ITOCHU CORPORATION

It is one of the largest Japanese (general trading and investment companies) distinguished by the strength of its textile business and its successful business operations in China. Itochu was ranked 72nd on the 2020 list of companies, with an annual trading revenue of US$100 billion. * : Itochu trades in raw materials and finished apparel, and also has a brand business. It owns a portfolio of investments and rights in well-known fashion brands including , , , and. In 2018, Itochu acquired the Japanese Master License and exclusive distribution rights for the brand. * : Includes plant projects, marine, aerospace, automotive, construction/industrial machinery and healthcare. In the automotive sector, Itochu is a shareholder of , , and. In the infrastructure sector, Itochu partnered with and to supply infrastructure for the first expressway in , the between and. It is a minority investor in the project in and has partnered with and to develop the $15. 8 billion in. * : Engages in mining and ore trading, steel and non-ferrous metal trading, coal and nuclear fuel trading and solar power. Furthermore, the “Carbon Neutral Management Section” was established in April, 2021, directly under the Metal & Mineral Resources Division in order to promote the developments in areas such as Hydrogen & Ammonia and CCUS (Carbon dioxide Capture, Utilization and Storage). In addition, the Steel Business Coordination Department, which is directly overseen by the Metals & Minerals Company, provides support for Marubeni-Itochu Steel Inc. in the field of steel products. * : consists of 3 divisions: the Energy Division, the Chemicals Division and the Power & Environmental Solution Division. The Energy Division handles trading of general energy-related products, including crude oil, petroleum products, LPG, LNG, natural gas and hydrogen, as well as developing related projects. Trades in oil and gas and a wide range of chemical products such as methanol, PTA and fertilizers. * : Handles production, processing and distribution of various foodstuffs. * : consists with the Forest Products, General Merchandise & Logistics Division and the Construction & Real Estate Division. A recent major acquisition in this division is WECARS, a major Japanese car retailer. Itochu started in 1858, shortly after the to foreign trade, when Chubei Itoh began door-to-door wholesaling of linen in the regions between and. Itoh founded the "Benichu" drapery store in the Honmachi district of Osaka in 1872. This site was renamed "Itoh Honten" in 1884 and became the Itoh Thread and Yarn Store in 1893 In the following year, he traveled as far as Nagasaki via Okayama, Hiroshima, and Shimonoseki. At this time, Japan concluded the Treaty of Amity and Commerce with five countries, namely the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Russia, and the Netherlands, opening an era of free trade. The sight of foreigners, battleships, and foreign trading posts astonished Chubei and sparked his curiosity. He became convinced of the limitless potential of commerce. Chubei opened Benchu, a drapery store at Honmachi 2-chome, Higashi-ku, Osaka, east of Nakahashisuji. Benchu mainly handled linen and fabrics from the Bino and Kanto regions. At that time, the Fushimi-machi area was the center of drapery wholesalers, while Honmachi was attracting many used clothing merchants. Despite this, in selecting the base of his business in Osaka, Chubei Itoh I chose Honmachi, anticipating the future development of the Honmachi area. Once Benchu was open, Chubei drew up a charter. In it, he set out his workers' rights and duties, unique for the time, to ensure that all workers, including junior staff, could work to their utmost capabilities. Under Chubei Itoh I, the general manager, the store started with ten workers, including an assistant general manager, manager, and assistant manager. Itoh Itomise adopted a series of management systems that were revolutionary for the times, including the codifying of the sharing of profits by three stakeholders, the introduction of Western-style bookkeeping, and the issuance of Jitsugyo, a monthly business magazine (which became a leading magazine for the fabric industry; with some copies sold to the public). Chubei Itoh II took over the company following his father's death in 1903. The , which began that year, ended with Japan's victory. When Chubei II was in charge of Itochu's management, the business of the Ito head office was booming due to the victorious boom brought about by the Russo-Japanese War. This was an epoch-making organizational reform since Chubei I founded Benichu in Osaka 36 years ago. The headquarters decided management policies for each of the four stores and one factory, and supervised personnel and fund management. The company opened an office in Shanghai in the 1890s and started business in Seoul in 1905, but had severe difficulties with these first overseas forays. He turned his attention to overseas markets from an early stage, making the export department of the Ito head office independent as the Ito export store, and opening branch offices