Recording of Court Proceedings in Certain Lawsuits Involving Our Company

We hereby announce that it has come to light that, in certain civil lawsuits involving our company, we recorded court proceedings without obtaining permission from the presiding judge (hereinafter referred to as "this matter").

This matter was brought to our attention at the end of March of this year. Upon promptly conducting interviews with relevant personnel, we discovered that, since at least January 2004, recordings had been made of court proceedings in certain civil lawsuits for the purpose of preparing internal reports.

Immediately after this matter came to light, we issued a warning to the relevant departments not to record court proceedings without obtaining a judge's permission.

We take this matter very seriously as it constitutes inappropriate conduct that violates laws and regulations, and we sincerely apologize to all those involved.

We will thoroughly implement measures to prevent a recurrence so that a similar incident never occurs again.