Mitsuhiko Yamashita
Executive Vice President

To achieve the corporate vision of Enriching People's Lives, Nissan pursues a high level of safety for its vehicles. It is only on the foundation of that safety that we can offer the true joy of driving and comfort of riding in Nissan cars. We must think deeply about the role we play toward the realization of a safer automobile society. The goal underlying all our safety development, the eventual reduction of traffic accidents to practically zero, is a challenging one, but we continue our efforts to help one day achieve an accident-free society.
The environment surrounding automobiles is a complex one involving a wide range of problems like traffic accidents, road congestion and environmental issues, and we must make steady progress in tackling each of them. Fatalities and serious injuries caused by accidents remain at a high level in developing nations, although they are declining overall in Japan and other developed markets. Hard work will be required in all the world's regions to bring about safer driving conditions in the future. In considering safety, we do not simply develop technologies for our cars; we take a comprehensive approach that also includes people and even the traffic and societal environment in which vehicles function.
We carry out research and development based on our unique "Safety Shield" concept, a comprehensive approach that includes the concept of helping to keep vehicles and people away from dangerous conditions, thereby reducing the incidence of accidents. Nissan has introduced a number of world-first technologies through this approach: for instance, our Intelligent Pedal supports the driver in maintaining a safe distance between vehicles, while the Lane Departure Prevention system is meant to help reduce unplanned movements out of a traffic lane. Moving forward, we will continue developing these systems to improve their compatibility with a variety of driving conditions, making progress toward the ultimate goal of "collision-free" vehicles.
We are also developing ITS, or Intelligent Transport Systems, which use information and communication technologies to link people, cars and the traffic environment in an effort to help reduce congestion and accidents. ITS examples in use today include Japan's Electronic Toll Collection System (ETC) and VICS, the Vehicle Information and Communication System. I believe that ITS will form the core systems that support the mobility society of the future-a society that will be created only through the concerted efforts of national governments, local communities and companies in all industries. Nissan is working closely with partners in all these fields on joint research and practical testing that will help lead us to our ultimate goal of no accidents.
The achievement of a truly safe automobile society-one where people no longer even give thought to the idea of "safety"-would be my greatest joy as a person involved in the automotive industry. I am proud to be part of Nissan as it works toward its dream of this future mobility society.