Announcement of Organizational and Personnel Changes

Global Corporate Administrative Center

The Corporate Planning Division will be separated from the Global Corporate Administrative Center in order to improve the speed and quality of management decision-making. The Center has consisted of General Affairs Control, Finance & Accounting Control and Corporate Planning Control. With this reorganization, the Corporate Planning Division will come under the direct control of the President. Meanwhile, two other Corporate Planning sectors -- the Process & IT Division and Legal & Intellectual Property Division -- will be transferred to Finance & Accounting Control and the General Affairs Control, respectively. Following these changes, Corporate Planning Control will be dissolved.

In order to strengthen the role of the Corporate Planning Division to be operated under the direct control of the President, its functions will be reformed in several ways. Corporate PR activities of the Public Relations Division, budget management functions of the Finance & Accounting Division, the work of executive secretaries in the General Affairs Division, and the entire Brand Management Division will all be transferred to the Corporate Planning Division.

Corporate PR activities previously conducted by the Public Relations Division will be assigned to the Corporate Planning Division, while the Public Relations Division's information disclosure function will be transferred to the General Affairs Division. The rest of the Public Relations Division's functions -- advertising and product PR -- will be integrated into the newly-formed Advertising Division, in a bid to enhance support for promotional operations. With these changes, the Public Relations Division will be dissolved.

In order to revitalize the system of corporate and business management toward greater quality and efficiency, some functions of the Corporate Planning Division will be spun off into the newly-established Business Management Division.