First of all I would like to express my sincerest appreciation to you all for your cooperation and support with regard to the activities of our organization. On October 1, 2007, the Japan Industrial Gases Association and the Japan Medical Gases Association merged to become the Japan Industrial & Medical Gases Association (JIMGA), a limited liability intermediate corporation. This marks the first step of a new beginning.

With approximately 1,000 participating companies from both the Japanese industrial and medical gas industries, the new organization will be contributing to even more stable production, distribution and consumption of gas.

The industrial and medical gas industries are facing a wealth of issues right now such as increased costs resulting from the effects of the high price of petroleum, a tightening of regulations regarding product quality and safety, and an increase in all types of customer requirements, especially in the medical field. The activities of the new organization are structured so as to enable it to wield the dynamic force brought about through the synergetic effects of the merger. We anticipate that the organization will make dramatic improvements in terms of coping with these issues.

I feel that the ability we have now to make statements and collect information on an international level, of such great concern for many years, is indeed of great significance. We hope that all of the member companies will participate vigorously in the various JIMGA activities.

I trust that JIMGA, our new organization, will be engaged in very constructive activities that will meet the expectations of all of the member companies, and I would like to request you all to continue giving us your cooperation and support.

I would also like to ask you to review the newly set-up Code of Ethics that has been established in accordance with the emergence of JIMGA.

We would like to express our sincere appreciation to you all for your continued support and cooperation for our activities.