Hello everyone. This is Takayuki Kondo. We decided to institute a complete five-day work week system from this month. Our corporate work calendar is not a complete five-day work week system, but we will implement it for employees who are over 65 years old.

The reasons why I decided to institute the complete five-day work week system is, firstly, changes in society. Japan is said to be an aging society and it is predicted that Japanese society is more and more aging. According to a report from the Cabinet Office, as of October 2015, 1 out of every 3.7 people in the total population in Japan is over 65 years old. Furthermore, it is predicted that 1 out of every 2.5 people will be over 65 years old in 2060.

While at the same time, the life expectancy is increasing. According to a report from the Cabinet Office, as of 2015, the life expectancy for Japanese women was 86.99 years old and for men was 80.75 years old. As of 1960, the life expectancy for women was 70.19 years old and for men was 65.32 years old. Hence, the life expectancy for women was increased by 16.8 years and for men was increased by 15.4 years.

The second reason is a voice of our employee. Our company implements a program named Dream Sheet twice a year. All employees write freely about their dreams or hopes of their daily life on the Dream Sheet and share it to the company. We implemented this Dream Sheet last month and received a voice about workday from an employee who has supported us for many years. I would like to have valued his voice.

For the above two reasons, we decided to institute the complete five-day work week system. Our country has the pension system which supports us financially. The pension age has been raised from 60 years old to 62 years old and will be raised further to 65 years old. Hence, I would like to support their way of work as a company. Our employees who are more than 65 years old are still full of vitality, so I would like them to take an adequate rest on holidays and work healthily and safely on workdays.

I would like to implement various company reforms such as employee benefit. I will consider a work environment where our employees can work effectively in order to offer better services to our customers.