Japan's number one priority is to recover from the aftermath of the Great East Japan Earthquake. Daikin Industries can play an important role in this respect. Besides providing monetary donations and supplies for victims of the disaster, as an air conditioner manufacturer Daikin can make a key contribution to energy savings in the face of the current electricity shortage. More than anything, Daikin can fulfill its social responsibility through its business by stirring awareness and action among households and corporations about saving energy through air conditioning.

Daikin Industries has already begun effective action in this regard. First, since before the earthquake, the company has been pioneering energy-efficient and energy-saving technologies such as inverters and heat pumps and has shown them to be effective in reducing energy use. Daikin has helped proliferate the use of inverter air conditioners in China, for example. By fully taking advantage of these energy-efficient and energy-saving technologies, Japan will be able to accelerate energy saving in the summer of 2011.

Second, Daikin has begun a service in which air conditioners are connected to a network, and when customers use more than a set amount of energy Daikin Industries controls the room temperature to make up for this excess use. By making use of its technological strength, Daikin Industries is aiming to develop solutions such as net zero energy buildings (use of primary energy amounts to zero) as part of its ongoing, long-term efforts.

Third, Daikin offers residential air conditioner users advice on energy saving on its website. For example, customers can view easy-to-understand illustrations and proven data to learn how to save a certain percentage in electricity by following a few home heating and cooling tips.

There are a number of ways I think Daikin could improve its overall CSR.

Daikin Industries is a global corporation with about two-thirds of its approximately 40,000 employees working outside Japan. The company's management philosophy stresses 'people-centered management'. This policy should be fully implemented worldwide, and I think that success in this regard will depend upon how well Daikin achieves diversity of human resources. Since more than half of Daikin employees are not Japanese, it only makes sense that there should be more of these people in management positions. And Daikin must create a corporate climate that incorporates the opinions and values of a diverse range of people. To this end, the company needs a way to find and foster not only Japanese but any employees with advanced knowledge of international management. And these employees must live and breathe Daikin Industries' management philosophy. I want to see Daikin strive to be a leader in diversity management in Japan.

A company as advanced as Daikin Industries must conduct a high level of CSR—and it must take this CSR beyond its own walls and include its entire supply chain. Suppliers today must do more than just provide good quality at a good price; they must also focus on compliance, respect human rights, and conduct fair labor practices. Daikin Industries will be required to educate its suppliers on these. They are particularly important as supply chain efforts become increasingly important in certification for ISO 26000, the international standard for social responsibility. I believe that Daikin Industries' efforts in areas like these will make it a company even more capable of pursuing globalization.