We are seeing signs of improvement. We would like to further stabilize. On the material you see detailed explanation, but we would like to secure the time for question and answer. I would like to conclude my presentation here. From here, we would like to take questions. Those of you with questions, please press on the Q&A button and input your affiliation, your name, as well as your question, and submit it. The first question. Question from Okada-san from Goldman Sachs. There are two questions. The first question, you have been implementing the business restructuring and with the increase in the cost of the raw materials as well as the cost of the distribution, you have not been able to see the effect of the restructuring. How is the impact to the current margin? In fiscal year 2021, in the first quarter, the raw material cost had significantly increased and had before the distribution cost hike, as well as the other. The core earnings ratio had gone up to 6.7%. That is the quarter where the revenue and profit is historically low. If there was no disruption, then I think that our margin would have gone to 7%. With the raw material cost hike and the distribution cost hike, we are seeing mitigation. Considering the capacity that we have, the demand is low, so the fixed cost ratio had gone up. In the first three to six months, then there would not be able to see much positive impact. We need to further conduct restructuring, and we will be conducting the initiative which we were not able to do under COVID. In terms of international business. At the second question, I would like to first state the second question. In terms of the margin of the LWT international business for the fiscal year ending March 2023, it was 4.5%. On the other hand, GROHE was 11%. Why is this? Why was there such difference? In terms of the margin for GROHE for fiscal year ending March 2024, what is your prospect? The international business for LWT, the water faucet business for GROHE and American Standard business is included. The sanitary ware and the water faucet are included in those business. The water faucets margin tends to be higher. That is why we would like to increase the water faucets in our portfolio. On the other hand, out of the American Standard for sanitary ware, the margin tends to be low, especially for the retail sector. That is because we are competing against private brands in the retailers. As I have talked about in the Playbook, for the lower margin commodity products, we would consider exit, and we will focus on the area where the customers are willing to pay the premium. We would like to improve our business through that. In terms of why this difference occurs, it's the issue of the product mix. GROHE is water faucet mainly. Also there is sanitary ware where the margin is lower. Compared to TOTO, LIXIL's domestic business is said to be lower in profitability, and this has been impacted by the product mix. In Japan, a sanitary ware and the toilet seats, the margin tends to be higher, and the kitchen and bathroom margin tend to be lower. Our sales ratio from kitchen is higher, but for sanitary and water faucet, we have higher margin domestically. The product mix improvement is something that would play an important role in our strategy. As for GROHE's margin, for fiscal year ending March 2024, there are two elements that would be critical. One is to change the material. For example, changing from brass to zinc, and we would be able to improve the margin there. There is a product mix in water faucet as well, flushing. The flushing tap and shower tap and the faucet. We are seeing higher portion from flushing, and the flushing's margin tends to be lower. In terms of shower margin, it is relatively high. How much we would be able to do with shower will impact us. That's how we view the business. Next, from Fukushima San of Nomura Securities. We have two questions. The first is the window renovation sales and profit. How much of it is incorporated in the 2024 March financial results? For the window renovation, overall, as the sales, it's about JPY 20 billion to JPY 30 billion per year in the last past years. This fiscal year, because of the subsidy, we believe that that amount is going to be large. The subsidy total amount is JPY 100 billion that will be provided. From 33%-50% is the range of the subsidy. We look at, we would say that it's 40%. From the overall subsidy for window, it's about JPY 250 billion that will be allocated. Towards that, what will be the product? Is it going to inner window or outer, external windows? The percentage differs. Let's say it's the installation, construction and the window, 50/50. Our industry is JPY 125 billion. Within the market, we have about 40%. That's JPY 50 billion for us. That is this fiscal year's window renovation sales size. As for the profit or margin, it's quite high within the window products. The actual numbers in 2 months' time, we will be able to have a grasp on it. That is because, as I have said before, depending on combination of the windows, the numbers will differ. With the normal sash, the margin differs between the low and the high end. In times coming, I will be able to share the more accurate information with you. There are talks that maybe that JPY 100 billion subsidy budget will not fully be used. Looking at the orders that we are receiving, it's sevenfolds, eightfolds from what we usually get. The production is not catching up fully yet. Therefore, by the fall season, there is quite of a possibility that this subsidy will be exhausted by that timing. Fukushima-san from Nomura Securities. Second question. March 2023 and March 2024, the DPS will be exceeding EPS, but in terms of the payout ratio, what do you think is appropriate level in