News

<Looking back on 2018>
With the automobile industry undergoing the greatest revolution in a century, we will no longer be able to survive these difficult times without further reinforcing our efforts to respond to the industry's major trends called "CASE": Connected, Autonomous, Shared, and Electric. Without being content with our current situation, we need to promote structural reforms in two areas: one aimed at responding effectively to the CASE trend, and the other aimed at strengthening our corporate structure and quality, including improving the competitiveness of our existing products, improving line productivity, and reforming work practices. To facilitate these structural reforms, we have developed principles of action for the future that every member of the Group should pursue in business. Based on these principles of action, we have embarked on various efforts. I feel that employees' mindsets are starting to change, but the pace of reforms is not fast enough. We need to accelerate the reforms even faster.

<Current Status of the World>
The world today is changing dramatically and quickly, never waiting long enough for us to transform ourselves. The global economy is expected to decline in 2019 due to growing geopolitical risks, including a new Cold War between the US and China. The automotive industry is in the midst of its greatest transformation in over a century. When considering the present business environment, geopolitical risk factors must be added to the upheaval of the status quo in the industry. There is no guarantee that the Aisin Group will be able to continue to see ever-increasing sales.

<What We Should Do>
In a harsh environment like this, there is only one thing we must do. This is to further accelerate structural reforms to strengthen our corporate structure and quality. We will strive to make our business foundation even more robust enough to withstand any business environment, no matter how harsh.

To this end, each of you needs to ask yourself what you should do right now. It is all of you who perform the leading role. To make the Aisin Group even better, each and every one of the 110,000 employees in the Group must proactively carry out reforms in their respective business operations. I would like each of you to accelerate your reforms to aim at new heights this year.

Common sense and rules are created according to the changes of the times as well as surrounding circumstances. They can be changed if the circumstances change. Everything starts with you thinking about what you need to do now. If you have not yet been able to take a step forward, have the courage to take that first step toward change. If you have taken a step forward, then take another step forward. I believe that if each individual member changes, the Aisin Group will become even stronger.

<Aisin Seiki New Year Ceremony>
Date/Time: January 7, 10:00 a.m.
Place: Aisin Seiki Head Office (KYODOKAN), Kariya City, Aichi Prefecture