Norio Wada
President & CEO
Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation

It has been 20 years since the principle of competition was introduced into the telecommunications field, when in 1985, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation was privatized, and the company Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation ("NTT") was formed. Today, we are entering an age of ubiquitous broadband network access, with the number of mobile phone subscribers passing the number of fixed line telephone subscribers, the explosive growth of the Internet, and the ability to deliver large amounts of video data. The telecommunications industry is also being transformed: we are seeing an accelerated convergence of telecommunications and broadcasting, as well as an acceleration of "fixed mobile convergence" (FMC), in which fixed line and mobile phone services are fusing together.

Meanwhile, the greatest issue for the future of Japan is a declining population due to the rapid aging of our society. This will create social and economic problems for Japan, including labor shortages and decreased purchasing power. In order to ensure the sustainable growth of our country, we have got to commit to tackling these problems head-on, increasing productivity, expanding consumption, and holding down social costs, and we feel that the active use of telecommunications technologies will be effective at achieving this.

Against this backdrop, we at the NTT Group have three missions: increase corporate value and answer the expectations of everyone including our shareholders; take responsibility for universal service and other regulations laid down in the NTT law (Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation law); and contribute to the realization of Japan's IT strategy through the e-Japan Strategy and related initiatives. We are strongly committed to contributing to the sustainable growth of society, with an awareness of our corporate social responsibility, and this basic management stance runs through each of our missions.

We believe that fulfilling these missions, contributing to the spread of ubiquitous broadband services, and an active commitment to resolving these social and economic issues will make safe, secure, and convenient services available to all: and we feel that this is the true corporate social responsibility (CSR) of the NTT Group.

In November 2004, we formulated the NTT Group's Medium-Term Management Strategy, which focuses on how the NTT Group will accomplish these missions over the medium term, and we are currently working toward these targets. The NTT Group pledges that we will continue to provide these safe and secure services, and benefits to society as a trustworthy company. We are committed to helping to create comfortable lifestyles and a prosperous society.

We have updated the Environmental Protection Activities Report and published it as the CSR Report in order to communicate with our many stakeholders about what the NTT Group has done, and our CSR policy. We welcome your comments and feedback on this report of the social and economic activities of the NTT Group.

October 2005