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April 1, 2008

Initiation Ceremony 2008

JATCO Ltd (JATCO, Headquarters: Fuji City, Shizuoka prefecture, Japan; President and CEO: Shigeo Ishida; Capitalization: 29.9353 billion yen), an automatic and continuously variable transmissions (AT/ CVT) manufacturer, held a Initiation Ceremony on April 1,2008.
The following is President's greeting:


Welcome aboard!!
I would like to make an address on behalf of Jatco group.

Today, I am very pleased to meet all 146 of you, new associates to our Jatco group.
All the staff in Jatco group truly welcome you.

Our Jatco group has around 11,000 staff members including temporally staff.
We have some affiliates not only in Japan but also overseas, and have provided our transmissions to car makers around the world such as NISSAN MOTOR CO.,LTD., who is our parent company, and MITSUBISHI MOTORS CORPORATION and SUZUKI MOTOR CORPORATION , who are our stockholders. Last April, we established "JATCO (Guangzhou) Automatic Transmission Ltd." in Guangzhou, China and will start to produce CVT locally in 2009. With expansion into China, we aim to further sales of AT/CVT in China and the surrounding area, which are expected to keep growing in the future, and to further our desire to grow and globalize ourselves more.

We set "The Jatco Way" as a corporate philosophy for the further development of Jatco group. We can approach an ideal situation as one group. Therefore, we all try to realize "The Jatco Way". To begin with, I ask you to understand "The Jatco Way" that shows an ideal company, as a member of our group. Therefore, I will introduce "The Jatco Way" briefly here.

"The Jatco Way" consists of the following four points.

<Mission>
First point is mission.
Our reason for existing is to offer value "to the client, the automotive culture and the society" through the enterprise products and activities. "Value" can be defined as confidence, security, reliability, contribution to environment, etc. To get to be an essential company to offer these values constantly "to the client, the automotive culture and the society" is our mission.

<Vision>
Second point is vision.
The direction and the specific image towards which the company must be directed to work towards to accomplish our "mission" is the "vision".

<Value>
Third point is value.
We are "Mono-Zukuri" company. Not only the staff in R&D or Production department but also in all of departments are involved with "Mono-Zukuri". For example, the staffs in HR department provide programs for skill-up of staffs and maintain the benefits systems for support of their lives. The staff in Purchasing department try to purchase better materials or products for "Mono-Zukuri" at lower cost. As described above, there is no staff who is not involved with "Mono-Zukuri" in Jatco group. Please recognize that each of staffs is bearer of "Mono-Zukuri". Additionally, fine human resource development is essential for fine "Mono-Zukuri". Please improve yourself, your value and act cross-functionally. Cross-functional indicates that to share the knowledge or the skill in individual or department and to enhance the function of the whole organization. In an organization, no one can work without relationship with other staff. Please make a relationship with the staffs in the other departments as well as your colleague and boss positively and create the value.

<Principle>
Fourth point is principle.
We establish the following innovations in three areas (Consciousness, Operation, and Culture) as our principle.
Please keep improving yourself day by day for a higher goal and always challenging something new with a wide view. To share the basic value, always keep three innovations in your mind and practice them contribute the achievement of the mission / vision in Jatco group.

We ask our staffs to always act with "The Jatco way", which consists of 4 points in mind. Therefore, please understand the meaning of each word well and be a staff who improves the value of Jatco group.

In conclusion, I will tell 3 expectations to you.

At first, I ask you to deeply understand what is "to do one's work". "To do one's work" is not to be in a company but to be employed. To be truly employed is to be a professional by the growth of individual through work. Company is a group of professionals. One professional has limitations; however some professionals can do much more by getting their knowledge, experience, improvement and effort together. Please become one of the professionals as soon as possible.

Secondly, I ask you to always keep improving yourself. You have to learn a lot from the assignment to your department to be recognized as a professional. Never stop improving yourself, even though you are professional. Always set, assess and re-set goals. Please always ask the following questions to yourself; Am I professional enough for the current environment? Is the goal best practice or isn't the goal outdated?
This is a request not only to you, but also all staff including me. Please keep leaning by yourself without asking to do so by someone else. We will provide the learning opportunities to help to the motivations of such individuals.
I ask you to understand that your work grows you, your growth contributes to the growth of our company and provides value to our customers.

Thirdly, I ask you to do your work from the customer's point of view. The value of our product is evaluated not by us, manufacturers, but our customers who actually use the product. This is a problem not only for the staff who are directly involved with production. Regarding office workers, a bearer of the next process in your work and also the person who finally receives the result of your work are your customers. The point of view, such as "if I were a customer, would I be totally satisfied". This brings satisfaction and positive impression to the customer. It is very important for us to understand customer better than they do.

Finally, I am looking forward to your fresh, active and excellent performance in the future.

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