Yupo Corporation is now celebrating its 50th anniversary. This is thanks to all of our customers and stakeholders, and I would like to express my gratitude for your patronage and support. Our history began with the resolve to create a "dream synthetic paper alternative to natural paper" for the purpose of protecting forest resources during the rise of petrochemicals. At first, it was difficult to create white paper from resin, and even after seeing the initial completion, problems in printing and other areas led to a period where the continuity of our business was in danger. However, thanks to many years of support from our parent companies Oji Paper *1 and Mitsubishi Petrochemical *2, we were able to put the business back on track and YUPO has gained the top share in the synthetic paper market.
YUPO is a recyclable product with a low environmental impact, has a variety of functions, and is widely used in everyday applications such as in-mold labels used in detergent bottles and barcode labels. In addition, the adoption of YUPO for ballot papers has enabled votes to be counted on the same day, playing a part in the evolution of social systems.

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This development of YUPO would not have been possible without its parent companies or the "YUPO Family" of distributors, wholesalers, and printing and processing companies, which has been supporting YUPO for many years. Everyone has helped to create the know-how for how to use YUPO since the time when YUPO was still an inconvenient product, worked on the development of applications, and built the market.
We did not run away from the numerous complaints and problems we have faced, but have investigated the causes and resolved each one while continuing to make technological improvements and to use customer feedback gained from the field to develop new products. Working hard to improve customer satisfaction and making unsparing efforts has been our constant stance since our founding. YUPO should be based on win-win relationships in which we share our prosperity with all stakeholders, including the YUPO Family.

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We still receive valuable opinions from print processing gatherings and other events, and we must reflect these opinions in further technological improvements and product development. In recent years, we have received many requests for laser printing compatibility, environmentally friendly products, and double-sided general inks. Of these, with regard to laser printing, YUPO is now compatible with Ricoh production printers as of last year. Regarding environmentally friendly products, we launched YUPO GREEN, which uses biomass resin and contributes to reducing CO₂ emissions this spring. Going forward, we will work to expand sales of this product and also work on products such as biodegradable YUPO, with the aim of contributing to reducing environmental impact. Meanwhile, we are steadily developing products for double-sided general inks and will soon launch them on the market. We will further accelerate the development of these new products, centered on a research and development laboratory that we are constructing as a new building adjacent to the Kashima Factory.
In conjunction with the formulation of the medium-term management plan for 2016 to 2020, we set the goal of exceeding 50 billion yen in sales for Yupo Global as a whole in 2035 to solidify our position as a leading synthetic paper company. In order to achieve this and continue to become a 100-year company, we must take on the challenge of developing innovative technologies and products to open up new markets while passing down the achievements made by our seniors and members of the YUPO Family. We intend to regain our original frontier spirit once again and greatly expand the possibilities of YUPO and we thank you for your guidance and encouragement.

May 2019

1. *1 Current Oji Holdings
2. *2 Current Mitsubishi Chemical