May 21, 2009 Chairman Yano's regular press conference

(Moderator)

Then we will start a regular conference.

(Chairman)

Hello everyone. It is the current state of the first in the business.
Regarding the situation of Expressway, the toll revenue in April was minus 22.4% compared to the same month of the previous year. Highways are minus 21.9%, and general charges are minus 27.7%. The reason is the same as before, "emergency comprehensive measures", which we have been implementing since last fall. Also, the discounts on daily life measures that started on March 28 have had a big impact. The average number of traffic was minus 3.7% per day. High speed is minus 4.0%, general charge minus 2.9%.
The ETC discount amount was 24.7 billion yen, an increase of 61.3%, or 9.4 billion yen, from 15.3 billion yen in the same month last year. As a result, the revenue without ETC discount is 61.9 billion yen, and the ETC discount rate is minus 39.9% compared to this and 37.1 billion yen. It is about 10% higher than the previous 29.8% or 28.8%.

The construction situation hasn't changed. I will explain about the four lanes of the Tokai-Hokuriku Expressway later.

Returning, I will explain the breakdown of the number of vehicles passing by vehicle type. Light vehicles account for 103.4%, ordinary vehicles 98.9%, medium-sized vehicles 86.6%, large vehicles 82.2%, and oversized vehicles 76.8%, for a total of 96.0%. This is a figure excluding general charges, so it is a little different from the 96.3% I explained earlier. For reference, in "Tai / km", light vehicles accounted for 109.3%, ordinary vehicles 108.2%, medium-sized vehicles 87.2%, large vehicles 86.5%, and oversized vehicles 83.0%, accounting for 101.1% overall, increasing travel distance. You can see that. I think this is the effect of the new policy. This is the overall Expressway situation.

Next, regarding the ETC situation, the discount amount is as I mentioned earlier, but the latest usage rate is 82.5% for 5/8 to 5/14 and 81.4% for 4/3 to 4/9 of the previous month, so 1% overall. It will be increasing. It is increasing on weekdays and weekends and holidays.
The cumulative number of on-board units installed is approximately 25.03 million. There is no description, but the re-setup is about 29.79 million units, so it will soon be 30 million units.

Regarding the status of the service area, sales have increased slightly by 106.8% compared to the previous year. By content, the food and beverage department is 106.0%, the product sales department is 107.5%, the service department is rest-in and baths, but this is 106.1%, the gasoline department is 106.4%, and the advertising department is 85.0%.

This is a report for the month of April, but since the year has ended, I would like to explain how it was in fiscal 2008, the charges, the number of units, and the SA business.
First of all, toll revenue was minus 7.7% compared to the previous year, and the number of passing vehicles was minus 0.6%. There is a graph of toll revenue, but it has been below 100% since April last year, and the curve is gradually declining. If you follow what you talked about every month over the years, it will look like this.
As for the status of ETC discount, the amount of money and the ETC usage rate are increasing as various measures increase.
Regarding the number of traffic, both light and ordinary vehicles fell as of March, but turned slightly upward in April. Medium-sized cars, large-sized cars, and oversized cars have been flat since around February, and have been in the same state in April.
The traffic volume of Tomei's Tokyo Toll Gate is minus 2.7% on weekdays and minus 1.6% on holidays when comparing 2007 and 2008. I think the reason why the number of weekdays with heavy commercial traffic is decreasing is because of the influence of the economy. By route, Chuo Expressway and Tokai-Hokuriku Expressway are over 100%, and others are below 100%.
On the next page, "FY2008 Fees and Revenue Number of Passengers" is a breakdown of the highways and ones mentioned at the beginning.
In the service area, total sales were almost flat at 140.2 billion yen, a slight increase. Food and beverage sales increased by about 5% to 105.2%, but sales in the gasoline sector fell, and overall sales were almost flat. As written at the bottom of this page, gasoline prices have gradually settled down, unit prices have fallen in the second half of the second half, and refueling volumes have been on a recovery trend, gradually catching up with the previous year. As I mentioned earlier, April last year was a time when the unit price dropped once, so we have to look at the situation in May, but in April the quantity increased by about 20% from the previous year, and overall it is a little. It is a plus.
This concludes the explanation of the business situation.

The third is the traffic situation of GW. I reported it as a preliminary report on the 7th, but since it has been a long time, the report with analysis and the survey result of the customer questionnaire during the Golden Week period have been compiled, and this is not only our company but also other companies I have investigated it together with you, so I will report it.
This matter will be reported by Minemura, the manager in charge.

