So now it's time to start. We would like to get started with the press conference. Thank you for joining our press conference despite your busy schedule, and also at such a short notice. I will be serving as your emcee. I am Okamoto from the Corporate Communication Department of Mitsubishi Corporation. Lawson, KDDI, and Mitsubishi Corporation have announced the capital and business alliance partnership on the website. So first, from the three companies, we will present the intention behind this alliance. And from the media, leading up to 4:50 P.M., we would like to receive your questions. After the Q&A session, we will also have time for a photo session, and we would like to finish by 5:00 P.M. So thank you very much for your cooperation in advance. So first, I'd like to introduce the representatives. Also, from your right, from KDDI Corporation, President and Representative Director and CEO, Mr. Makoto Takahashi. In the middle, from Lawson Incorporated, President and CEO, Representative Director, Mr. Sadanobu Takemasu. And also, to your left, from Mitsubishi Corporation, Representative Director, President, and CEO, Katsuya Nakanishi. Also, we have three speakers today for the press conference. Just a housekeeping note, if you would like to take a photo during the press conference, please take the photo from the rear of the venue or from the side. If you'd like to take the photo from the front, please stay within the line indicated on the floor. So we'd like to go into the presentation. First, Mr. Katsuya Nakanishi from Mitsubishi Corp, please. Thank you very much, for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us today at such a short notice. Thank you for the kind introduction. I am Nakanishi, President of Mitsubishi Corporation. I am pleased to announce that KDDI, Lawson, and Mitsubishi Corporation have entered into a capital business partnership agreement, and that KDDI has announced the commencement of the tender offer for Lawson. So we would like to report on this news, and also offer you some background. First, looking back our past initiatives with Lawson, we started a business alliance in 2000, and turned the company into a subsidiary in 2017. Since then, we have been working with Lawson closely to boost our domestic convenience store business, leveraging the group's value chain, as well as to grow our overseas CVS business, and also to strengthen our financial, entertainment, and other services. Most recently, we have been helping Lawson in its efforts to optimize logistics and inventory by introducing an AI-based demand forecasting system at their distribution centers, and supplying renewable energies to stores, and taking on the challenge of regional development in collaboration with local governments. Our support to Lawson is extended from the viewpoint of promoting EX and DX, and regional revitalization. Lawson's business was impacted by the pandemic from 2020. However, the company's first measures to respond to changing consumer needs, such as store renovation and strengthening product lineups, are showing good results. And its services business is also becoming profitable, with record high net income expected in fiscal 2023. At the same time, the retail business environment is expected to undergo further changes with advances in digital technology, diversifying consumer needs, future population decline, and intensifying competition, including from players from different industries. That said, we have concluded that we need to support Lawson's further growth and provide new value to the customer, customers, together with a partner that has different functions than us and shares our vision and strategy. We are pleased to have KDDI as our partner. Since signing the capital and business alliance agreement with Lawson in December 2019, KDDI has been working with us to help Lawson grow, even in the challenging environment under COVID, and we have deepened a relationship of trust. We are convinced that KDDI, which states in its KDDI VISION 2030, that the company aims to contribute to the realization of an affluent society with the power of connecting, and Mitsubishi Corporation, which states in its Corporate Strategy 2024, that it will co-create value by connecting and linking, are aligned. We would like to take on the challenge of delivering even greater value to consumers by combining Lawson's over 14,000 physical stores with KDDI's strong customer base and technology to provide new services that go beyond the concept of traditional convenience stores. We have stated that we are no longer a trading company. We believe that by combining the strength of each company through this capital and business alliance with KDDI, we can create a new type of CVS business for the future. And that is the very reason why we parties agreed to join hands. Now, I'd like to hand over to Mr. Takahashi, President of KDDI, to explain the details of this transaction. Thank you very much. Thank you very much. Next, I'd like to call upon Mr. Takahashi, the President and CEO of KDDI Corporation. Thank you very much. I am Takahashi, the President of KDDI. So as Mr. Nakanishi explained, we have decided to start the tender offer to hold 50%. As you can see in this diagram, the current status is shown on the left-hand side. We have 2.1% ownership. Together with the Mitsubishi Corporation, we would like to increase this to 50%, and we will start the tender offer. And we will start it around April, and acquisition cost, including the squeeze out, is expected to be about JPY 497.1 billion. As Mr. Nakanishi mentioned, we have a 2030 vision. We try to evolve the power to connect life, living, and heart, and that is something that we want to realize, so that anyone can realize what they want to achieve in the society. Convenience stores, I'm sure that Mr. Takemasu will mention this later on, but already have become important part of the infrastructure, playing important roles. We have a capability of telecommunication and DX. We hope that those capabilities will be fully utilized so that we can realize the future convenience store, connecting life, living, and heart, so that we can provide new values to the customers. Right now, we didn't have much time to prepare, but we have created the