The Company and its subsidiaries may acquire and hold shares of listed companies (hereinafter “cross-shareholdings”) in order to maintain, expand, and sustainably develop their businesses. In such cases, the Board of Directors and other bodies decide on acquisitions after determining the department in charge of the acquisition and considering the business conditions of the investees and the profitability of the investment. The Board of Directors verifies the significance of the cross-shareholdings each year and considers the sale or reduction of shares that are deemed to be of no significance.

Those shares that are held are verified each year for their rationality from the perspectives of the significance of each acquisition and holding, profitability of the investment, transaction scale, and relevant profits. The Company reduces the number of shares of stocks that have become less significant due to changes in business relationships or for some other reason.

The Company appropriately exercises the voting rights of cross-shareholdings from the perspective of whether or not the Company and the investee company can expect increases in their corporate value over the medium to long term, while respecting the management policies of investee companies.