On October 2, NYK President Takaya Soga addressed the company’s employees in celebration of the 141st anniversary of NYK’s founding. His remarks are excerpted below.


Today, I am very pleased to celebrate the 141st anniversary of NYK’s founding together with all of you. I would like to express my sincere appreciation for the dedication and hard work of every NYK Group employee.
Last year, we marked a major milestone, the 140th anniversary of our founding. This year, our 141st, marks the first step toward a new future. Together with all of you, I hope we can take an even greater leap forward. On this occasion, I would like to share a few thoughts with you.

First, I would like to discuss the current global situation and the business environment surrounding us. Around the world, conflicts and divisions among major powers, as well as events that threaten peace, continue.
While there are questions as to whether movements running counter to the international division of labor and globalization will truly lead to global prosperity, the reality is that each country must also safeguard its economic security. Against this backdrop, we need to consider, from a different perspective, how we can realize “Bringing value to life.”
Meanwhile, although the situations in Ukraine and the Middle East will take more time to resolve, the global economy remains generally robust. As long as the U.S. economy and purchasing power remain strong, we can expect growth across our container shipping, automotive, dry bulk, energy, and logistics businesses. I would like each business division to continue strengthening its resilience by addressing its weaknesses and firmly capturing opportunities in line with the policies set forth in our medium-term management plan.
However, we also need to pay close attention to the impact that monetary policy, particularly higher interest rates, may have on U.S. purchasing power and the global economy. Depending on circumstances, adverse effects may arise, so rather than pursuing expansion alone, it is important that we maintain the flexibility to scale back appropriately when necessary.

Next, I would like to discuss our medium-term management plan. The current medium-term management plan, which began in fiscal 2023, has now entered its fourth and final year.
As part of our capital policy, one of the pillars of the current plan, we have worked to bring our expanded shareholders’ equity closer to an appropriate level and optimize our balance sheet. By allocating accumulated cash flow in a balanced manner between additional shareholder returns and growth investments, we have progressed largely according to plan. This approach has also received positive feedback from many investors during meetings with investors in Japan and overseas, including those I have personally attended as part of our investor relations activities. I believe this has also contributed to the increase in our share price during the period of the current medium-term management plan.

Regarding the other pillar, the “deepening of existing core businesses” and the “evolution of new growth businesses,” we have strengthened each of our business segments not only through necessary investments to renew our fleet but also through M&A and business integration.
In the energy business, we established NYK Energy Ocean Corporation, taking over approximately 80% of ENEOS Ocean Corporation’s businesses and assets. In the dry bulk business, we integrated three domestic affiliated companies to establish NYK Bulkship Partners Co., Ltd., and we are also working to make Saga Welco AS a wholly owned subsidiary and to conduct a tender offer for NS United Kaiun Kaisha, Ltd. In logistics, the Yusen Logistics Group has proceeded with the acquisition of Movianto International B.V., a European company specializing in healthcare logistics. I am confident that each of these initiatives will enhance the competitiveness of our businesses and lay the foundation for stable future earnings.
In CX, we believe that, beyond raising compensation levels, we must first change our own mindset to energize our colleagues around the world, including seagoing employees and engineers. With this in mind, we are advancing various initiatives and developing related systems.
In DX, in addition to initiatives to raise each employee’s awareness of the use of AI, we have also established a framework for considering the grand design of systems that affect the entire group.
In EX, we have made a leading European company a subsidiary to enhance our expertise in the offshore wind business and are leveraging this expertise in CTV operations in Japan and in developing domestically built CTVs. We are also steadily advancing the verification and development of ammonia-fueled vessels, which we see as promising next-generation-fuel vessels, in cooperation with many Japanese companies as we address the challenge of transitioning marine fuels.
Furthermore, new businesses that bring together the technological capabilities in which the NYK Group takes pride, such as concepts for offshore rocket launch and recovery platforms and offshore data centers, are steadily approaching the stage at which we can present more concrete visions both internally and externally.
In addressing the social challenges facing Japan, for example, Japan Marine Science Inc. is playing an important role in the development and demonstration of autonomous vessels, which could provide one solution to the shortage of seafarers. Meanwhile, MTI Co., Ltd. is taking a leading role in industry-government-academia initiatives aimed at revitalizing Japan’s maritime industry. These initiatives are all proof of challenges that only the NYK Group can undertake as we seek to “go beyond the scope of a comprehensive global logistics enterprise.”

In this fiscal year, the final year of our current medium-term management plan, I would like all of us to continue moving these many initiatives steadily forward without pause and pass the baton to the next medium-term management plan.

Internal discussions on the new medium-term management plan, which will begin next fiscal year, are now entering the final stage toward completion. We will verify the hypotheses established when the current plan was formulated, review areas that have not progressed as anticipated, and formulate new hypotheses.
While optimization of the balance sheet was one of the major pillars of the current medium-term management plan, the new plan will begin from a position in which that optimization has been largely achieved. Naturally, our approach to capital policy will therefore change as well. I also want the new plan to properly reflect both the returns on growth investments, which have been difficult to express numerically until now, and the aspirations for growth held by each of our colleagues around the world. In addition, we will place even greater focus on technological capabilities, a source of the NYK Group’s competitiveness, and use them to further differentiate ourselves.
Many colleagues from a wide range of divisions in Japan and overseas have already contributed to the formulation of the new medium-term management plan. As we work toward finalizing the plan, I ask for your continued and even greater cooperation.

Finally, I would like to talk about our relocation to Yokohama. The Yusen Building here in Marunouchi, Tokyo, where we are currently based, is our second-generation building. The original Yusen Building was completed at this location in 1923, and the current, second-generation Yusen Building was completed in 1978.
Next year, in its 49th year, this building will be demolished, and construction of the third-generation Yusen Building will begin. The Yusen Building has endured major challenges, including the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, but due to its aging, we have decided to rebuild it.
To express our gratitude to the second-generation Yusen Building, which has supported our business for 49 years, we are working on several projects. One of these is the creation of a digital album introducing the history of the original Yusen Building and showing what the second-generation Yusen Building looked like when it was first completed. The album will also answer questions we ourselves would like to know, such as why NYK was able to build the Yusen Building in 1923 on this prime site at 2-3-2 Marunouchi. I hope you will look forward to it. I hope all of you will spend the limited time we have left in this Yusen Building with a renewed sense of affection for it.

Starting next spring, we will begin relocating to our new office in Yokohama. I fully recognize that some of you will have longer commutes than before and that the added burden will be particularly significant for those who need to drop off and pick up children at daycare centers and other facilities. Together with the labor union, we will consider and implement multiple measures to ease that burden as much as possible.
With your understanding, I sincerely hope that we will continue to enjoy working together, just as we do today, in our new Yokohama office building, with its excellent facilities and views.

Major changes in the times, the business environment, and our workplace environment will continue. Even so, as we always have, let us overcome the challenges of this era together with optimism, boldness, and flexibility, ensuring that no one is left behind.