At this time we are intensifying the assessment of environmentally related products in all our product development departments. From this April all product development departments will increase the scale of environmentally friendly products. Regardless of our customers' requests we think it important to show our positive stance by actively including all our products, & using environmentally friendly materials to make our products from the design & development stages. We are the first in the cable industry to be promoting such a plan to intensify the environmental assessment of all products, in all business areas, company wide. In fact we are leading the way in manufacturing businesses as a whole, as this kind of action is still rare.

Up to now we have been progressive in this field; in February 1997 the Toyoura works (Ibaraki Prefecture, Hitachi city) became the first in the cable industry to acquire ISO 14001 certification (ISO: International Standardization Organization - is an environmental management system control body). Already 4 of our 5 works have attained the award, & the remaining one can expect to receive certification this March. Also with the continuing promotion of the expansion of 'Eco-Green(R) Power Cable' *, we are well ahead of our competitors in clearly stating our dedicated attitude towards contributing to protecting the world's environment. With the various actions that we have already taken towards the environmentally friendly design & manufacture of our products, we are already showing that nature is important to our business activities.

Meanwhile the strong social awareness about the environment is promising, with the introduction of 'green' purchasing systems in major companies, the ISO environmental design standardization & related industries that have prepared independent standards for recycling methods etc.

We are in favour of such actions, so our factories, that have attained the ISO 14001, increased their environmentally friendly designs & products & have moved rapidly towards environmentally sound enterprise. Environmentally friendly product related business is their key aim & the successive expansion of such policies has been actualized. If we cannot realize the policy that: 'None of our products should put a burden on the environment', we cannot survive in the imminent cyclic global society.

As for concrete actions, firstly in 1998 we followed a company wide environmental action policy: ' The promotion of environmentally friendly product development'. Furthermore, in October last year a company wide environmental committee was formed, on the basis of product assessments from sub committees in all participating factories, & the whole company acted to examine product assessments accurately. So now, with our fundamental policy & 4 basic conduct guidelines, a product assessment standard has been established.
From this April, all product development departments will adopt at least one or more of the conduct guidelines placing emphasis from each environmentally friendly guideline on products that ought to be tackled, by 2002 we will be heading towards our target of developing actions to expand business.

When the ISO 14001 certificate is attained, the set up of a system to check the level of the burden of all products on the environment is required, but the judgment as to whether or not those products burdening the environment are improved or not, has been left up to the factories concerned. However, this time with the product assessment standards that we have established, the whole company by aiming to make environmentally friendly goods from the planning & development stages will further strengthen the effects of the ISO 14001 certification.
In the midst of such great interest in the environment, we have reached ahead of other companies with our actions & it is our intention to make more & more of an effort to establish ourselves as global society leaders.

*	'Eco-Green(R)Power Cable' is the generic name of our new environmentally friendly power cable. (The special features are listed under). We are now promoting the stock sales of 'Eco-Green(R) Power Cable', & quickly realizing immediate delivery systems.

Special Features

1.	When combustion or gas emissions take place, there is no production of dioxins or lead.
2.	When a fire occurs, there is no production of toxic gas etc.
3.	Aimed towards recycability.