Eiichi Asada, President and Representative Director It is no exaggeration to say that we live in the electronics age. Electronics are applied not only in televisions, personal computers, mobile telephones, and other products that are familiar to us all, but also in areas unimaginable only a few years ago. Digital communications technology in particular has wrought revolutionary changes in society and is accelerating the trend toward a borderless economic system. SHOEI CHEMICAL INC. was established in 1956 for the purpose of developing, manufacturing and marketing electronic materials. The first product SHOEI developed was conductive paste made from fine silver powder for use in ceramic disk capacitors. Our task was to minimize the loss of electrical energy in electrodes, necessitating as minute an electrode structure as possible. For this reason, we focused on blending microscopic silver particles of different sizes in a certain fixed proportion. This innovation proved the key to success in developing and manufacturing our first paste. At the time, I believed that these first handmade products represented a highly original step forward. Since that time, there has been an endless stream of breakthroughs in the field of electronics, and the range of appliances for electronic materials has broadened considerably. Keeping pace with these developments, SHOEI has expanded and enhanced its technical research capabilities, developed new products, and continuously met customer demands. Through this ongoing process of research and development, we have come to create the various pastes and fine precious metal powders we offer today and to obtain more than one hundred patents in Japan and abroad. Namely, our success derives from our commitment to the belief that strength lies in originality and that this only arises from truly creative technologies, and the technology-based focus of our talented staff since the Company’s inception. In the coming years, we will utilize our creative skills to challenge new fields in electronic materials and to rapidly develop the products our customers will call for. We will also supply products to overseas markets, enhance our service network, and globalize our business activities.