If we can make NFC payments with e-money cards:

• We can make it dramatically easier for consumers to make payments, particularly small payments,
• Nintendo can expand its business opportunities that take advantage of small payments that were difficult to monetize in the past,
• Wii U will offer new business opportunities to those business partners who are good at offering low-price products and services,

and hence we will be able to expand the potential of Wii U’s digital business.

As I have been explaining today, in order to further expand our digital business, we will, for example:

• By actively promoting sales of downloadable software at retail, further increase consumer awareness of downloadable products,
• By having more people experience downloadable software, achieve increased visibility and appreciation of downloadable software and its advantages,
• Have our consumers recognize that they can discover new information about games on the Nintendo eShop and have them regularly visit the Nintendo eShop, and,
• By enabling payments using e-money, such as Suica, with Wii U’s built-in NFC functionality, reduce the impediments to making payments and seek new possibilities.

By promoting such activities, I firmly believe that Nintendo platforms’ digital business still has room to grow.

Also, I would like to use this opportunity to talk about this year’s E3.

In the past we invited reporters, investors and analysts, industry partners, such as software publishers, and distributors who attended E3 to our large-scale presentations. We also used them as a communication tool in which we broadcast our presentations on the Internet to reach out to video game fans around the globe. I believe that many are expecting us to host a similar event this year.
On the other hand, since we set out on new endeavors such as Nintendo Direct two years ago in October, we have been paying special attention to the fact that different people demand different types of information from us. For example, as video game fans are looking for information about games, it seems that they are less interested in sales figures that investors and analysts on the other hand attach much greater importance to, and distribution partners are looking for information on how we are going to market our products in the immediate future. At previous financial briefing sessions we announced information about our products, showed videos and even uploaded the recording of these events onto our website, but given that we now have an established method such as Nintendo Direct, we feel that we will be able to deliver our messages more appropriately and effectively by doing so individually based on the various needs of different groups of people.
At E3 this year, we are not planning to launch new hardware, and our main activity at E3 will be to announce and have people experience our software. Many people are certainly very interested in learning more about the Wii U titles that we are going to announce. We will use E3 as an ideal opportunity to talk in detail mainly about the Wii U titles that we are going to launch this year, and we also plan to make it possible for visitors to try the games immediately. As a brand new challenge, we are working to establish a new presentation style for E3.

First, we decided not to host a large-scale presentation targeted at everyone in the international audience where we announce new information as we did in the past.
Instead, at the E3 show this year, we are planning to host a few smaller events that are specifically focused on our software lineup for the U.S. market. There will be one closed event for American distributors, and we will hold another closed hands-on experience event, for mainly the Western gaming media. Also, I did not speak at last year’s presentation, and I am not planning to speak at these events at the E3 show this year either. Apart from these exclusive events for visitors, we are continuing to investigate ways to deliver information about our games directly to our home audience around the time of E3. We will share more information about them once they have officially been decided.
During the E3 period, we will utilize our direct communication tools, such as Nintendo Direct, to deliver information to our Japanese audience, including those who are at this financial briefing, mainly focusing on the software that we are going to launch in Japan, and we will take the same approach outside Japan for the overseas fans as well.

At the financial announcement of yesterday, we also announced the changes in the members of our board of directors. More specifically, our plans are for the four directors, including Mr. Mori and Mr. Hatano who are currently the representative directors, to retire when their term of office expires at the end of the Annual General Meeting of Shareholders this year, and for the five new directors to take office, as well as the promotion of one existing director.

We are not changing our overall business strategy, but already 11 years have passed since the current management structure was established in 2002. The planned changes this time aim to realize a generational change of our management structure. When these changes become effective, the average age of the board of directors will become 6.7 years younger than today.

For your information, as recovering the momentum in the overseas markets tops our priority list, we are planning to place our overseas operations under the direct control of the company president after this year’s Annual General Meeting of Shareholders. Under this new management structure, the company will make its utmost efforts to achieve the 100 billion yen operating profit in the current fiscal year.

Thank you for listening.
I would now like to take questions.