— With major earthquakes rocking Japan almost every year recently, disaster preparedness has become increasingly important. Providing ICT solutions and know-how on disaster preparedness and the maintenance and prompt restoration of telecommunications infrastructure in disaster situations could be one of the major contributions that the NTT Group can make to society. What are your thoughts on this?

Koga: Yes. For example, in the past, if one of our branches was hit by an earthquake or some other disaster, it would first try to recover on its own, and if it lacked sufficient manpower, it would put out a call for help, and nearby branches would send people. Under the system we now have in place, however, say if the Tokyo office is hit, our Miyagi, Iwate, Aomori, Yamagata, and Akita branches in northern Japan will automatically send help based on the predetermined arrangement. We've conducted restoration drills based on this new plan, and we're confident we can get everything back to normal quicker than before.

Matsui: Though this has nothing to do with major disasters, I'd like to mention some of the ways in which we work with police mountain rescue units, mountain lodge staff, rescue committees, ski resorts, and others to support mountain rescue efforts. In recent years, some 48% of the people who run into trouble in the mountains apparently use mobile phones to call for help. FOMA Plus-Area radio waves have good reach in mountainous areas, and so we're directing them towards mountains to cover climbing routes more thoroughly, making the mountains even safer for alpinists, skiers, and other mountain lovers.

Kanazawa: As designated public corporations under the Disaster Countermeasures Basic Act, NTT Group companies already have long experience in formulating disaster preparedness plans and a wealth of disaster preparedness know-how. In recent years, we've been able to put that expertise increasingly to use by offering business continuity planning (BCP) to various industries.

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Sakamoto: Now that information and communications systems have become such critical lifelines in society, interest in BCP is indeed skyrocketing. Nowadays many companies and other organizations see the need to prepare just as we as a telecommunications group have done as a matter of course by quake-proofing facilities, guarding against lightning strikes and flooding, deploying emergency power supplies, and other contingencies. We see providing BCP solutions to meet these needs not only as a promising business for the NTT Group, but also as an important social duty.

Kanazawa: The communications infrastructure that we're a part of is closely intertwined with other critical infrastructures such as electricity, gas and other energy supply, transport, and financial services, and so the government is now preparing Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP) plans to maintain and restore the functions of these major infrastructures in disaster situations. The NTT Group is participating in this national initiative, working with the government and other infrastructure operators to analyze infrastructure interdependence and plan effective measures.

Tamura: The NTT Group's disaster preparedness measures range from national and regional level disaster preparedness to BCP solutions for individual companies, and I think that we also owe it to society to do more to ensure that people are aware of the availability of these solutions, and to encourage their use.

Kanazawa: If we inform our many stakeholders of our activities, hopefully they'll respond by offering all sorts of comments and suggestions, and such feedback is bound to reflect social issues that we need to pay attention to. The NTT Group's CSR activities should be about meeting these expectations by making the most of our strengths and the synergy that we can generate as a Group.