the mid to long-term perspective? What is the final profit target? Why did you not think of decreasing the dividend this time? Well, for us, for the payout ratio, we say 30% is the minimum or the lowest. But if we do not just look at the payout ratio, we look at the DOE as well. As for the dividend, the key point is that for most of the individual, shareholders, if, this is the dividend price, they will continue to stably invest. Trying to bring the profit level to what it is and looking at the cash flow on hand instead of the final profit. When we look at the overall EBITDA, we should look at it at the overall balance for the EBITDA. This fiscal year, it wasn't so good. Compared to our competitors, we do have a higher level of EBITDA. Maybe, because we had one or two years that was not so good, we should not think of lowering, the decreasing the dividend. Excuse me, the profit level. For the medium-term and long-term, we look at it, we look at the core earnings, we think of the core earnings ratio to be about 10%. We probably do need to subtract it from that. Next is from Kono-san's question from Mizuho Securities. I would like to ask about the growth strategy of the international business, especially in North America. In the past three to four years, the business environment was very difficult due to special elements like COVID. It seems that North America's growth speed for profit seems to be slow. I would like to know how you consider the growth strategy, especially in North America. You have acquired Basco last December, I would like to know what your views are for organic growth and M&A growth. The most important part is that we need to grow in profitability. Out of our revenue for North America, sanitary ware ratio tends to be high. In terms of sanitary ware, as I have mentioned a little bit earlier, our customers, especially in the retail industry, we need to compete the private brands of those retailers. Depending on the private brands in-inventory level, our products tend to be de-stocked because the retailers would prioritize selling the private brand, and they may place less orders to us. That's what has happened in the summer and the fall of last year. Because of that, this area tends to be lower margin, we need to shift to higher margin businesses. There are two major pillars. One is showering business. Not just a shower, but the products related to the shower room is what we would like to focus on. That's why we have acquired Basco. Basco, its main line of business is shower doors. For shower, what people buy out of the shower product, it differs region by region, but in North America, shower door is the first thing that they purchase. Also, the concealed shower, et cetera. Basco is an important acquisition. KINUAMI Body Hug Shower is what we have as unique product. We would be able to package that together. In terms of the water faucet business, in the past, we had not been so strong. Also the other color strategy for water faucets. We would speedily conduct the supplying. We now have the Mexican plant for the production of the colored water faucet, so that we can supply it speedily. In terms of the speed of the growth in North America, what we need to work on is to change the context. Next is from SMBC Nikko Securities. Kawashima-san is asking the question. The first question is, please explain about the goodwill impairment risk of American Standard. This time, United States or globally, the interest rate was increased, so the impairment risk of the goodwill has increased. However, at the very end, since last October, our inventory level has largely declined, and also we are seeing the signs of improvement of margin. Therefore, we believe at this point we don't have such risk. Next is the second question: How are you evaluating the impact of the price increase and the demand to your market share? That's a difficult question. If we are the only one to increase the price of the products, we will lose against the competitors, and we will lose the market share. That is a fact. In the case of our business, ours is a equipment concentrated business. like kitchen and bathrooms, by increasing them, our competitor is not limited to TOTO. We have several competitors. By being the first to increase the price, that will impact the market share, and as a result of that, then the production growth profit will decline. That will for sure happen. On the other hand, for the kitchen and bathroom in the long term, in line with the new housings, it will decline. By us not increasing the price and by not putting efforts to increase the margin and just protecting the production growth profit, we will go into a deficit spiral. If we think about that, even though temporarily it will impact our market share, at the end, right, even now, the other competitors are following. Therefore, the period during this time lag, the impact to the market share and for the production growth margin, there is an impact. In a long-term perspective, this is what we need to do. For the domestic products, generally speaking, this is what we can say. When we think in the long term, it's more important to make a product that the market share will not decline even though the price increases. Those products will be environmentally friendly products or products that will meet the customer's needs. Next question is from Mototsuka-san from CLSA. I have a question for Mr. Matsumoto, who is the CFO. In the first quarter and third quarter, you did not revise the performance, but the amount of the revision for the performance was quite significant, and it seems that the business information is not reaching management in a timely manner. Frankly speaking, it seems that there is an issue in execution. Considering the business