Message from the President

We will advance toward the goal of becoming a sustainable company that can solve issues facing society through our unique ceramic technologies.

In 2021, the NGK Group announced our NGK Group Vision: Road to 2050, as a medium- to long-term vision for reaching 2050. We envisioned what we want to be based on the NGK Group Philosophy of “Enriching Human Life by Adding New Value to Society.” and established Five Transformations for making this a reality. These Five Transformations are positioned at the core of our ESG management, as first stated in our commitment to ESG management that emphasizes Environmental, Social, and Governance.

To achieve what we must do as set forth in the NGK Group Vision, we have committed to New Value 1000 (NV1000). This sets a target of 100 billion yen or more in sales from newly commercialized products by 2030. It is an initiative for creating new businesses that will directly address social problems in the two areas of carbon neutrality (CN) and digital society (DS). We see potential on a scale of 200 billion yen, including development phase themes, and truly feel that we are making steady progress towards this target. In the domain of CN, we are focusing on research into technologies that are essential for a carbon neutral society, including direct air capture (DAC) ceramics, which directly absorb and recover carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, and sub-nano ceramic membranes, which separate specific gases and liquids from mixed gases and liquids at the molecular level. We expect substantial growth in demand for these technologies towards the early 2030s, and see them as vital to the core of NV1000, under the assumption that needs will expand in the area of DS up until 2030, and in the area of CN as well from 2030 onwards.

In the spring of 2026, we will change our name to NGK Corporation. This is underpinned by our strong conviction in light of both NGK’s present and future. At present, insulator products make up less than a tenth our overall sales, and we are in the midst of transforming our core business. Moreover, 70% of our sales come from outside Japan, and 60% of our employees hold citizenship in other countries. The NGK brand is already widely known overseas, and there are growing calls from both inside and outside of the company to make it the company name. This name change reflects our determination to move on to the next stage by transforming our business structure in-line with the NGK Group Vision, and increasing our corporate value in global markets.

We will continue striving to solve social challenges by drawing from our unique ceramic technologies. This fundamental stance will not change, even as the times bring great changes. Though some of our themes may be difficult to achieve, we will accept the challenge, continue to develop technologies, and create products which are truly valuable to society. Even under our new company name, by providing these kinds of products and services, we want to continue to be a company that is needed by society.

As president, my greatest goal is to build an NGK Group of which all stakeholders can be proud and continue to trust. To achieve this, we will continue to innovate and take on new challenges.