In the past, paper was the medium for communicating information between sales branches and customers, and between head office departments and our data center. We used tremendous amounts of paper for transaction order slips and customer transaction reports, as well as for clerical processing. In fiscal 2005, Daiwa adopted an electronic statement system, and we have been shifting clerical operations from paper to electronic data since then. This has not only helped us considerably reduce the amount of paper we use but has had the added benefit of eliminating the need to transport statements to sales branches and for labor involved in storing statements. Further, while putting into electronic form order slips and internal clerical statements sent to our sales branches, we also set up a clerical processing system using electronic data by working together with the front-line departments to digitize clerical processing.
  As a result, the volume of internal statements generated, which stood at 40,800,000 pages in fiscal 2005, declined 97 percent to 830,000 pages in the two-year period to fiscal 2007. The benefits of adopting IT do not stop at reducing the environmental load. We have also been able to reap management-related benefits such as cutting costs by 2.8 billion yen by streamlining internal clerical processes, logistics and shipping; eliminating clerical errors; and devising a business continuation plan that will allow us to continue operating in an emergency.

  In fiscal 2008, we will introduce a paperless management system for over 700,000 accounts of listed companies' employee stock ownership plans for which we have been managing the paperwork. We are also working toward "green IT" that is both efficient and environment-friendly, by setting up an efficient system infrastructure base through the adoption of blade server*1 and thin client*2 virtualization technologies.
  In the December 2007 issue of Nikkei Computer, the Daiwa Securities Group was ranked in third place for overall use of IT in business. We intend to continue taking advantage of the benefits of IT to improve management efficiency and reduce environmental impact, and we hope that our activities will be a model for reducing the environmental load in office operations.