The Hitachi Cable Group has taken a variety of measures in response to today's environment of fierce global competition. As a result, with the hard work and efforts of all of its employees, the Hitachi Cable Group is projected in fiscal year 2004 to post a surplus in ordinary income for the first time in three years.


The global economy will begin to show signs of recovery in fiscal year 2005, especially in the rapidly growing Chinese market. However, factors such as deflation, the strong yen, and the dramatic increase in material costs since the end of 2003 together require that the Group strengthen its competitiveness and revise its business structures. I ask that all associates reflect and act upon the following two specific aims necessary to achieve these broader goals.


The first aim is the transformation of the Hitachi Cable Group into a global corporation capable of generating new markets and technologies. To this end, it is of the utmost importance that the Group strengthen its new-product development and marketing capabilities. The information systems and electronic components that form our current focus evolve rapidly, leading to short product life cycles. The ability to develop new products is the key to our continuing to provide products that meet customer needs and ensure customer satisfaction. The Hitachi Cable Group has also worked to strengthen its marketing capabilities, focusing on quick response to the global expansion of customer activities and on the Group's expansion into the Chinese market. In these and other ways the Group must create new technologies and cultivate new markets, through dramatic and synergistic enhancement of all of the divisions and departments of the group.


The second aim I would like to propose is our collective pursuit of high market value for the Hitachi Cable Group, to create an organization in which all employees may take pride. The market value of a company is nothing other than the total value of its employees. The efforts of all employees, including yourselves, will enhance the Group's corporate value: set your goals high, study hard, and pursue innovation; refuse to be satisfied with the status quo.


I hope that you will take advantage of the intelligence, the vigor, and the physical strength that you have cultivated throughout the course of your education and that you will continue in your efforts to learn and grow further. For its part, the Hitachi Cable Group will work to provide opportunities for you to enhance your own value within the company. In addition to the existing educational and training systems, we are establishing a specific framework for personnel training aimed at strengthening our technological capabilities. We have also introduced a system that ensures that talented and ambitious employees will be offered the opportunity to advance and make the most of their growing abilities. I would ask that each of you take responsibility for choosing the path you will follow in your development as a professional in the global business environment.

The induction ceremony for new Hitachi Cable associates was held at the Hitaka Works, in Hitachi City, Ibaraki Pref., on April 1.

<Number of new university graduates hired in the past three years>

	4-year university graduates			Completed graduate program (number of inductees having completed doctoral work shown in parentheses)			Total
	Clerical staff	Engineers	Total	Clerical staff	Engineers	Total	Clerical staff	Engineers	Total
April, 2002	13	15	28	2	36(5)	38(5)	15	51	66
April, 2003	9	11	20	4	21(0)	25(0)	13	32	45
April, 2004	6	5	11	1	8(1)	9(1)	7	13	20

Note:

The number of new university graduates hired in 2005 is expected to increase relative to 2004