following video that we'd like to show it to you. Thank you. So as you saw, we are trying to connect and create the future convenience store, connecting life, living, and heart. And we have had the internal discussion, and we were excited about creating new value for the customers. And we are hoping to create those new services, as you saw in the video. So as you can see on this slide, Lawson and KDDI, in total, we have, in the case of Lawson, they have about 14,600 stores, and we have 2,200 AU shops. So in total, that is 17,000 direct contact with the customers. During the pandemic, the people shifted to the remote connection, but people appreciate the real connection. And I'm sure that you're feeling the importance of the physical connection. So we would like to fully utilize the digital technologies to offer new valuable services to our customers. That's how we are extremely excited about this... this... As an example of combining real and digital, utilizing our telecommunication and DX capability, the customers who are inside the convenience stores can receive the services from the experts who are far away. This is something that we are thinking about. The one on the left is the household budget inquiries, for example, banking service or insurance services. You can consult about how you can invest, for example. In the middle, this is the medication inquiries, so that people can receive their medicine online. And also, the support for the smartphones would be another example. So by utilizing the remote capability, we believe that we can increase the value of those physical stores, which are close to our customers. The one on the right-hand side, you see the van or small vehicles, where which are acting very actively in the area that was hit by the major earthquake in Noto Peninsula. So, for example, in the parking area of the convenience stores, those cars can go around to provide various services, and that would lead to the resolution of some of the challenges that we are faced with in the society. Now, in using the latest technologies and by utilizing them, we are thinking of creating the more smart daily services. So, for example, using the XR or avatar to provide a customer service, or to use drones to make the remote delivery. Or Lawson has a lot of purchasing data, and we can combine that with our customer data. So and by using the AI technology, we can optimize the value chain and deliver products more quickly. So those are the things that we would like to continue to imagine. Another important thing is the green perspective. To support the sustainable lives and to connect the people in the local and regional areas, already, Lawson is working on the solar power generation and operation of the EV charging stations. So through this partnership, we are hoping to accelerate those efforts. And also, by combining the convenience store and telecommunications, for example, Starlink, at the time of the emergency, we can use the convenience stores as a hub for disaster prevention or mitigation. If we can do so, it'll be a wonderful example. So until now, since 2019, we have been working closely with Lawson, and Mr. Takemasu is one of the visionaries, so he shares about his future vision. And the future convenience stores are quite exciting, and some of the examples that I talked about are very simple examples that we can think of right now. By utilizing the assets of the three companies, we want to launch the new initiatives one after another. Only in the area of the real, digital, and green, we would like to continue to create the new convenience stores together with Mitsubishi Corporation and Lawson. Thank you for your attention. Thank you, Mr. Takahashi. Now, I'd like to hand over to Mr. Takemasu, the president of Lawson. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for your support, as always, and also thank you for joining us despite bad weather. I am Takemasu from Lawson. As Mr. Nakanishi and Mr. Takahashi discussed, we're talking about the convenience store of the future. So I don't have anything else to add, to be frank. But with KDDI, we got the proposal, and we took it very seriously to consider the opportunities. And we believe that we should really capture this opportunity to work together to create the convenience store of the future. So there are four key points. With Mitsubishi Corporation, for about 20 years, and also with KDDI for about 5 years, through our capital business partnership, we have been working very closely to identify how we can be useful and helpful to the local residents in the market. And through this kind of collaboration, we have been able to build a true relationship of trust with Mitsubishi Corporation and also with KDDI. So 3 companies together were able to overcome the challenges of COVID, and we were able to create a very strong bond. And, we believe that this bond is very strong, which has been strengthened through this relationship of trust. And also, looking at the corporate culture, all of us want to contribute to the good of the society, and we are up to taking on these challenges to contribute to the society. We were able to share these key words together with KDDI in the past initiatives. The corporate culture and the atmospheres could be respected mutually. So that was the second point. And the third point was that we both want to be the strong company in each of the industries and the sectors. And the fourth point is that, as Mr. Takahashi discussed just now, we have a vision for the future of the society, and we have the aspiration to contribute in building the future of the society. We can all bring out our competitive strength on the table and work together to create a better society. Also, from these perspectives, we decided to receive the proposal from KDDI so that we can collaborate them more closely to pursue our path for the future. And on top of that, this is what we aspire to become or create. Some of you may be familiar with this. We have Lawson Challenge 2025. We have the five-year midterm business plan. Also, this fiscal year 2023 is the third year under this current midterm business plan. Looking at our quantitative targets, we want to achieve the target two years ahead of the schedule. So we're very