Message from the CEO

I would like to express our heartfelt thoughts and prayers to everyone who has been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. We would like to provide a report primarily regarding our financial results for the first half of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022, the refinement of the NTT Group Medium-Term Management Strategy and the establishment of the NTT Group Sustainability Charter.

Financial Results for the First Half of the Fiscal Year Ending March 31, 2022 and Forecast for the Fiscal Year

In the first half of the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022, both revenues and income increased. Revenues and income both progressed more strongly than anticipated, with operating revenues and operating income both reaching the second-highest first-half levels ever, and with profit reaching its highest level ever. Operating revenues increased by ¥176.3 billion (3.1%) year-on-year to ¥5,887.6 billion, operating income increased by ¥0.7 billion (0.1%) year-on-year to ¥1,009.3 billion and profit increased by ¥134.3 billion (24.8%) year-on-year to ¥675.8 billion.

With respect to the forecast for the fiscal year ending March 31, 2022, although there is expected to be a decrease in revenues from increased customer returns through NTT DOCOMO’s “ahamo” and “Gigaho Premier,” as a result of initiatives to meet strong demand for digitization, as well as cost reductions at each company resulting from the promotion of DX, we are forecasting increases in both revenues and income compared to the prior fiscal year, with operating revenues (¥12 trillion), operating income (¥1.730 trillion) and profit (¥1.850 trillion) each reaching record-high levels, and with profit exceeding ¥1.0 trillion for the first time ever.

Refinement of the NTT Group Medium-Term Management Strategy

Consistent with the directionality of society and the economy, we refined our Medium-Term Management Strategy to advance our initiatives under a new strategic framework while also following the framework of our existing Medium-Term Management Strategy. Through the transformation of NTT Group, we aim to contribute to the achievement of a sustainable society.

First is our transformation to a new management style that is suitable for a decentralized network society both during and after COVID-19. By advancing business transformations, DX, re-examinations of systems and improvements of the environment, we will advance remote work and achieve the promotion of work-in-life and open, global and innovative business operations.

Next is the enhancing of our domestic and global business in line with the progress of digitalization/DX of society and the economy. In January 2022, NTT DOCOMO will become the parent entity of NTT Communications and NTT Comware and will work to expand its corporate enterprise and Smart Life businesses and to strengthen its communications business, international business and R&D. In addition to such growth and strengthening of the new NTT DOCOMO Group, we will work to progress the development and roll-out of IOWN, strengthen the competitiveness of our global business and promote the B2B2X model.

Furthermore, we aim to enhance our corporate value through ESG initiatives in furtherance of realizing a "Well-being Society." With NTT Green Innovation towards 2040 as our new environment and energy vision, we aim to realize the paradoxical goals of achieving both zero environmental impact and economic growth at the same time, by reducing our environmental impact through our business activities and through our creation of breakthrough innovation. In FY2030, we will reduce our greenhouse gas emission volumes by 80%, and our mobile business and data centers will reach carbon neutrality first, with NTT Group as a whole reaching carbon neutrality in FY2040. Concurrently, we will rollout new services that contribute to carbon neutrality, such as Green 5G and DOCOMO Denki.

For our medium-term financial targets, we have refined the EPS and cost reduction targets that had been set for FY2023. The new EPS target is an upward revision of +¥50 from the previous target of ¥320, which is a challenging target of an approximately 75% increase over FY2017 EPS (¥212). Nonetheless, we plan to achieve the target by focusing on profit growth through the effect of synergies in the newly formed NTT DOCOMO group (¥100.0 billion profit increase in FY2023) and cost reductions (over ¥200.0 billion in FY2023) from the further promotion of DX, among other factors, as recently set forth in the refinement of our Medium-Term Management Strategy.

NTT Group Sustainability Charter

We re-examined our existing CSR Charter, and have established a global standards-based Sustainability Charter as a broader concept that includes SDGs, ESG and CSV. We have set three themes – Co-Existence with Nature (Earth), Joint Prosperity of Cultures (Groups, Societies and Countries) and Maximization of Well-Being (Happiness) – and will continue to develop policies for these. Furthermore, as a policy to supplement this charter in addition to our Environment and Energy Vision and our new management style, we have also re-examined our existing Human Rights Charter to be applicable as a human rights policy everywhere, including globally, given the increasing awareness of various human rights-related issues in Japan and abroad.

Shareholder Returns

As for shareholder returns, our basic policy is to pursue ongoing increases in dividends, and we flexibly conduct share buybacks to improve capital efficiency. With respect to dividends, the annual dividend for FY2021 will be ¥110 per share, making for the 11th consecutive year of dividend increases, with a current interim dividend to be paid of ¥55 per share (an increase of ¥5 per share from the previous fiscal year). With respect to share buybacks, in August 2021, we authorized share buybacks in an aggregate amount of up to ¥250.0 billion and up to 100 million shares, and will conduct the buybacks through the end of March 2022. Furthermore, pursuant to a resolution of our Board of Directors, in November 2021 we canceled approximately 280 million shares of our treasury stock, equivalent to approximately 7% of our total outstanding shares.

We will continue to advance the transformation of NTT Group to achieve our new goals. We hope to receive the continued understanding and support of all of our shareholders.

2021 December

President and Chief Executive Officer,
Representative Member of the Board
Jun Sawada