 

(Manager Minemura)

First is the traffic volume. The graph on the upper left of the material is the total traffic volume of GW for 12 days. As reported in the bulletin on the 7th, all cars have increased by 12%. Small cars are up 18%. The graph on the right shows the traffic volume for the latter five consecutive holidays. The leftmost bar in the graph is the average value on Saturdays and Sundays for 8 days after the discount starts. The bar in the middle is the traffic volume of GW last year. The right is this year's GW. The number of compact cars has increased by 22% compared to last year's GW and 47% compared to Saturday and Sunday since the start of the new fare, showing a significant increase. The figures for all cars are also 20% and 37%.
The second is traffic congestion. As the traffic volume has increased so much, the traffic congestion has also increased. Comparing the number of traffic jams over 10km, it increased by 78% compared to the previous year's GW, and increased by 43% over 30km. The white part of the graph is for the latter half of the five consecutive holidays, so most of it occurred during the latter half of the five consecutive holidays.
The third is the ETC utilization rate. The ETC usage rate for the last five consecutive holidays was 82%, a significant increase of 15 points compared to last year's GW.
Fourth, I analyzed how far the Tomei Nagoya IC's traffic goes in and out. That is the bar graph in the center of the page. On Saturdays and Sundays in March immediately after the discount, it increased by 24km compared to before the discount. What used to be 60km is now 84km. The result of this GW is that last year's GW was 86km, but it increased by 36km to 122km, and the average exceeds 100km. The graph below shows the distribution by distance. It increased slightly below 50km, but decreased slightly below 100km. At 200km, 300km and 400km, the rate has increased significantly. It was also used by customers who exceeded 1,000 km.
Next is the result of the questionnaire. There is also a color document behind this, but that is the total of the four companies, and this is only for the Central Nippon Expressway.
First, the purpose of using Expressway. The survey has been conducted three times, the first on the day of the first discount in March, the second on the first day of entering the GW, and the third on May 2, the first day of the second half of the five consecutive holidays. After all, there are many tourists and leisure travelers, and the number is increasing. As of May 2, about 80% of customers answered that it was for sightseeing and leisure purposes.
In response to the question "Did this special holiday discount trigger your outing?", 52% of the customers who answered "It triggered" were more than half as of May 2nd. I am. Also, when asked about the number of nights they stayed, as of May 2, one-third of the customers answered that they stayed for two nights or more.
In response to the question "Do you think it is effective in revitalizing the local economy?", "Great" and "Somewhat" account for 95% of the total.
Next, because we want to somehow reduce the traffic congestion, the traffic congestion near the Yamato tunnel of Tomei In-bound, which is a problem for GW every year, for customers who used it at different times to reduce this Then, we held a campaign called "Tomei GW Congestion Reduction Team Campaign" to present SA / PA shopping tickets. The result is a report.
Please see the graph around the center. Customers who use the campaign during the campaign hours from 20:00 at night to 10:00 the next day are eligible for this campaign as a gift. If you look at the line graphs of last year and this year, you can see that they are shifting to the night time zone. Comparing the traffic volume during the latter five consecutive holidays, the daily average traffic volume increased by 4%, but the number of customers who ran during the campaign time increased by 7%, which is higher than the average, and this Yamato tunnel is at the top. The number of traffic jams has decreased by 64% compared to last year, and the maximum length of traffic jams has also decreased by 56%, and the name of the Yamato Tunnel has disappeared from the worst 20. I think it had some effect. Thanks in part to the cooperation of distributing customer usage, I think this campaign was also effective.
Next is the color material, which was announced by four companies today. Four companies are taking questionnaires with similar content.
In the Central Japan jurisdiction, 52% said that they "triggered to go out", but when examined nationwide, 61%, which is higher than our jurisdiction. Regarding the purpose of "sightseeing / leisure", it is 84%, which is considerably larger than 79%. Regarding the question "Do you think it was effective in revitalizing the local economy?", Our company was 95%, which is almost the same as 94%.
We apologize for the inconvenience caused to the customers who have been in a traffic jam, but we are grateful for the cooperation of our customers that we did not experience a relatively large amount of confusion.
that's all.

