Securing Growth and Improved Profitability From FY 2004

 We plan to increase global sales of our industrial machinery bearings by designating target industries, such as the steel, machine tool, construction machinery, paper mill, and railroad industries. We will place special emphasis on China’s heavy-duty industry which we expect to continue to expand rapidly.
 This April, we will assign a special team, whose focus will be solely on the aftermarket and will report directly to the CEO. Aftermarket specialists will be appointed to each region to reinforce sales and marketing activities to the aftermarket.
 We also plan to invest 5 billion yen over the next two years in our Fujisawa Plant, the main production facility of roller bearings, to increase production capacity so that it can cope with the expected increase in demand while at the same time continuing current cost reduction activities.
 Furthermore, we will expand our industrial bearings product lineup by introducing new technically competitive products; we will also take advantage of our network in China, which we have built up during the years we have been there, in order to achieve our mid-term targets.