BASIT SALEEM

CEO MESSAGE

The JT Group has been delivering sustainable profit growth while building a solid business foundation amidst a challenging operating environment. My mission is to extend this trajectory into the future and turn the JT Group into a leading global company.

We continue to face new challenges in our business environment; the pace and scale of change are unprecedented.

In order to overcome these challenges, the JT Group has undergone an organizational transformation that includes initiatives such as globalization and restructuring. These improvements will enable us to become faster at identifying and addressing shifts in the landscape. But there is more to be done, and we remain fully committed to strengthening our capabilities and to further evolving the organization going forward.

It is essential that we align our actions to meet consumer needs. To do that, we think it is important to build upon our current 4S model which affirms our commitment to serve our four valued stakeholder groups; consumers, shareholders, employees and the wider society, with consumers at its core.

We are confident that we can exceed expectations of all stakeholders by carefully considering their respective interests. The 4S model guides our mission to create, develop and nurture our unique brands to win consumer trust, while understanding and respecting the environment, and the diversity of societies and individuals.

To this end, we have developed a concrete action plan, called the "JT Group way" : "We are committed to fulfilling the expectations of our consumers and behaving responsibly, striving for quality in everything we do, through continuous improvement, and leveraging diversity across the JT Group."

We are convinced that the "JT Group way", with consumers at the heart of all we do, is the right approach to enhancing corporate value in the mid- to long-term and delivering maximum results for all stakeholder groups.

With the 4S model as a guide, the entire JT Group strives to fulfill our responsibilities to the best of our abilities, in all that we do.

Masamichi Terabatake
President, Chief Executive Officer and Representative Director