Message from Mr. Yoshimitsu Kobayashi, Committee Member 2021

　

I am honored to have been appointed Chairman of the TEPCO Holdings Board of Directors, and to serve as a member of the Nuclear Reform Monitoring Committee.

For approximately three years from 2012 until 2015, I served as an outside director for the TEPCO Group and was involved in monitoring management reforms immediately following the Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami.

Our most pressing issue at the time was to create a foundation upon which TEPCO could fulfill its responsibilities to Fukushima by providing compensation, promoting recovery, and decommissioning Fukushima Daiichi, however for all of these issues there was yet a clear direction in which to proceed. Furthermore, in order to fulfill these responsibilities, we needed to increase corporate value, but we had only just started to implement concrete management reforms aimed at improving our earning potential.

Since resigning as an outside director in 2015, my relationship with TEPCO has continued. I served as a member of the TEPCO Reforms and 1F Problem Committee, and on the NDF’s Management Committee, which means that I have been involved with the Group in some capacity for approximately 10 years.

Although there are still many issues that need to be addressed in order to help Fukushima to recover, such as compensation and decommissioning, I do believe that we have made steady progress over the last 10 years.

However, from the beginning of 2021 until around March we experienced a string of very unfortunate incidents, such as the partial loss of function to physical protection equipment, and the revelation that some safety measure renovations have yet to be completed. Our top priorities now are to thoroughly ascertain the causes of these incidents, strive to prevent similar incidents from reoccurring, and regain the trust that we have lost.

As Chairman of the Board, and as a member of the NRMC, I shall, with wholehearted devotion, monitor and supervise the executive branch of the company, and with your cooperation, help to achieve our initial objectives.