motivated to accelerate the achievement of the target. Thanks to our effort together with KDDI and Mitsubishi Corporation, in this very challenging environment under COVID, we have been able to come up with great initiatives to perform well. In the remaining two years under the current midterm business plan, we want to present ourselves as the new type of convenience store. Traditionally, we have been perceived as the physical store or physical Lawson base, but not just that, we would like to contribute from the technology perspective. We also want to offer a global service. That's how we aspire to be, and that's how we would like to start our FY 2024. As a Global Real Tech Convenience Lawson Group, what does this mean? Obviously, we have the real stores, or we have the stores where the customers can come and do their shopping. This is very important and very core for us. Also, that will be for their daily use. And we have experienced that during COVID. Also, when people were commuting to their offices or going to the school, and when there is an increased traffic, the convenience store were performing well. And we also extended our frozen food offering at the convenience store, and we have evolved so that our store can be used for their daily service purposes. Also, we embrace that concept with our physical store, and then on top of that, we would like to offer the quickest e-commerce you see on the right-hand side. The traditional EC players would have a big distribution center, and they will have that big hub to deliver their products to their consumers. So even for the bigger players, the quickest delivery time is two hours after the order placement. But we have 14,000 physical stores that can be leveraged on, and this can also be positioned as the e-commerce center. And then in just 15 minutes, we can deliver the product that the customers order, because we have 3,000 SKUs in the stores, and you can place the order, and it can be quickly delivered to the customers. So the speed is going to be our competitive edge as we try to enter into the EC market. So that said, we have this daily use, and then we have this quick e-commerce. We want to have both of those two elements as our competitive edge as we pursue a further business strategy. And then we have the entertainment business and supermarket business, and everything needs the financial services. Also, we have the Lawson Bank, and as a group, we want to globalize this financial service as well. But for the delivery, we have to improve the usability of the physical store. But for everything, this technology at the base is indispensable. Also, technology is going to support everything, in my view. Also, when we were thinking in that way, we received this very proposal from KDDI, and we thought that everything will be connected, and the Real Tech convenience store can be feasible. Communication, telecommunication, and IT, those are all other capabilities that the KDDI have proposed to offer, and that really matches with what we need as we try to pursue our future strategy. This is going to be a great support and great strength for us. There's a global Real Tech Convenience Lawson Group. As we try to roll out this concept, we will get the further support and capacity from KDDI to accelerate their efforts. And also, in the normal times, we want to support a very efficient, productive daily lives, including delivery. If you can get whatever you want in 15 minutes, wouldn't that be great? And if there is an emergency or crisis, we want to serve as the social infrastructure so that we can offer peace of mind to the residents. So telecom and technology are going to be indispensable. So we can offer the convenience and efficiency during the normal times, and also security and comfort during the time of crisis. Also, that's what we would like to create and offer together with KDDI. So KDDI mentioned about life, living, and heart. We want to connect that, and I think that concept really resonates with our ideas. And also, the KDDI are trying to do something for the benefit of the others. And KDDI also has the spirit of taking on challenge. Also, they have taken on a new challenge and formed the company, KDDI, to enter the market, and then they've expanded. They're offering differential services, DX, and entertainment, and they continue to pave their ways into the new market. And we felt that this organization, as a shareholder and as a partner, will be great for us, as we also try to strive to take on new challenges. Also, that will be all from my side. Thank you very much for your attention. Mr. Takemasu, thank you very much. So we heard from three speakers. Now, we would like to entertain questions. Those of you who are in the room, please raise your hand. If you are participating remotely, please use Raise A Hand button. We would like to take more questions from those participants here in this room. When you ask a question, please give us affiliation and your name, and to whom you wish to ask your questions. That would be very helpful. We'd like to limit the number of the question to one question per person. I hope you understand. So if you have any questions, please raise your hand. We have a desk number C-1, the reporter sitting near the entrance. Ishikawa. I'm freelance writer. I have a question to Takahashi-san. So, Lawson, I think NTT Docomo also invest in Lawson. So you mentioned that whether you can work together with them as well? I'd like to know. Oh, it's not a difficult question, but it's a TOB. So basically, 50% is what we achieved, so it'll be a squeeze out. So at that time, we want other shares to be sold. So when we invested in 2019, we wanted to invest more than Docomo. And then after that, we have built a good relationship with Takemasu-san. So I do not have any intention of fighting against Docomo. So from the convenience store, the pay and other settlement or payment method is important, as important as au PAY. So I would like to be close to Lawson, and we would like to have a closer relationship with Lawson. So we have no intention of competing or going against Docomo. Thank you. Thank you for the question. Also, next person at A-Five, the journalist close to the entrance. Yes, my name is Yamane from NHK. I