April 2010 Regular Press Conference: President's Message

• As you have been informed, we have made changes in our top management in order to build a stronger Group that is able to respond precisely and flexibly to severe changes in the business environment.
• Responding to change is certainly no easy thing, but I personally believe that it offers us an opportunity for the growth of our business.
• I am convinced that adopting a positive attitude towards an age of change and continuing to challenge ourselves without fear of failure will provide us with a strong impetus towards growth.
• Up to this point, I have concentrated my efforts on enhancing the frontline capabilities, and have additionally pushed ahead with reforms and improvements with a constant focus on a long-term vision.
• I believe that under the leadership of our new President, Mr. Mizuno, it will be essential for us to build a system that will enable us to accelerate the pace of reform and to respond proactively and vigorously to a variety of issues.
• Based on this perspective, we emphasized three points in our current round of personnel changes.
• The first of these was to create a strong organization able to face the challenges of a period of profound change.
• For a company, human resources are the most important management resource.
• I believe that enabling each and every one of the employees who work on our business operation frontline to display their abilities and personal qualities to their maximum is an important factor in building a strong company.
• Increasing employee motivation and inspiring the will to stay resolute in the face of difficulties gives an organization strength, and the role played by heads of departments is therefore a major one.
• Based on this perspective, we seek to appoint personnel who are thoroughly competent in their duties in their area and combine leadership, the ability to think strategically, and posess practical ability as General Managers and heads of departments.
• The second point that we emphasized was responsiveness to management issues.
• The stable and affordable provision of a superior energy service centering on electric power is our ongoing mission as a public utility.
• The most important point, above all, is to balance the provision of a stable supply of energy with the conservation of the environment. In order to realize this goal, it will be essential for Chubu Electric to advance further in the area of nuclear generation, always maintaining safety as our number one priority.
• We must concentrate our full efforts on, first, increasing the utilization rate of our existing facilities, while steadily moving ahead with the Hamaoka replacement plan, with the acceptance of the residents of the region, and developing new nuclear  power facilities.
• Given this, we are facing our challenges with a robust system, appointing a Vice President who has been extensively involved in our nuclear power business as the General Manager of the Power Generation Division.
• We will also continue to have Vice Presidents act as the General Managers of the Environmental Affairs & Plant Siting Division.
• Given the increasing importance of stability, flexibility, and economy in the procurement of fuel against a background of intensifying international competition over resources, a Senior Managing Director will take charge of our Fuels Department.
• Our third point of focus was the achievement of speedier management and the appointment of young people.
• To enable us to respond rapidly to urgent issues such as global environmental problems and intensifying inter-energy competition, we are attempting to achieve speedier management by appointing 11 of our 15 Directors, including President Mizuno, to oversee specific business management.
• In addition, as was the case last year, we are appointing highly-motivated young people as heads of departments and to other positions.
• We have made fewer personnel changes than was the case last year, but I believe that we have assembled the optimum team for the achievement of continuing growth, and they will be certain to display their ability under the leadership of our new President, Mr. Mizuno.

That concludes my remarks for today.