 

(Chairman)

Then Tokai-Hokuriku Expwy Gujo-Hachiman for the completion of the 4-lane between the IC Karagifu Yamato IC, we report.
Of the four-lane construction that has been underway between Fukubegadake PA and Shirotori, this section is the section that remains until the end. It is 4.6km. It will be completed on Friday, July 17th, before the summer vacation, and will be available from that day.
About 18km of the whole will be completed on July 17, and as a result, there is 77km from Ichinomiya JCT to Shirotori IC, which will be four lanes in a row. I think it will help to eliminate traffic congestion in this section.
To commemorate the completion of this four-lane project, the completion ceremony is scheduled for April 18, the next day. We will inform you about the details again.

Next, as the fifth topic, I will report on the traffic situation 3 months after the opening from Kisei Expressway Omiya Odai IC to Kisei Ouchiyama IC.
The average daily traffic volume is about 53,100 on weekdays and about 75,000 on holidays. Regarding the situation of National Route 42 parallel to this Kisei Expressway, the section between Kisei Ouchiyama IC and Nagashima IC under construction is increasing in traffic on weekdays and holidays. In addition, at Omiya-Odai IC, which is the entrance to National Route 42 parallel between Omiya-Odai IC and Kisei Ouchiyama IC, the traffic volume of entering and exiting has decreased by about 35,000, and the traffic volume of Kisei Ouchiyama IC is daily. The average was about 53 hundred units.
With the opening of this section, the traffic volume between Omiya Odai IC or Kisei Ouchiyama IC and other areas such as Mie, Aichi, Shiga, and east of Shizuoka will increase from about 51 million to about 66. doing.
This area is a tourist road with a lot of traffic on holidays, and it has been confirmed that the number of visitors in the area along the railway line has increased up to four times, and I think it is effective. In addition, there are 23 cases of ambulance transportation, and I think that it plays a sufficient role as a way of life.
Please refer to the attached materials.

Next is the opening of a new store in SA / PA. This is what was announced today.
From June to early July, we will open 4 convenience stores, 2 cafe shops, and 2 eating and drinking corners at 7 SA / PA locations. The details are as described in the attached sheet.
As a result, the number of convenience stores and cafes in SA / PA operated by our company is 43. We plan to add 5 more convenience stores and 2 cafes this year.
As a topic, Starbucks will be opening its first store at Expressway in Nagano prefecture. In addition, Okuise PA has been operating only the product sales corner until now, but it has decided to open a new eating and drinking corner. Okuise PA opened on February 5, two days before the extension of the Kisei Expressway, but with the support of the locals, a local company called Okuise Highway Park has a food and drink corner as soon as possible. I wanted to make it, so it was decided to be realized on June 1st.

Last but not least, I would like to introduce an example of what we are doing as an environmental measure today. We are recycling biodiesel fuel and BDF by recycling tempura waste oil.
It started in December 2006 at the Fuji Conservation and Service Center with two sign cars. In fiscal 2008, five vehicles used 14,000 liters. It is estimated that it has reduced CO2 emissions by about 36 tons.
It started at the Hikone Conservation and Service Center in September 2008, and this is just the beginning, but since it uses fuel that is a mixture of light oil and 5% biodiesel, the amount is still about 600 liters. Therefore, it is estimated that CO2 emissions of about 1.6 tons have been reduced.
Regarding environmental measures, we would like to continue to promote them as an important management policy of the company, and we would like to take advantage of this opportunity to report on case studies.

It ends the description above.

 

(Moderator)

Then, thank you if you have any questions.

(Reporter)

Please tell me the evaluation about ETC discount. The occupancy rate of the Tokaido Shinkansen announced the other day was down 11% from the previous year. In April of Expressway, the number of traffic was below the previous year's level, but would it have been even lower without the ETC discount? In other words, was there an effect of raising the bottom?
In addition, please give us your impressions based on other advantages and disadvantages.

(Chairman)

As you know, the government's rate discount policy, which was implemented as an economic measure, is effective in the midst of the economic downturn. It's hard to get a figure on "if you don't have a discount," but I don't think it's as much as the decrease in large vehicles, but I think it will have a significant impact. I would like to continue to analyze this as an issue in the future.
The feature appeared during the consecutive holidays in May, and in fact, that tendency has appeared from Saturday and Sunday in late March, but since it is still a long distance run, I think that it will make a big contribution in rural areas. .. The traffic volume is not increasing so much in the big cities, and I think that the influence is coming out in the rural areas. I think that tendency is most noticeable during the consecutive holidays in May. I think that there were various travel purposes such as sightseeing or returning to my parents' house, but I think that the drivers and their families who drove on the road made effective use of this.
I examined the tourist spots and tourist facilities on the welcoming side widely, but it seems that the number of visitors increased, so I think that it was very effective. Within our jurisdiction, I think that Gifu Prefecture and the three Hokuriku prefectures have benefited from a particularly large increase in traffic volume.