management, what is the challenge of execution? Shipment, cost management, and procurement, from those perspective, could you talk about it? How would you be responding to those challenges? Thank you very much for your suggestions. As you have mentioned, timely revision of the forecast and the performance could not be conducted, and that's the area where we need to improve. On the other hand, in terms of reaching of the information, from site to the management, that's not the case. On a monthly basis or on a weekly basis, we collect information from people in the field. Also, we conduct various reviews in a timely manner. However, with regards to forecasting of the performance, we need to work further on the accuracy of the forecasting. Cost increases, Forex fluctuations. We need to reflect those on, in a timely manner in balance sheet and profit and loss statement. It's very difficult to do, especially in the apparatus industry. We have to consider how we would be able to improve the accuracy. After procuring the raw material, that would be reaching the port, and that would be used for manufacturing, and that would be booked in the balance sheet. Then, when it's sold, it is booked in the P&L as sales. This period is quite long, and we have to think about how we would be able to improve the accuracy of the forecasting of the performance going forward. I would like to make supplementary comment. The difference with other companies. One thing that's regrettable is that compared to other companies, our margin tends to be lower. This is because the product mix of sanitary ware, which has lower margin, is higher, and also the bathroom and kitchen and sash, which has a lower margin, the mix tends to be higher for us domestically. The revenue tends to be higher with the lower margin. Because we are in the apparatus industry, when the production amount slightly changes, the profit changes drastically. The break-even point is high, and because of that, volatility is high. That's one difference with the other companies in terms of the structure. I said that our business is operating in 140 countries, and we tend to be impacted by the global supply chain issues because we are operating globally. On the first point, we need to shift to higher margin products in order to reduce the volatility. To the second point, by working more regionally, I think the volatility, it can be suppressed. In terms of the net profit volatility, the core earnings volatility, there are areas we need to narrow down, and there are various methodologies to do so. For example, divesting or merging the companies. It is very difficult to assume what the timeline would be. It's difficult to see below the core earnings line. As a company, we are trying to do our best. But because the margin is low and break-even point is high, and one element may impact hugely. So if the margin is 15%, when there is 5% difference, it would still have 10%. If we have a 5% margin, if there is a difference of 5%, it would be 0%. When there are unexpected issues like COVID or supply chain disruption, when the supply chain is long, we tend to be more impacted. Because we are aggregation of various companies through mergers, it's very difficult to identify the timeline. The third point, there are the management issues, of course. Next, from Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Asset Management, Takegawa-san has asked two questions. The first question, since Seto-san has returned, the external environment has rapidly changed. I believe that you did not reach to publicly announce the new medium-term plan. During this timing, why don't you come up with the new medium-term regarding the outlook strategy and cash flow allocations? I was saying that once we calm down and settle down, that I will, but I would like to fully consider your feedback. The second question. After the price optimization or price increase, what kind of changes have you seen in the consumers purchasing behaviors? With this, not an urgent renovation demand, declining trend. What is the trend internally and externally in Japan and overseas? In terms of the demand, there's a declining trend in the regional areas in Japan in terms of the new housings, because it's becoming difficult to sell cheaper homes. There's a concentrations on the major players and also the high specification housing percentage in the overall picture has increased. Also housing complexes has increased. Also not just... What's happening is, not the new housings, but remodeling or renovation is increasing and the insulation of existing house, the demand for that is increasing. What's happening in Japan, that is becoming, in Japan, what's the positive fact is that instead of new housing or newly built, it's more renovation. The medium size builders, their demand to them is decreasing, has an impact to us. But for the international business, by increasing the price, we're not seeing significant signs of the demand declining. Within the overseas case, renovation or remodeling is at the center. A remodeling is that the water faucet breaks down or it's not working well. Unless the competitor's price becomes lower, we will not lose the demand. What has been happening for the last two years is that the commodity price has a larger increase. Everybody's increasing the price, there's no major problem there. For us, in the competitive situation overseas, what was the most disappointing is that, as I have explained. At the supply chain, there was disruptions there. Therefore, last year, the first half, when there was a strong demand, we were not able to fully fulfill that demand. Next is from Miki San at Citigroup Securities. On page 20 of the material, it says that you are expecting increase in the revenue by 8% on a