Good morning.
Thank you for attending this meeting despite your busy schedules.

First, I’d like to explain about the financial result for the 70th term.

The consolidated net sales for the 70th term ending March 2010 were 1 trillion 434.3 billion yen, down 22% from the previous year. The operating income was 356.5 billion yen, down 35.8% from the previous year. I’ll explain the background for the decreases in the sales and the operating income later. Ordinary income was 364.3 billion yen, which was 18.8% down from the previous year. The reason why the rate of decrease for the ordinary income is smaller than that for the operating income was because, last year, a significantly stronger Japanese Yen especially against euro in comparison to two years ago had resulted in large amount of foreign currency reevaluation loss over the company’s assets held in foreign currencies, while we had very little foreign exchange losses for the subject fiscal year. As a result, the net profit for the subject fiscal year was 228.6 billion yen.

Let me explain the background for the sales decrease. This chart shows the unit shipments of our main hardware and software in comparison with the previous year.
The main reasons of the decreased net sales were:

* The decreased unit sales of Nintendo DS hardware and software in regions other than Japan and the American Continent. This was especially true in Europe.

* In the first half of the year, the overall Wii business had been losing its momentum due to the lack of strong software. While the successive outpourings of strong titles in the latter half helped regain momentum in the year-end sales season, when we look at the entire year, Wii hardware unit shipment decreased in comparison to last year. Plus, there was the effect of Wii hardware price cut in last fall.

* The average exchange ratio saw a stronger yen in comparison to the previous year. As we converted our sales of non-Japanese-yen currencies into Yen, where our overseas sales accounted for 84.1% of our overall net sales, it had the effect of lowering our net sales by around 110 billion yen. (The average exchange rates in the subject year were 100.54 yen per U.S. dollar and 143.48 yen per euro while they were 92.85 yen per dollar and 131.15 yen per euro a year ago.)

Similarly, Wii hardware price cut and higher appreciation of the yen on average during the subject fiscal year than a year ago are the main background for the operating income decrease.

When we compare these unit shipment results with the forecasts we made at the time when we announced our mid-term results last October and, for Wii software, with the forecast we made when we announced our 9-month financial result in late January this year that included software sold as part of the bundle for Wii hardware during October-December period of 2009, a rather big difference is found in the shipment of Nintendo DS hardware. While Nintendo DS hardware sales progressed in Japan and in the U.S. continent as we had anticipated, our expectation could not be met in the European market.
On the other hand, as for Wii, while we had not been able to predict that the inventories of Wii hardware and Wii Fit Plus with Wii Balance Board would run short early this year, the overall sales were in line with our estimates.
As for Wii software, when we compare the figures in this chart, the result and the forecast were almost the same. However, because we did not include the number of software that are sold with the hardware in the forecast, the actual software shipment result came in a bit below our expectation when we consider the software that were sold with the hardware.

Mainly for these reasons, each accounting item in the actual results for the 70th term could not fully meet the forecast we made at the time of the mid-term financial announcement in last October.

As we have been publicly explained in the past, the company has a dividend policy to decide the total dividend amount by choosing the higher number between 33% of the consolidated operating income and the dividend payout ratio of 50%.
The dividend becomes higher when we choose 33% of the consolidated operating income as the dividend source for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2010. Accordingly, we are planning to pay 930 yen per share as the annual dividend. As the company already paid 270 yen per share as the interim dividend, the dividend to be paid at the end of the fiscal year will be 660 yen per share. We would like to make the dividend payments after asking at the Shareholders Meeting to resolve this.

As I understand that most of you here today are more interested in the future rather than in the past, I’d like to explain to you the most recent situation since the start of this year.

First, about the Japanese market.

This graph compares the home console hardware unit sales in Japan during the 16 weeks since the start of the year until most recently on a weekly basis between 2010 and 2009.
From the beginning of 2009 until the spring of that year, Wii was considerably losing momentum. But this year, ever since the launch of New Super Mario Bros. Wii at year-end, Wii hardware has been keeping its momentum. So far, the situation is healthier than last year.