would like to ask one question to Mr. Takahashi from KDDI. Also, you are going to be engaged in the management of the Lawson business as a core partner. So what do you think is the strength and the weakness of Lawson, which does not exist in the other two CVS chains in Japan? Well, I would guess I'm not in a position to talk about that from my side, but, we've been in discussion from 2019, and I think the speed of decision-making process, I think, Lawson excels in that sense. Also, they are an easy business partner to work with among the three. Among the three, the competitiveness, I'm sure Takemasu-san knows this better than myself, but for the Real Tech Convenience store vision, I think Lawson is most advanced with that concept. They are identifying telecommunications as that tech component. In terms of globalization of the business, I think among the three players, I think we are on the same page in pursuing that concept. Thank you. Next. B-Two, the person close to the window, please. Nakamura from Nikkei. I have a question to Takemasu-san. So it sounds like, from now on, KDDI is going to take the leadership, including at the top, appointment. I'm sure that Takemasu-san will be continuing. I'm sure that it will be difficult to decide a leader. What will be the governance, going forward? Governance structure. Nakamura-san, thank you very much. Well, basically. We, the Lawson, the most important thing is our customers. And what I always tell is that the stores, and merchants, and crews, and all the employees, and also the suppliers, partners, they are also for customers. So how can we make a contribution to the society for customer to provide convenience? And in case of emergency, how can we provide the safety and security? So together with the KPP, KDDI and Mitsubishi Corporation, we want to pursue that. So that is the true nature of us, Lawson. So I think that Mr. Takahashi and Mr. Nakanishi agreed with way of thinking. Well, we do not expect that something would happen which will not contribute to that, and I'm sure that the two companies will support us whenever we need it. So first, Lawson, in our own area, in the sector, we have to do our job, and so that we can realize the governance, which is convincing to all the parties. So I hope that the two companies will discuss that, and us, we will just work hard for customers. Oh, oh, are you talking about myself? We are not yet talking about that, the future. So basically, we want to contribute to the customers, and the leaders of this structure should be chosen based on that. So everything would be centering around customers, and that is what it should be and what we will do. So in the area of the telecommunication, of course, we will try to take the initiative or leadership. But this is in the area of the retail, and in the area of the retail, we don't have much knowledge or experiences. So the retailers, to provide more value, they can utilize telecommunication, and that is where we have our expertise. So that's our stance, and so we don't really need to talk about who takes the leadership among the three. So this time, the president will be coming from Mitsubishi Corporation, as it did until now. Thank you, Nakamura-san. Also, I'm conscious of time. I would like to take the last one or two questions. Also, please raise your hand if you'd like to ask a question. Also, table at the C-1, the person closest to the window, please ask a question. I'm Ishino, freelance journalist. Earlier, Mr. Takahashi mentioned the settlement and also PayPay. At Lawson, you have a d POINT and a Ponta point, and I think you offer either of the points to the customers. But with this kind of ownership, are you going to take the d POINT service out? You mentioned about the data linkage in the presentation, but I guess from KDDI's perspective, you don't want the data to be shared with the NTT data. So what are you going to do about that? So Mr. Takemasu can respond to that question? Yes. Basically, I think it's a choice for the customers. When the service that will be chosen by the customer is what we would like to provide, and that's what matters. So from the product side, we should not be like a product out. Also, for the settlement and also for PayPay, we want to make sure that the users, customers will not feel the inconvenience. But I'm sure that there is going to be strong support coming from Takahashi-san for au PAY, but basically, we will continue to offer the best choices for the customers. Also, Ponta, I think, you would like to reinforce the Ponta system because we have this threesome partnership, so we would also like to have that discussion over that strategy. Thank you. So this is going to be the last question. C-four, the journalist sitting near the window. Okayama, I'm freelance. I have a question to Mr. Nakanishi. Earlier, it was said that you were struggling with the idea of how to support, make the additional support. So with this partnership, is this positive or a kind of reactive? If you can talk about that. Well, of course, it, there's nothing negative or reactive about it. In December last year, we changed the organization, and SLC is a new group that we established. And as I explained at that time, from the consumer perspective, the challenges and needs will be grasped, so we will combine the real and the digital to create a smart life. So that is the SLC group we established. So at the core of this would be Lawson, and this partnership or agreement, we complement with each other, and that is important or absolute necessity when we choose the partners, and we have to choose the partner we can trust. When we cannot do anything much on our own, we need to find a partner, and with the partner, we can create synergy to do something new. So by adding those new pieces, we can start to work together. So that's what we are planning to do with SLC, and we believe that we can increase the value, and this is something that we'll be fully committed to, so we will be engaged in it actively and strongly believe in that. Thank you very much. So with that, we'd like to end Q&A. If you have additional questions after the press conference on this floor, we will take additional questions. So we are going to now move to the photo session.