Message from the Management

Driving transformation to sustainably enhance corporate value

Traditionally, Brother has had an open corporate culture in which the relationships between superiors and subordinates have not been so hierarchical. This open-mindedness and the spirit of "At your side," which puts customers first in every situation, are the very DNA of Brother that creates the Brother's strengths and the driving force behind its ability to change its business in response to changing times and environments without being afraid of transformation. To continue to be chosen by customers in global markets, it is essential to respond to their ever-changing needs and continuously evolve our products and services. To this end, I have been communicating to our employees my desire for them to take on challenges without fear of failure, learn from the experience if they do fail, and try again. By continuing to lead the way in transformation and take on challenges myself, I will further foster a corporate culture that encourages and supports each employee in taking on challenges.

In the Brother Group Vision "At your side 2030" formulated for 2030, we declare Our Purpose as "By being 'At your side,' we enable people's productivity and creativity, contribute to society, and help protect the earth." As a roadmap toward fulfillment of Our Purpose, we have formulated the FY2025-2027 medium-term business strategy "CS B2027" and reviewed the five issues of materiality we had identified as priority social issues in 2022, resulting in six issues of materiality redefined in 2025.

• "Supporting people's value creation"
• "Realizing a diverse and active society"
• "Pursuing a responsible value chain"
• "Reducing CO₂ emissions"
• "Circulating resources"
• "Supporting value creation through governance"

We believe that, to contribute to society, we can support people's value creation by ensuring that all Group employees work together to create excellent value and promptly provide it, thereby satisfying our customers. We believe that diversity of human resources is essential for that purpose. With the increasing uncertainty in the world, the range of options becomes limited if many people share the same opinions. Assigning women and foreign nationals to key positions is certainly important, but diversity of thinking is more important than that of people's categorical attributes. We will promote value creation by aggregating various ideas from various ways of thinking.
Social responsibility in the value chain is also an important theme. Through the "Brother Group Human Rights Global Policy" and participation in the Responsible Business Alliance (RBA), we will respect the human rights of all workers in the entire supply chain, and ensure a safe and secure working environment.

To "Protect the earth", we have set forth the "Brother Group Environmental Vision 2050" to address climate change, aiming to make all of our business activities carbon neutral and minimize CO₂ emissions throughout the value chain by 2050. Promoting sustainable use of resources, we will continue to improve the system for resource circulation throughout the value chain and aim to achieve sustainable use of resources and minimize the environmental impact of waste by, for example, reducing the ratio of virgin materials used in our main products to 65% or less by FY2030.

"Supporting value creation through governance" is a new materiality added in FY2025. To strengthen governance from both proactive and defensive perspectives and build a management foundation that supports the sustainable enhancement of its corporate value, in June 2026, Brother transitioned from a company with an Audit & Supervisory Board to a company with an Audit & Supervisory Committee. From a proactive governance perspective, we have established a system that enables us to make important management decisions—including business portfolio transformation and M&A—swiftly and with a high degree of transparency, thereby encouraging sound risk-taking. From a defensive governance perspective, Directors who serve as Audit & Supervisory Committee members have been granted voting rights at Board of Directors meetings. This has strengthened the Board of Directors' supervisory function, enhanced the effectiveness of oversight of business execution, and enabled us to build a more robust governance structure.

Toward achievement of the medium-term business strategy "CS B2027"

In the medium-term business strategy CS B2027, with an eye to the realization of the Brother Group Vision "At your side 2030," we commit ourselves to accelerating our business portfolio transformation and improving our profit-generating capability for the long-term enhancement of our corporate value, under the theme "Creating our Future. Boldly." Aiming to expand our sales in the industrial area to approximately 50% by FY2030, we will implement the strategy by stepping out of our comfort zone and overcome our psychological barriers with our own will.

Our business portfolio transformation is still underway, but we made significant progress in our transformation efforts over the past year. Among our Growth Businesses, in the Industrial Printing Business Division, we made MUTOH LTD. a wholly owned subsidiary. In our new business, we transferred the business related to BuddyBoard to BuddyBoard Inc. through a company split. In our Profitability Transformation Business, we acquired the business of the automobile parts division of Konrad Busche GmbH & Co. KG in Germany, with expertise in providing industrial sewing machine solutions. In the Network & Contents Business, in order to achieve further growth in the karaoke business, we transferred the business of operating karaoke clubs and other facilities to KOSHIDAKA HOLDINGS Co., LTD. and transferred 70% of the shares in XING INC., which is engaged in the sale of online karaoke systems and other businesses, to U-NEXT HOLDINGS Co., Ltd.

Behind our ability to accomplish this series of initiatives in such a short period was the fact that we had long recognized the need for transformation, and the experience and insights we had accumulated over time had been consolidated into the organization's collective strength. In addition, our strong determination to share across the Group the resolve to make transformation happen during the CS B2027 period and, above all, take action now under the theme "Creating our Future. Boldly.," ignited action and became a major driving force behind these initiatives. Furthermore, favorable business environments and the timing of individual opportunities enabled us to turn many of these initiatives into tangible results.

However, CS B2027 has only reached the halfway point. We will continue to steadily implement our growth investment and advance initiatives to achieve the key performance indicators established for each business, further accelerating our business portfolio transformation.

My mission and action targets toward achievement of "At your side 2030."

I will take the following four key actions to accomplish my mission.

• ◯ Accountability
  Having an overwhelming sense of ownership and fulfilling the responsibility to explain Having an overwhelming sense of ownership and fulfilling the responsibility to explain
• ◯ Authenticity
  Facing facts and always communicating candidly
• ◯ Boldness
  Raising our sights, not settling for what is possible but boldly designing what should be
• ◯ Excellence
  Always aiming for the best and the highest quality n execution

Of these, what Brother needs most right now is boldness. Envisioning Our Purpose and fulfilling it requires us to do something more than simply continuing with our current styles of thought and action. I hope that we will break away from the boundary that defines what Brother is now and go beyond the limit we had imposed on ourselves. I believe that this will lead us to the future we aim for.

We will continue to enhance our corporate value over the long term through dialogue with our stakeholders. We hope that you will support the future of the Brother Group.