December 20, 2006 Chairman Yano's regular press conference

Hello everyone.
Thank you for visiting us at the end of the year.
In addition to the business overview that I always report today, there are some topics, so I would like to explain them all together and then ask questions.

First of all, I would like to give you an overview of the business. In November, the fee income was minus 0.3% overall. The high speed is minus 0.1%, and the one is minus 2.9%. The number of passing cars is 4.1%. High speed is plus 4.3% and Ichiyu is plus 3.0%. The increase in traffic volume and the decrease in toll income are due to the Large of time discounts due to the spread of ETC.

Regarding the construction situation, Chubu-OdanExpwy opened from Masuho to the Southern Alps last Saturday. It is in operation for 6 km.
Although it is a future opening plan, I have not written it in the document, but it is about 28.8 gods, about 18.8 km from Kinki Expressway Kameyama Higashi JCT ~ Koka-Tsuchiyama.
Under the current agreement, it is scheduled to open at the end of 2008, but as a result of reviewing the local construction process, we will move forward one year ahead of next year, and next year, we will proceed with the project with the completion target in the spring of 2008. Since this is also connected to western Japan, I hear that we are proceeding with the completion of Koka-Tsuchiyama from Western Japan to Otsu JCT at the same time. Therefore, from Kameyama East IC to Otsu JCT all at once.

Returning to the materials, it is the contract rate of successful construction contracts for the main types of work. In November, it was 76.42%. The cumulative total for the year was 108.81.93%. Actually, the data for the last month had a total of 79 cases up to October, but due to a calculation error, the correct number was 96.

Although it is the situation of ETC, the daily average utilization rate is plus 1.3%. It is 68.3%, a little higher than one month ago. The number of setups is 13.22 million, but including re-setup, it is 14.97 million. I also heard that the number of units exceeded 15 million in December.
Regarding the situation of SA, it is 105.1% compared to the previous year, and the cumulative total is 104.8%. In general, each department exceeded the same month last year, with 104.7% in the food and beverage department, 106.6% in the product sales department, 103.0% in the service department, and 102.8% in GS.

The above is a report on the business overview.

Next, I would like to report that I have obtained Triple A with the preliminary rating for long-term individual bonds. It is as per the materials at hand, and was obtained from the Rating Investment Information Center R&I. Eligible bonds are funds used for road construction and are bonds that will be underwritten by JHF when road assets belong to JHF.
Regarding corporate bonds, we have budgeted 25 billion yen as a business plan for 2006, but the details are from now on, and I will report again as soon as the contents are decided.

Next, although there are no materials available, I would like to talk about the card business, which has been a hot topic before. We would like to issue a membership card in February next year, and we are now in the final stages. The partner company is UFJ NICOS Co., Ltd. This is a credit card company. The other is BitWallet Co., Ltd., which is a provider of electronic money "Eddie". However, we have not yet finalized the issue of the issue. We plan to announce the joint announcement of the three companies in January, so I would like to inform you later.

Next, we will introduce a CS evaluation system to our service areas. We would like to introduce a CS evaluation system to our subsidiary Central Nippon Exis Company Limited to improve the service level of each SA store. We will be conducting various investigations from now on, and we will set up a CS evaluation committee that includes third parties, and will conduct individual CS evaluations. We are considering announcing excellent stores on our website, etc. Regarding the external members of the CS Evaluation Committee, please refer to the documents on hand.

Next is the sale of the Hida tunnel penetration memorial product. The Hida tunnel will penetrate on January 13th, when the new year starts. To commemorate that, we will release the original product "Inviting Sarubobo" from the day after the penetration ceremony. It is a lucky doll that Hida's popular "Sarubobo" holds an amulet bag containing a penetrating stone, which is an amulet for passing the exam. I have a sample, so I hope you can see it. I hope it can be used as an amulet for examinations and easy delivery.

Next, I would like to report that I filed one lawsuit for payment of tolls to unauthorized persons.
This person was late in payment of about 3.5 million yen including toll fee and surcharge, and I urged him several times, but he filed a lawsuit to the Yokohama District Court because he could not speak. This person was arrested and fined in May of this year. I urged him many times, but because there was no reaction, I decided that it would not change even if I continued any arbitrary negotiations on payment, so I filed a suit.

Finally, we are planning measures to alleviate traffic congestion on the In-bound lanes Tomei Expressway from January 2 to 4. The details of these measures have already been announced, but we would like to explain them again in order to ask for your cooperation in alleviating traffic congestion over the New Year holidays.
This proposal was created by our Yokohama Regional Head Office, and Director General, Mr. Yoshikawa, is here today, so he will be explaining it to you.

 

(Moderator)

Yokohama Director General Yoshikawa is a PhD in engineering and specializes in this type of traffic analysis.

 

(Director General)