local currency basis in U.S. If you exclude the M&A effect, what would be the growth rate? In the local competitors, it be at the top line prospect for 2023 is -10%. Is there any unique growth driver for LIXIL? A 5%, about 3% is the growth excluding the M&A effect. LIXIL in fiscal year 2023, destocking occurred and the supply chain disruption occurred, and we unable to supply and destocking occurred. For the first six months, the revenue was lower than what we had originally expected. There would be a growth there. Through the acquisition of Basco, we now have the entrance to the shower product sales, and also, we have LIXIL plant which would be having colored water faucets. I think that we can compete against various competitors through these initiatives. From Gru Sun of Alma Capital, we have received two questions. The first is the core earnings, the consolidated adjustment outlook the last several years from JPY 40 billion and has a change to JPY 46 billion. Can you explain the content of this? Thank you very much for your question. Regarding this point, within each business, more than we have looked at the risks, there was the Subcontract Act risk that exists, and that is why we incorporated that in the consolidated adjustments. Also, as Seto spoke before, we have the structural reform or restructuring. This is related to the next question. On the expense side, what will incur, we wanted to respond here to it. I mean, there are Subcontract Act related matters that was mentioned right now. What that means is that in Japan overall, currently, led by the Japanese government, they are for this, to improve the business transaction situation for small size companies. On the other hand, whether we are able to pass everything on, we're not able to do that. First, we are told to please take care of the smaller companies such as the personnel expenses or raw material prices, where you see the increase, be more proactive on taking care of the smaller companies. What we need to do, we need to, what we are thinking of appropriate responding to that. The second question is the core earnings and the operating profit outlook, difference is JPY 12 billion. What is the breakdown of that difference? Well, after that, I think from somebody else we are receiving the same question, that was compared to last year and this year, the core earnings and the operating profit difference is widening. The gap is widening. Why is that? I would like to answer two questions at the same time. The first thing is that where the assets are they're located overseas. We have divested those, we had a temp or one time profit that was generated. Also related to the previous answer, within the structural reforms or restructuring, it's not just expenses, but it is the other operating expenses. The expenses that are recognized as that is in between the core earnings and the operating profit. After this, there were similar questions. I have answered this at this time. Thank you. Next is a question from Yagi San from Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities. There are two questions. The first question, what is the concept for a profit for American Standard for fiscal year ending March 2024? We have not disclosed this, so it's difficult to respond to your question. For ASP and for fiscal year ending March 2024, I have talked about earlier the distribution issue and the warehousing costs had increased, and we were not able to have enough revenue of because of destocking. We believe that the demand will be coming up back in the area and also showering and faucet business centering around Basco, we will be focusing on that and increase the profitability through it. The second question. For the purchasing for LWT and LHT are negative in fiscal year ending March 2024. What will be impacting it? Last year, we conducted the price increase, and that price optimization will be positively impacting for the full year. That's the biggest factor. Also the price increase related to the subcontractors for components, we are expecting that it will be higher than the other years. There's a question from Fuda San from Silk Capital. As Matsumoto answered before, that was regarding the difference between the core earnings and operating profit. Sorry. There's one thing I was not able to fully answer. The difference from the operating profit to the net profit. What is the cause of that difference? That is tax related. The tax rate of the finished fiscal year, if you look at it, you'll know it was low. Also, the flash report of the results that we have disclosed on page 17, there's a note written in there, so I would like you to refer to that. The tax expenses at the last fiscal year, it was low. The reason being is that in the past we recognized a loss, and there was a tax effect of that. That was actually not recognized in the past. Towards the loss, there was a return from the tax effect, and we're able to recognize that. March 2023, we were able to recognize that as the return from the taxation. That is why, as a one-time matter, the tax rate was lower. For this new fiscal year, the tax rate is going to go back to normal, which is 30.3%. We have been able to respond to all of the questions that has been submitted to us at this point. We still have some more time left. If there is any questions, we would like to take them. Those of you with questions, please press on the Q&A button. Please state your affiliations, your name, as well as your question, and submit it. It seems that there are no more questions. We would like to conclude the Q&A session here. With this, we would like to close the financial results briefing for fiscal year ending March 2023 of LIXIL Corporation. We ask for your continued support for LIXIL. Thank you very much.