I would like to take this opportunity to thank our shareholders and other stakeholders for their steadfast support for the Bank and its Group companies.

Amid worldwide economic structural changes and an increasingly serious global environmental situation, Japan is also faced with the problem of a declining population.

To enable us to speedily and precisely address the issues facing the Bank amid these social changes and the present severely competitive environment, thereby allowing us to continue evolving and developing, we have drawn up a new medium-term management plan covering the three-year period from April 2010 to March 2013, under the name of “Future Creation Plan 2013.”

We intend not only to perform our functions as a community-based financial institution, but also to take fast and effective measures to facilitate the supply of funds to the local economy, based on our basic “Comprehensive Measures to Facilitate Financing for SMEs.”

The staff of the Bank and its Group companies, from executives down, are pulling together to make a substantial contribution to the growth of the regional economy and the prosperity of the local community.