one after another in Shanghai, South Korea, the Philippines, and Manila. Chubei II was infused with the business aspirations and enterprising spirit of Chubei I. He travelled to London in 1910 and began direct procurement and financing for the business in the London markets, which considerably improved its margins, as it had previously used more expensive intermediaries in Japan. In 1912, died and the era was changed to Taisho. In 1913, he established a department, but in July 1914, World War I began, and he experienced a sharp drop in the market prices of raw silk and cotton yarn. Uncertainty about the course of the war caused the Japanese economy to temporarily fall into turmoil, with the stock market, raw silk and cotton yarn trading prices crashing, and bank runs on bank runs. Itoh's company grew considerably in the wake of , with offices in the , , the and China, and the firm began to handle machinery, automobiles and metals in addition to its core business of textiles. However, a recession in 1920 left the company deeply in debt, and unlike the major firms of the time, it had no captive bank to finance its business. In 1921, the company split in half, with one half forming what is now known as. The company's performance improved in the 1930s, but as began in the latter half of the 1930s, all trading companies' business became increasingly war-oriented. In 1941, Sanko Kabushiki Kaisha, Ltd. is established by merging of C. Itoh & Co. , Shoten Ltd. and Kureha Cotton Spinning Co. to form Daiken Co. In the chaos after the war, the company's employees working overseas and their families returned to their home country of Japan for about two years from September 1945 to September 1947, whose number reached 1077. was designated as a restricted company along with 46 subsidiaries, and was placed under the strict supervision of the Holding Company Liquidation Committee. In 1947, in accordance with the Law for Elimination of Excessive Concentration of Economic Power, Daiken Co. decided on a corporate restructuring plan centered on the separation of the manufacturing and trading divisions. It was decided to split into four new companies: ITOCHU Corporation, , and Amagasaki Nail Works, Ltd. Itoh re-listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange in 1950. On December 1, 1949, the company was. , a company created from the merger of trading and manufacturing firms during World War II, separates into C. , Marubeni Co. The inflation that had continued since the end of the war was brought under control by the , and from around 1949, Japan accelerated its progress toward a liberal economic system. Since 1950, gave further impetus to the Japanese economy, and ITOCHU greatly improved its performance in import and export transactions. The company's sales composition, which had a high proportion of textiles, expanded significantly from this time on non-textiles, and the transaction volume accounted for 13% of total sales (fiscal year ended March 1951). In March 1950, the company concluded a general sales agency agreement with Roots, a British automobile manufacturer, and it established an aircraft section to respond to the resumption of civil aviation. As for oil, the company took dynamic measures one after another, such as becoming an agent for , a major US oil company, and participating in the management of. There was also a quick response to internationalization. In 1951, the New York office was established, and a local subsidiary, Itochu America Inc. was established in 1952to prepare for the expansion of trade with the United States. Subsequently, the company name was raised high in various parts of the world, such as London, Mexico in 1953, Hamburg in 1954, Hong Kong, and Bangkok in 1955. In 1957, The Company completes construction of a new Tokyo Branch Office building (at 2-chome, Nihonbashi Honcho, Chuo-ku, Tokyo), and, later in 1967, The Company renames the Tokyo Branch Office the Tokyo Head Office, to join the Osaka Head Office in a dual head-office structure. After the first oil-price shock struck Japan (), the country's economy has entered a steady increasing stage till 1990'. (Refer to ) The company also entered a growth period in the 1970s. The company's long-held vision of “Enhancing non-textile businesses - Diversification” was finally realized, and it rapidly expanded operations as a general trading company. It publicly announced that it would comply with the “Four Japan-China trading conditions” on December 14, 1971, and then established a section within the company dedicated to China and began initiatives to actively promote trade. When a mission led by then President Mr. Soon after this appointment, on September 29, 1972, Japanese Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka achieved a normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and China. In the 1970s, the company became part of the "Kawasaki Group" within the of (now ), eventually displacing as the keiretsu's dominant trading company. Itoh's affiliation with the keiretsu was significantly looser than other keiretsu-affiliated trading companies, and many