I extend my warmest greetings to you for this 2023 New Year.
It has been three years since the spread of COVID-19 began. When I look back at past pandemic trends, it seems that we will be entering a new phase; the start of the post-COVID-19 era.
The following are some of the by-products that occurred to information exchange practices as a result of COVID-19:
1）Increased work-related communication
The number of participants in important meetings more than tripled through the use of remote conferencing techniques.
The frequency of our meetings with colleagues, partners, and clients in foreign countries also increased.
The need for business travel was cut to less than half.
2）Dramatic decrease in non-work-related conversations
While at once the number of remote meetings and conferences has increased, so chats and unplanned topics of conversation have decreased, resulting in a work environment where spontaneous ideas are less likely to emerge and the character of employees, customers, and business partners are less likely to be explored in depth.
In addition, there have been increased new challenges in maintaining psychological health.
To address these issues, the Company has begun to consider holding real face-to-face meetings to allow employees to spend more time with each other in a more personable environment.
3）The concept of local areas (globally) has faded greatly
Remote work has become the norm, and the need to travel to local sites has dramatically declined.
The attendance of development staff for testing at manufacturing sites has also gone remote, and opportunities to actually visit factories have decreased.
Apart from country-specific work, opportunities to work with a global mindset have increased.
Meetings and correspondence in multiple languages leveraged the use of automatic translation in conversations and documents, and language barriers that once existed were eliminated, allowing for seamless communication across languages like English, Chinese, German, and Japanese.
Many more changes occurred outside of these; however, in 2023, we will be moving forward to more effectively leverage each of these by-products.
Lastly, I would like to thank all KIMOTO fans for their continued support as we steadfastly push forward with the plans, I announced at our 70th anniversary last year.
January 4, 2023
KIMOTO Co.,Ltd.
President and Chairman
Kazunobu Kimoto
Kimoto Co. Ltd. published this content on 04 January 2023 and is solely responsible for the information contained therein. Distributed by Public, unedited and unaltered, on 12 January 2023 05:09:01 UTC.
KIMOTO CO., LTD. is a manufacturer of films. The Company has four segments, including Japan, North America, East Asia and Europe. Through its segments, it is involved in the development of processing technologies for surface treatment on films, the manufacture and sale of various industrial materials, the sale of geographic information system (GIS)-related software, the provision of outsourced data processing services, as well as the contracting business of aerial photograph processing and duplication of drawings.
KIMOTO CO., LTD. 
