Some time ago, I went to the Tokyo Motor Show. As many of you must know, the automotive business accounts for nearly half, or 1,100 billion yen, of the Sumitomo Electric Group’s total sales of 2,400 billion yen. The automotive component business has many giant manufacturers, such as Denso and Aisin Seiki in Japan and Bosch abroad, so we are on the side of the small-fry. Still, our business in this area is considerable and has been growing each year.

At each Tokyo Motor Show, we open an independent exhibition booth in the component section as the Sumitomo Electric Group.

It was on Monday, October 29 that I went to the Tokyo Motor Show. As the show had opened just a few days earlier, there were many visitors. Though the number of visitors ultimately totaled 1.42 million, slightly less than the previous event, the figure was impressively high; I could feel the passion of the people involved and the strong drive of the automotive trade.

At the show, I talked with several people. In combination with other factors, this made me reflect deeply on the future of the automotive industry. I’d like to write about it some time in this blog.

In closing, a little episode from Tokyo Motor Show: the Sumitomo Electric Group booth’s receptionist became very popular with visitors for her beauty and pleasant personality; I was told that there were even visitors who came to our booth to see her, and not our products. Our “serious” exhibition booth could have had difficulty attracting visitors otherwise, but she contributed greatly to increasing the number of our visitors. So I’d like to thank her here on behalf of the Sumitomo Electric Group.