I'm Yoshikawa, the Yokohama Director General. I'll explain.
Every year, traffic jams occur in the Yamato Tunnel near Yokohama-Machida Interchange as people return home for the New Year. This year, we are predicting a 30-kilometer traffic jam on the 2nd and a 25-kilometer traffic jam on the 3rd. As a result, we have come up with a plan as part of our Traffic Demand Management (TDM) program to somehow shift traffic demand by offering a limited-time early morning discount for New Year's on In-bound lanes of the Tomei Expressway from January 2nd to 4th.
In traffic congestion, the victims and perpetrators are the same, so if the number of victims decreases, the number of perpetrators will also decrease.The starting point is that if users can somehow think, "I don't want to be a victim," they will also avoid becoming perpetrators.
I'll explain the details. (Pointing to the panel) This shows the traffic congestion situation last year. The blue line is the traffic volume that flowed in one hour. The congestion started around 10 o'clock. The red line is an estimate of the traffic volume if there was no congestion and traffic was able to flow freely. This red line is what we call traffic demand. This is the traffic that would have flowed like this if there had been no congestion.
Looking at the Yamato Tunnel area, this data shows that the traffic volume when congestion occurs is approximately 4,869 vehicles per hour. Comparing this with the black line, it is about 350 vehicles higher in the 10 o'clock hour.
Once a traffic jam occurs, the traffic volume that can be handled drops by roughly 200 vehicles per lane. Since there are three lanes there, the traffic volume drops by 600 vehicles.
Generally, people tend to think that maximum traffic volume is when cars are lined up in a row, but this is not the case. The maximum traffic volume is the smooth flow of traffic just before a traffic jam occurs. In this case, it is roughly 4,869 vehicles. Once a traffic jam occurs, the number drops to 4,200-4,400 vehicles. The starting point of this TDM is how to reduce traffic volume so that this kind of jam does not occur.
The traffic volume that exceeds the road's capacity is only about 600 vehicles, but this causes congestion until around 11:00 pm. We want to somehow move this red section forward, that is, get people to move faster, so we have decided to offer a 50% discount to ETC-equipped vehicles that enter or exit between 6:00 am and 9:00 am, and that target vehicles entering or leaving between Shizuoka IC and Atsugi IC and Yokohama-Machida IC and Tokyo IC.
The reason why we chose Shizuoka is that 75% of the cars that pass through the Yamato Tunnel just before Yokohama-Machida IC enter the highway between Shizuoka and Atsugi.
And one more thing. There are several bottlenecks along the way, such as the Matsuoka bus stop near the Fuji Interchange and the Numazu Interchange. In order to avoid traffic jams at these points, we decided to offer a discount to cars entering between Shizuoka and Atsugi, and leaving between Yokohama-Machida and Tokyo.
In any case, we would like to ask for your help in raising awareness among the general public and encouraging them to take such action.
That's all.

 

(Moderator)

If you have any questions, thank you.

 

(Reporter)

There was a story about the second famous god earlier, but the fact that the Kameyama east to Koka-Tsuchiyama is about 1 year earlier, I would like to tell you specifically about the reason why it was earlier, and 1 section and the other section of the second famous god Please tell us what is the outlook for the opening of Daito Tomei?

 

(Chairman)

As a reason for the side of Central Japan, it took some time to acquire some land at Kameyama Higashi JCT, but as a result of the local people working together, acquisition proceeded earlier than planned As a result, a situation was created in which the work could be started all at once, which made it possible to accelerate the completion time. I think Western Japan also had its own problems. Including site issues. I also managed to get the prospect out of it, so I decided to do this all at once.
Other regions, but for the time being, there is no change. As I have announced so far.

 

(Reporter)

It means that the Hida tunnel will be penetrated next month, but I would like to reiterate that impression and what is expected of this "Sarubobo". Regarding TDM, I would like to ask if there is an idea that if this initiative is successful, it will be further expanded.

 

(Chairman)

The fact that the Hida tunnel could be penetrated is truly invaluable. It took me a lot of trouble on the way, and it took nearly four years longer than originally planned, but that was a good learning experience for us, and we were able to overcome the difficulties very well. I think Speaking of the feeling of penetration, there is no longer a long road tunnel overlooking the Japanese tunnel. It is the second longest road tunnel in Japan and the seventh longest in the world road tunnel, and it has a truly historical significance. Even with the technology of TBM used there, it is difficult to cover 1,000 meters of soil. It is called construction under adverse conditions, and in a sense, I think it was a historic experience for our company. I would like to express my sincere gratitude for this penetration and would like to thank all those who cooperated. As for amulets, the tunnel penetration was really achieved with the support of many people, including local people. It took a long time for the tunnel to penetrate, so I think that the stones collected there will help protect the examinees from praying for success and prayers for future mothers to have a safe delivery. Since it is a specialty of Hida, I would like it to become a symbol of the work we are doing together with the community. This is the first time we are implementing measures for traffic congestion during the New Year. If this goes well, I would definitely like to continue next year, and if there is a better way, I would like to adopt it. We would like to publicize ourselves in the service area and in various places, and ask the drivers to cooperate with us, but we cannot say that it is better than the press, so it means news. It's too late, but I would like to ask many people to know it with the cooperation of everyone. Since it is to get the cooperation of our customers, we made a discount, but the original purpose is to eliminate traffic congestion. Although it may not be resolved, I would like to work towards reducing traffic congestion.

 

(Reporter)

Although it is not the relationship announced today, the interim financial results have not been announced yet. What is the reason behind this delay?

 

(Chairman)

We may not have contacted you yet, but we plan to announce the interim results on the 22nd. There are various prior adjustments with the accounting audit corporation and others, and it has finally been completed, and we are ready to make an announcement soon.

 

(Reporter)

There may be an explanation on the day of the announcement, but where did you find it difficult?

 

(Chairman)

I don't think it was particularly difficult to coordinate with audit firms.
In other words, it is the first full-scale settlement of accounts on a consolidated basis, and the fact is that we have been carefully and cautiously because of the full-scale settlement of accounts in the new securities report. .. The more you get used to it, the faster it may become. I would like to make such an effort, and I would like the accounting department to do so, but it took a little time because I worked hard with the intention of announcing the first financial statement in a true sense. I think there is something that happened.

 

(Moderator)

If there are no other specific questions, today's regular press conference will end.

 

(Chairman)

Thank you very much.