Furukawa Automotive Systems conducted this year’s welcoming ceremony for new employees at its Shiga headquarters on April 1, 2021.
Addressing the 27 new employees at the beginning of their careers with Furukawa Automotive Systems, Shigenobu Abe, the Company’s president and CEO, explained the Company’s safety mindset and its policies for the current era of great change in the automotive industry. Next, the newcomers took their pledge regarding their future activities.
President’s Address
Go-Anzen Ni!
My name is Shigenobu Abe and I am president and CEO of Furukawa Automotive Systems.
My heartiest congratulations to all of you, our new employees joining Furukawa Automotive Systems in 2021.
I am delighted to usher in all you bright, enthusiastic and fresh newcomers as friends and colleagues here at Furukawa Automotive Systems. As representative of the Company, I heartily welcome you. Now, as you begin your new lives as employees of Furukawa Automotive Systems, I would like to share a number of important matters with you.
First, and above all, safety.
As I discussed with you at the orientation ceremony on October 1, at Furukawa Automotive Systems, safety takes priority over everything else. To ensure the safety of the more than 42,000 employees of Furukawa Automotive Systems worldwide, all employees, including not only me as president but all employees on the front lines of operations begin and end every activity with the greeting, Go-Anzen Ni!, “Be safe!” So when you report to work in the morning, or when you pass each other in the corridor, always greet each other with a loud and cheerful Go-Anzen Ni!
You may feel a little self-conscious about this at first. But everyone at every Furukawa Automotive Systems plant, including those overseas, greets each other this way as a matter of course. Greeting each other in a loud, cheerful voice has the unmistakable effect of supporting your physical and mental health and safety. So please always start everything you do with this greeting.
Next, I’d like to talk to you about the Company’s policy for the 2021 fiscal year, bearing in mind this year’s revisions to the Medium-term Management Plan. In view of the government’s pledge last year to make Japan carbon-neutral by 2050, Furukawa Automotive Systems is placing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) at the heart of its business strategy, with particular focus on carbon reduction.
Measures include:
1) Expansion and creation of environmentally friendly products;
2) Enhancement of energy-saving production systems;
3) Promotion of use of solar power and other forms of renewable energy; and
4) Responses to the Company’s social responsibilities.
The automotive industry, of which Furukawa Automotive Systems is a part, is today on the cusp of a once-in-a-century era of transformation, spurred by innovations such as electronic controls, automated driving, connected systems and car sharing. In preparation for the high-mobility society of the future, Furukawa Automotive Systems is making focused investments in the areas of reducing the weight of aluminum wire harnesses; energy management, including sensors to detect battery status; and safety systems using near-range radar. I would like to call on all employees to make 2021 the year in which we begin to reap the fruits of those investments. I have high expectations that you who are joining Furukawa Automotive Systems today will begin at once to study a wide range of topics and bring fresh eyes to bear on these efforts.
Finally, I urge all of you gathered here, inducted in the same year and so destined to become dear friends and colleagues, even as you care for your own precious family and friends, to join us, your new companions, in giving every effort to advance the success of the Company. Through close cooperation and teamwork, let us stride boldly forward into the bright future that awaits us. Please accept this little welcoming address of mine as a token of the blessings of Furukawa Automotive Systems on all of you.
That is all. Go-Anzen Ni!