PRESIDENT’S COMMITMENT Eizo Kobayashi, President and Chief Executive Officer

There are contributions to the world that only a
Sogo Shosha* can make.
To inherit ITOCHU’s DNA, sampo yoshi,
for the next 150 years and to keep growing.
A rearranged ITOCHU Credo to ensure further
growth for the next 150 years
Last year, ITOCHU celebrated the milestone of the 150th
anniversary of its foundation. Looking back on these 150years, I believe that the origin that enabled us to grow anddevelop is the spirit of sampo yoshi. One could call it a tradition of ITOCHU that we always ask ourselves whether a business is truly good for society. To have all employees share thisbasic spirit, we established the ITOCHU Credo “Committedto the global good.” in 1992. At this milestone of 150 years,
we reorganized this Credo to ITOCHU Mission and Values inMarch 2009 in an effort to rearrange the conceptual system
in an easily comprehensible way and disseminate it on a widebasis including overseas, while passing on the traditions ofITOCHU (see pages 5-6).
During 150 years, ITOCHU inherited a DNA of threebasics: a spirit of challenge facing new things and changes;
putting continuous efforts into human resources development; and becoming a good corporate citizen with the spirit

3ITOCHU Corporation CSR Report 2009of sampo yoshi. To continue our development over the next
150 years, I believe that we need to add two perspectives
to these: how we should act as a truly global enterprise; andwhether we understand diverse value concepts.
The new ITOCHU Mission incorporates the belief infurther growth toward the future, and holds up five Values:
visionary, integrity, diversity, passion and challenge. We further
established “5 self-tests” to ensure that every single employee
practices these value concepts by constantly asking himself or
herself questions. ITOCHU will fulfill the Mission “Committed to the global good.” on basis of this reorganized conceptualsystem.

Learning our lesson from the financial crisis,
we will strengthen our footing and run
our business so as to respond to society’sexpectations
The base of economic activity is serving society by delivering
items from places where they are superfluous to places wherethey are scarce. This is real economy. On the other hand,finance should originally be supporting the real economy in
the background. However, the financial markets broke awayfrom real economy, absorbed the money of the world andinflated in an excessive way. I think that this is the cause forthe recent financial crisis.
Today, various events of all over the world are spreadquickly due to the development of the internet society, andthis results in everyone reacting in the same way at the sametime. Since there is no time lag between information andreaction, the financial crisis was instantaneously known allover the world, and everyone suddenly braked hard. Whenconsidering these facts, it should be possible to understandthe factors that are creating the present economic situation.
The recent financial crisis taught a very significant lesson
to our business world. If we make sure that we thoroughly
understand this lesson, we should be able to build a healthy
global economy without making the same mistake twice. The
real economy is the base. I believe that we all have to ensurethat we stand firmly on our feet all the time. Only giving thevery best for each single project to contribute to the customer
will bring a return. And the accumulation of this is theoperation of a company.
We will pursue fair corporate activities always consideringthat we have to respond to the expectations of our stakeholders.

Responding to environmental problems or
rapidly changing world situations is one of a
Sogo Shosha’s strengths, and a role that weshould fulfill
I think that when considering environmental problems of
the future, the key idea is “finding existing things” rather
than “asking for non-existent things.” For example, Japan
does not have any oil, but unlimited energy sources such as
the sun, geothermal heat, wind, waves and others. It may stilltake some time, but we intend to work for the effective useof these kinds of natural energy. In addition, Japan has yet
another strength: technology. I think it is highly probablethat our technology will be able to lead the world in resolving
environmental problems.
Meanwhile, the energy problem cannot be resolved byusing just one method. Some companies are good at wind
power generation, some have bio-ethanol technology, andsome work on solar power generation. Connecting this kindof multiple companies and finding general solutions. It isSogo Shosha who can fulfill this role. ITOCHU is in the position to provide solutions tailored to the specific local conditions, together with various options to help people all over
the world to lead an even better life in the future.
The expansion of the information society has changed not
only the environment but also the way of how the changes
take place. First, a change with a large impact occurs at an extremely high speed, and this spreads like a tidal wave aroundthe world in an instant. Moreover, the changes happen not
only in one industry but involve industries of various fields.
When considering this, I believe that Sogo Shosha can contribute today more than they could ever before. We will

embrace this important role that we must fulfill for society
and pursue business activities that contribute to the world.

Companies belong to society, and weincorporate CSR activities into our business asa corporate citizen
Overseas supply chains may involve issues of human rights,
labor, environment, and other problems that we should
pay attention to. To address these problems through its
business activities, ITOCHU supports the principles of the“Global Compact” advocated by the United Nations andannounced participation in April 2009. As a concrete policy
regarding our supply chain, we further established “CSRAction Guidelines for Supply Chains.” We think that a Sogo
Shosha has a significant role and obligation in contributing
to resolving social problems as a good corporate citizen,
balancing the supply chain as a whole, instead of procuringsimply from the vendor offering the lowest price. Supply
chain management is a key measure for CSR also in our midterm management plan.
Meanwhile, when thinking about problems in Japan as
supply chain issues and tasks for us as a Sogo Shosha, thegreatest issue probably is the development of agriculture.
Agriculture in Japan is facing structural problems such as
an aging agriculture workers and poor profitability. I believethat we can offer a solution to the problems of agriculture bybundling the procurement of material from regions all overJapan, taking advantage of our network of group companies
for a stable product supply, and building a supply chain thatbenefits both producers and retailers in a win-win constellation. We intend to contribute to society also through building
this kind of business framework.
Just as ITOCHU has been doing during the 150 years up
to now, we always incorporate CSR into our business plans.
Companies belong to society. Only those companies cansurvive that are good corporate citizens and contribute to society. We will continue to promote business that is integrated
with CSR to enjoy further growth also in the next 150 years.
* SogoShos ha: General Trading Company For business activities of ITOCHU as SogoShosha, please see page 23.

ITOCHU Corporation CSR Report 20094