MARUI GROUP Co., Ltd.
MARUI IR DAY 2022
<Questions and Answers>

Q.

President Aoi was scheduled to speak today. Could you tell us why he hasn’t, within the boundsof what you’re able to discuss? It was explained to us earlier that he’s not attending because,
following board meeting discussions today, it was decided that the content of the president’sbriefing needed a little more work. His briefing was going to be a continuation of the briefing hemade in May on human capital-focused management, and I imagine today’s briefing would’ve
been just as interesting.

A.

What I’d first like to say is, MARUI GROUP’s Board of Directors operates in a much more thaninteresting way than you’d expect from a listed company. Each meeting is characterized by truly
substantive debate. I’m involved in the management of a variety of companies, but I’ve rarely
witnessed such dynamic and detail-focused debate at board meetings. I think that is a positive
outcome of the switch to “management with stakeholders” that began during the current mediumterm management plan period.
At today’s board meeting President Aoi showed us the materials he was going to use for today’spresentation. We pointed out that the connection might be somewhat weak between his briefing in
May on human capital-focused management, and his intended briefing for today on innovations
produced through various initiatives including corporate culture reforms. Myself and the otherexternal directors suggested that switching out some of the materials might help strengthen thatconnection. President Aoi strongly felt, however, that he wanted to ensure he could tell, withgreater confidence, the overall story. That is, the story of MARUI’s reforms toward human capitalfocused management and how they’re generating innovation and corporate value, and how thiswill ultimately lead to Marui becoming a “knowledge-creation company”. That’s why his briefing
was postponed.

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Q. I believe you were involved with MARUI GROUP prior to becoming an external director. You
said that MARUI GROUP’s sustainability initiatives are still merely at the starting point. Whichof the Group’s core competencies do you think will help move its sustainability initiatives forward?
A. The MARUI GROUP’s core strengths will, I believe, be crucial in advancing sustainability
management. Firstly, its business model is extremely stable. Profit margins in the credit cardbusiness and other businesses are very high. That gives the Group plenty of leeway to manage
from a long-term perspective and I think that’s vital when looking to pursue sustainability
management. Another factor is the Group’s decade-long corporate culture reforms. Directors havejust been discussing this issue, but the proportion of Group employees who feel respected at theirworkplace has increased dramatically. It’s a very good situation when many employees feel
respected and able to work with autonomy. I think these reforms toward a “culture based onvoluntary participation” with the resulting autonomy and the innovation that comes with greater
autonomy, are perhaps developing into one of the MARUI’s core competencies.

Q. I believe about seven years have passed since MARUI GROUP switched to its sustainability
management policy. To advance beyond the current starting point, what needs to be done, and whatissues need to be addressed?
A. MARUI GROUP is, at heart, a group that encourages consumption. It’s businesses, including
stores and credit cards, are based on a framework in which, the more people buy, the more weprofit. Of the things that consumers are buying, only a tiny proportion could be said to besustainable. This is something we’re all aware of, so we’re considering how we can utilize ourstores to raise awareness among customers and boost that proportion, as well as how we can utilize
the Group’s credit cards to encourage more green consumption, and so on. There are a variety ofinternal Group events like the “Inclusion Festival”, but such events only make up a small
proportion. I think the next big topic is how to advance sustainability initiatives within these corebusinesses. We might be able to disclose more information about interesting efforts in this area in
the first half of next year.

Q. I often have opportunities to hold discussions with people in MARUI’s sustainability-related
business units, and I feel that MARUI is truly the overwhelming top runner in terms ofsustainability. Conversely, when it comes to sustainable products and business partner assessments,2

it seems, from outside, that you’re not doing enough compared to manufacturing companies, so I
look forward to seeing efforts in that area.
The talk you gave at the social “intrapreneurship” seminar the other day was really interesting.
Other than introducing the recently published book, what other expectations did you have inholding such a forum involving people from other companies, and what is the background to
holding it?
A.