(Reporter)

It means that new stores will open in SA / PA. Please tell us how much of the total SA / PA ratio, or 43 convenience stores and 22 cafes, account for.

(Chairman)

In terms of the sales ratio, we are not in a situation where we can announce the numbers, but the sales of SA, which has new stores such as convenience stores and cafe shops, are increasing. In addition, we have 166 SAs and PAs in total, of which 150 have sales facilities. Some of them are operated by the third sector, and 139 are under the jurisdiction of our Companies in our Group Central Nippon Exis. Among them, as I reported, there are 43 convenience stores, so I think that it has occupied a considerable proportion. We will continue to increase the number of cafes at 22 stores. There will be 48 convenience stores this year, so it will be installed in about 30% of the locations. I think that customers are increasingly using it as if they were in the city. Expressway rather than a special product only, even in the city, Expressway buy even, Watakushi conducted our "Standard but is called the reduction", for such a point, I think that there is a high interest.
On the other hand, since we are running widely in various places, today we are reporting on this Standard measure, but the part of individualization that makes use of the characteristics of the area such as "Yasai Village" is already. On the other hand, it is an important rest facility measure. I would like to enhance that as well.

(Reporter)

I have two questions about the future.
One point is about the new strain of influenza. Employees are masked today, but what kind of impact do you think will have on your company in the future?
The second point is that there is a story that a 1,000 yen discount will be introduced even on weekdays in Obon. Please tell us your thoughts on the expectations and effects of that.

(Chairman)

Regarding the new strain of influenza, we started preparations a little earlier, started studying in November of last year, and created an action plan as a company-wide policy in 3. In response to the Large of the new influenza overseas, the countermeasures headquarters was set up on April 27. It is still before entering the country. We have distributed masks and disinfectants to each destination, and have taken measures such as hand washing with disinfectants and gargle, including Companies in our Group and business workers. On May 18, following the Large of the infection in Japan, we forced workers in places such as rest facilities and tollhouses that are in contact with customers to wear masks, and at the same time, thoroughly wash their hands and gargle. We are working to prevent the Large of infection. It means that the countermeasures headquarters was set up on April 27, and the level was improved by one on May 18.
All employees, including Companies in our Group, are obliged to check their body temperature when they go to work, disinfect them, and wear masks when commuting, in an effort to prevent infection to employees.
We have a very high public interest business, and we do not want to stop the road, we want to do it without stopping the road. However, if an infection occurs in the company, we will do our best to minimize the impact and not stop the road. From the perspective that it is possible to stop other places, we have created a huge action plan and will execute it sequentially.
So far, reports have been made in Osaka and Narita, but since some people have been infected in our jurisdiction such as Kawasaki and Hachioji, we are thinking of doing it with more tension than ever before. ..
The national and local governments are also taking serious measures on this issue, so I would like to work together well.
I know about the treatment of Obon in the press, but I haven't heard a proper story. Therefore, although I am aware of the problem, I would like to consider it when the story is a little more solidified, so I am not in a situation to answer at this stage.

(Reporter)

He said, "I won't stop the road. I may stop it elsewhere." However, unlike railroads and airplanes, Expressway does not carry mass transportation and vehicles are extremely private movements, so stop the road. I can't really imagine the situation, but what are your thoughts? Also, what exactly is it supposed to be that "it may be stopped elsewhere"?

(Chairman)

As you said, we are not driving a vehicle for transportation. It is possible that the driver will not be able to drive.
We want to make sure that we do not stop due to our circumstances.
As you know, many people are engaged in maintenance work. Many people are engaged in road cleaning, maintenance, patrols, and toll collection. I try to prevent infection from reaching such areas. If infected, the person will naturally take a rest, and in some cases the workplace will have to be stopped altogether, but in that case, by giving support from other workplaces, anyway, I will do my best to work It means throwing. Therefore, if it occurs at the head office or Regional Head Office, it is quite possible that the workplace will be closed, but anyway, I would like to do my best not to stop my current job.

(Moderator)

If you have no other questions, this is the end of the 43rd regular press conference.
Thank you very much.