The sole purpose of a public company is to create growing sustainable value. At Nissan, we are totally focused on this purpose.

In recent years, our market-adjusted total return to shareholders has been negative. In addition, our key valuation multiples, including PER, have been lower than our main competitors. Of course, multiples are only rough estimates and the differences may be attributed to various factors, including accounting differences. However, given the size of this gap to our competitors, it's obvious that the market is discounting the value of Nissan.

Based on our analysis, a significant part of this gap is due to investor perceptions regarding our long-term performance. To a lesser extent, our recent short-term performance has also contributed to this gap. Since the two perceptions are strongly interrelated, our weak short-term performance has negatively influenced perceptions regarding the viability of our long-term performance.

In order to close this gap, we must first deliver strong short-term results. And we must do this without being short-term oriented because the market always rewards companies that perform over the long-term. When we can demonstrate strong short-term performance, the long-term performance perceptions should improve. What will close it is consistently delivering strong short-term results.

Of course, we will not stop there. We will further improve perceptions of our long-term potential via transparent investor communications. After we successfully put ourselves on a solid track of profitable growth, investors' desires for more transparency increased significantly. They want to know more about our future strategy and vision and have a better understanding of how we will deliver our plans.

Performance and transparency make for credibility and that is what it takes to convince the market of our future potential. In this uncertain business environment, a company is required to not only consistently deliver strong performance, but also communicate to the market in a transparent manner.

A company cannot completely avoid all the ups and downs in its performance. But it should learn from past mistakes and never make them twice; this behavior is part of Nissan's DNA. We are committed to gaining the trust of the market and delivering superior performance.