President Aoi talked to me about the intrapreneurship book when visiting my office in February
last year, and we ended up discussing the potential we saw in its ideas. MARUI GROUP has
what we call “official Groupwide initiatives”. When directors or others have an idea for aproject, a call is put out for employees who want to get involved. This framework is a good
example of MARUI’s “culture based on voluntary participation”. President Aoi set up a social
intrapreneurship-related project and six MARUI employees volunteered for it. I oversaw theproject while also translating the social intrapreneurship book into Japanese to be published byMARUI GROUP once it was ready. I feel the project’s serves as a model example of MARUI’sculture based on voluntary participation.
Now we want to expand the team from six to eight members and, aside from promoting thebook, encourage more social intrapreneurship, which involves helping to address social issues
through business while remaining in one’s current workplace. I believe one of MARUIGROUP’s roles will be to promote things like this. I think that inspiring not only consumers,
but also other industry players will, in a number of different ways, result in enhanced
perceptions of the MARUI GROUP brand.
This initiative that we’ve already established involves creating a community on a social
intrapreneurship platform, but I think further similar initiatives and other such efforts may
emerge ahead.

Q.

People from Mitsui O.S.K. Lines and Fujitsu also participated in the program. Is your intention
to feed the fruits of the project back not only externally, but also internally including to MARUIGROUP employees and to also rapidly step up other such initiatives?

A.

I believe that will also happen, but President Aoi isn’t so particular about external and internalconsiderations in this case. We’ve already held internal intrapreneurship competitions andimplemented initiatives and various other things. I feel that, in that sense, external versus internal3

considerations don’t matter so much, because MARUI employees gain experience and otherbenefits from coming into contact with people from outside the Group. It doesn’t necessarily haveto lead to the creation of new business.

Q.

It was refreshing to hear the word “overseas” being mentioned today. I believe MARUI has
expanded into China once before. Is there debate going on internally about what angle to take with
future overseas initiatives, and a certain amount of debate about time scales and approaches totake? Also, is there be anything you’ll be able to announce up ahead, or is such debate only justgetting underway?

A.

I strongly feel that this is an issue we need to address. Looking at domestic and overseas
population data, it’s evident that the Japanese market will shrink. In light of that, I believe weought to be debating the issue more, but to be honest, it hasn’t been debated very much as far as
I’m aware.
Our new “supportive investment” effort is a financial inclusion initiative in which funds flow to
India and elsewhere through Gojo & Company and CROWD CREDIT. I think the most interesting
point is what MARUI GROUP can do for people overseas through such initiatives.

Q.

Until now, you haven’t had many overseas stakeholders, other than investors. Would it be right tosay you think that taking MARUI services beyond the domestic market and expanding yourhorizons would open up new ways of doing things?

A.

Yes. I think beginning with East and Southeast Asia would make sense. We see MARUI as a groupthat’s right in the middle of a major transition from its traditional focus on the store and credit
card business. Following that transition, we might identify services that we can also provide
overseas.

Q.

In connection with Japan’s dramatic population decline, you used “cosmopolitan” as a keyword
in discussing whether Japan will be able to transition to a society with large numbers of nonJapanese people. Based on that, I imagine the percentage of non-Japanese MARUI GROUP
employees will also grow. When one considers Japanese culture however, I think the compatibility
hurdles for non-Japanese people are high. I also feel that MARUI GROUP won’t be able to4

successfully expand overseas if the Group itself doesn’t become a cosmopolitan organization andset some successful examples beforehand. What are your thoughts?
A.

I agree. In terms of diversity, I think that although MARUI really is turning into a group wherewomen and younger employees are able to play active roles, the percentage of non-Japaneseemployees is extremely low. You could argue that non-Japanese employees haven’t really been
needed thus far, but I think Japan-centric thinking is an overwhelmingly strong characteristic ofMARUI GROUP’s workforce as a whole. When it comes to considering how to create a
cosmopolitan corporate culture, we’re not really even at the starting point yet. I think it’s an issue
that needs to be raised and debated ahead.

Q.

I think MARUI’s sustainability initiatives and other ESG initiatives are the best by far in the retailindustry. You’ve promoted these initiatives so much to markets and are also so proactive in holding
IR days, and yet, MARUI’s stock price has remained stuck in the same range for the last five years.
There’ve been valuation changes of course with share buybacks and so on, but I feel there’s stilla gap between market recognition of MARUI GROUP and the initiatives you’re working on. The
initiatives don’t seem to have penetrated through to stock markets. What are your feelings about
this gap?

A.

Before answering, I need to say that, as an external director, I don’t have as much of a grasp on
internal financial information as internal directors do. The gap you mentioned is something I alsofind frustrating. Even when initiatives are very highly rated, recognition of that isn’t reflected inshare prices, but I think that’s just the way stock markets currently are.
MARUI GROUP is achieving outstanding business results. There are also high expectations for
our future performance, as well as expectations about our ability to keep generating innovations.
I think that only once those expectations are realized will we begin to see a true trade-on.

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