firms within the DKB group did not use Itoh's services at all. Former staff officer joined Itoh in 1958 after spending 11 years in a Siberian prison. Four years later, he was promoted to director and became Itoh's head of corporate planning, implementing a military-style internal reporting system. He went on to serve as president and chairman of the company, having developed a powerful group of followers known as the "Sejima Machine. " In 1970, Sejima and his younger protege Minoru Murofushi arranged a joint venture between and , one of the first tie-ups between US and Japanese automakers. In 1971, the company successfully assisted in arranging a basic contract for cooperation between General Motors of the United States and Isuzu of Japan. A modified version was sold in the United States as , and in Australia as the. The company assisted Isuzu to export also increased considerably as a result of being able to use GM networks, from 0. 7% of production in 1973 to 35. Ataka had recently suffered major losses from an oil development project in the United States and had undergone restructuring at the direction of its main lender,. From the early 1970s Itoh was a major supplier of synthetic yarn () to India's. Over the years, the close collaboration between both companies culminated in the co-promotion of a world-scale Project with a capacity of 250,000 at a total project cost of Rs. 525 Crores, at in the State of. With a $50 million cost for a 15 percent stake, it was at that point, the largest investment in India by a Japanese firm. Itoh also marketed products—under their own label—as diverse as a line of bicycles (mostly manufactured by Bridgestone), and computer printers. After the and consequent the country experienced a recession period. Trying to deflate speculation and keep in check, the Bank of Japan sharply raised inter-bank lending rates in late 1989. In the two decades starting from such period, the company experienced the challenges and restructured its portfolio. On October 1, 1992, C. In the 1990s, Itochu made several investments in the media industry, including a minority stake in and investments in cable and satellite delivery systems. In 1997, the company introduced "Division Company" system, which is to till today. With ITOCHU's operations in Japan and overseas becoming more diversified and the management environment changing very quickly, the Company recognized that it needed to adopt a more autonomous management approach, enabling greater agility by delegating authority and responsibility to its divisions. Consequently, an examination committee was set up in 1995 and the system was adopted in FY1997. The main purposes of the system were, first, to create an optimal management system with independent management by the Division Companies (to create a system geared to the characteristics of the Companies, enable prompt decision making through a bold decentralization of authority, and build a more sophisticated management system based on consolidated performance and balance sheets); second, to establish a small and efficient head office; and third, to achieve the minimum control required in line with the decentralization of authority. ITOCHU becomes the first sogo shosha to receive environmental certificate ISO14001. became president of Itochu in 1998, implementing cuts to unprofitable businesses and cutting back executive perks enjoyed by his predecessor Murofushi. Itochu also spun off CTC in 1999, only to see CTC quickly achieve a market capitalization more than twice that of its former parent company. (MISI). Masahiro Okafuji became president of Itochu in 2010 and announced a strategy to make Itochu the first-ranked in areas other than raw resources, particularly in food products and machinery. In 2013, Itochu implemented a general ban on work after 8 PM with an across-the-board "lights out" policy at 10 PM while encouraging that any necessary overtime be taken in the early morning hours, reducing the total amount of overtime across the company. In March 2016, Itochu recorded JPY 352. 2 bil in PAT in the fiscal year which ranked itself as the most profitable for its first time. The natural resources commodity price was decreased during the fiscal year ended in March 2016, which made its competitors and fell in profits. In July 2016, an American short seller Glaucus Research Group published a report critical of Itochu's accounting practices, causing a stock price dip of around 10%. 1% shareholder. In September 2020, 's announced that it had acquired over 5% of the stock in the company, along with four other Japanese trading houses, over the 12-month period ending in August 2020. By April 2023, Berkshire increased the stake to 7. 4%. On 5 February 2024, Itochu Chief Financial Officer Tsuyoshi Hachimura, announced that the company was to end its partnership with the Israeli military technology company after the ordered the prior month to prevent and to do more to help the region's civilians. It also purchased following a series of scandals, finalising the transaction on 1 May. ---

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