For the past few years, we have promoted road mapping activities at research labs and business divisions, but in order to achieve an even higher level of growth for FURUNO moving forward, deploying business that envisions the future of 2040 and 2050 is important. Therein, we feel it is necessary to infuse our business activities with the idea of what kind of future FURUNO should have and how it should contribute to society, and to develop a sustainable Ultra-long-term Vision that can serve as a signpost moving forward. With that as a backdrop, we arrived at formulating this vision. In formulating the Ultra-long-term Vision, the future concept "Ocean 5.0" that we had already been considering within the company came to serve as our base, and we tasked a project team centering on young employees, who will be our future leaders, with the mission of digging deep into this concept and considering its social and economic value. And the content of this was expressed as the title 100-Year Corporate VISION: Ocean Gift for ALL, as a vision aiming for a 2050 actualizable by FURUNO.

I am sure there are some people who may feel that this is too far of a leap from the environment in which FURUNO exists currently. However, this plan that was reached by back casting from this future vision will be integrated together with the current mid- to long-term plan and roadmap, and we will also consider new action issues, ultimately strengthening its achievability.
Simultaneously, I would like to organize this into a vision that leads to contributions to elements of society and marine navigation that have previously not existed, including co-creation with other like-minded companies.

If you define the current age as Ocean 4.0 The Search for Sustainability, in the next age of Ocean 5.0, I believe that an age of coexistence and co-prosperity with the sea will come in which all living creatures will be able to receive the bounty of the sea, and not only will we receive bounty from the sea, we will also repay the sea as well.

In the past, in order for people to receive the bounty of the sea, they negatively impacted the conditions of the sea with things like marine pollution and overfishing. But in the Ocean 5.0 age, all living creatures will be able to receive that bounty while keeping the sea conditions in a good state. That is the image we have in mind. But what I want to stress here is, this is not just a mere future prediction, but the world that we will arrive at when FURUNO actualizes the responsibilities that we must fulfill in both the areas of technology and societal contribution. With harmony between people and the sea as an important theme, we currently believe that the major pillars will be things like distribution systems that seamlessly link land, sea, and air, a next-generation fishing industry that utilizes resources while protecting the environment, and the actualization of comfortable and sustainable maritime lifestyles. No one knows what the future will bring, but in 2050, the year FURUNO commemorates its first 100 years, I hope we are living in that kind of an age.

Ocean 5.0 is merely a name FURUNO has given to a future society that we have imagined, and not an official concept, but I would be overjoyed if it became a commonly used term when thinking about the future development of the sea and solutions to social issues.

70% of the Earth is made up of oceans, and they impact the land and the sky in various ways. The original core arena of activity for FURUNO is the sea. We provide all sorts of products revolving around the sea, but the technology we have accumulated in that process is also spreading across the land as well. I believe that using something you have learned in one field in a different area and developing based on that is what true growth is all about, and that this is also an essential component for a company to have continual growth. And as a result of that, I want all employees to spark future-oriented innovation without being constricted to divisions and organizations like those only handling the land, the sea, or the sky.

That is true. The level of abstraction is very high. However, in an age with a high degree of uncertainty, where people are saying forecasting the future is difficult, in order to not lose sight of our purpose and goals, I think that imagining the future and establishing the direction we should aim for is important, as exemplified by questions like, what should the future of FURUNO be like, how should we contribute to society, what kind of issues exist for the sea, and which areas should we tackle?

Working hard at daily tasks is of course important, but thinking about what you can do for society under a theme with that high level of abstraction is also needed for the growth of each individual employee. Looking at the earnestness of the young employees who center their discussions around the philosophy of contributing society that has stayed with us since our inception, I witnessed firsthand how this philosophy was taking strong root in the next generation as our DNA, and as the culture of FURUNO. How will they dig deep into this vision and then bring it into reality, and bring about the future that they want to actualize? I expect great things from them.

Well, FURUNO has actively supported open innovation for a long time now. We believe that to speedily develop products which are practical and useful to society, all sorts of different capabilities, wisdom, and technological abilities are required, and a convergence of internal and external wisdom as well as innovation made possible through fusion are essential. In particular, in actualizing the vision we are talking about here, I believe that even larger potential can grow by cooperating with each of the stakeholders, including companies, research institutes, NPOs, and universities, and by combining everyone's different strengths. And for this to happen, first these entities must learn about FURUNO's future society concept Ocean 5.0 and the FURUNO 100-Year Corporate VISION: Ocean Gift for ALL, and then I would like for us to engage in an active exchange of opinions.