Dear Everyone:

We are already at the end of January, and it feels like we just started the New Year. Time passes quickly.

In Japan, at the start of the year, it is traditional to place a sprig of foliage from a tree, called a Kadomatsu, to the left and right of your front door. Since many people live in apartment buildings, they don’t have a private front door, but companies and many people living in houses keep this tradition alive.

The Kadomatsu is to help the gods find the entrance to your house when they make their New Year visit. Sprigs from three different trees can be used for the Kadomatsu: cedar, bamboo and plum. Cedar is a coniferous tree that stays green throughout the year and is a symbol of long life. Bamboo grows quickly and symbolizes vitality and growth. Plum is the earliest tree to blossom each year, and represents success and good fortune. So, people select the tree to use for their Kadomatsu with this symbolic meaning in mind.

After 40 years working at Hitachi High-Tech, I joined Rigaku in 2020 as an external director. Then, in June 2021, I was appointed CEO and, since then, have deepened my working relationship with all of you. In both of the past two years, we have achieved record results, beating the mid-term goals we set in 2021. I believe we have created a solid base for Rigaku to move towards an IPO. These results were only possible with the support and hard work of every one of you, and I am very grateful for that. Furthermore, we have just appointed the lead investment bank, and they are helping us to make the formal preparations for our IPO. On the other hand, as set out in our Mission, Vision and Values, Rigaku’s fundamental mission is to contribute to the development of humanity through science and technology. IPO is not the end goal, but rather an important milestone to help us along that journey. It is very important that you all continue to help our customers to solve their problems by providing them with high-quality analytical devices.

For my part, since I left Hitachi 3 years ago, I have been helping a friend with a project that works to transform various companies and organizations under the slogan of “Building a more soulful society through the power of art.” In particular, I would like to help children to learn to express themselves better through art, in a world where they are becoming more and more passive because all their time is taken up by studying and school activities. Last year I turned 65 and, thinking about my own life goals, I realized that I really want to spend more time on these philanthropic activities. After explaining this to Hikaru Shimura and the other shareholders, we have agreed that I will step down as CEO at the end of this January, and resign from the Board of Directors at the end of March. From April, I will start to work more actively on the educational activities with children.

I mentioned above the vitality and growth of bamboo. As bamboo grows, each of its nodes grows to a certain length, and then that node becomes the starting point for growth of a new node. Looking back on my life, I see that there were several of these nodes, or inflection points. I hope that the inflection point I’ve reached this year will provide at least one further opportunity for me to grow as a person.

So, this will be my final CEO Message. I sincerely hope that everyone at Rigaku will continue to grow their technical abilities and ensure that Rigaku can keep playing a critical role in society and grow from strength to strength. I believe that you all have the talent to succeed in this.

I will also be setting out on a new path to help society, but I hope we will still have opportunities to talk to each other about our experiences from time to time.

I look forward to meeting you again in due course.