2022 New Year's Message from SoftBank President & CEO Junichi Miyakawa

January 1, 2022 Junichi Miyakawa President & CEO SoftBank Corp.

Right after I assumed the post of President & CEO in April 2021, SoftBank Corp. faced a challenging business environment due to mobile service price reductions and other headwinds. In response, I launched a series of initiatives in line with our “Beyond Carrier” strategy, which aims to expand our non-telecom business domains while continuing to grow our core telecom business.

For the Consumer Business segment, we provided attractive price plans and a diverse lineup of 5G smartphones to meet customer needs. We also expanded our 5G network area coverage and promoted collaboration with Yahoo Japan, LINE, PayPay and other services. At the Enterprise Business segment, we offered various solutions to solve problems that different industries are facing, and we helped enterprises undergo digital transformations (DX). As part of our “Beyond Japan” initiative, we formed a partnership with Axiata, one of the largest telecommunications groups in Asia, and we made a strategic investment in Treasure Data, a US-based Customer Data Platform (CDP) leader. Furthermore, in our Technology domain we undertook initiatives to build a platform that supports digital services for all industries, established several facilities to test 5G-based technologies and support DX in industries. We also developed next-generation batteries and promoted a global IoT network concept that combines HAPS and satellite communications.

The world is now in the middle of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and undergoing major change with “extreme process automation”—fueled by digitalization and AI—and “connectivity-driven structural transformation” powered by 5G. In Japan, full-fledged initiatives to revitalize the economy through the promotion of digitalization are taking shape. Accordingly, I believe 2022 will be “Year One of Implementing Digitalization Into Society.”

SoftBank Corp. possesses 5G networks, various digital platforms integrated with AI, Japan's largest customer base, leading-edge DX solutions and digitalization know-how that has been rigorously tested in-house. These assets enable us to rapidly provide services that meet customer needs. While continuing to build our 5G network, SoftBank Corp.'s “Digital Twin (Metaverse)” ongoing initiative that links the real with the virtual will become a wellspring that generates new services and business models. Providing these services, I believe SoftBank Corp. can support true DX across all of Japan's industries and make major contributions to realize the “Implementation of Digitalization Into Society.”

Also, on the path toward promoting this implementation, we expect that telecommunications infrastructure will consume more energy in line with increased data traffic. To reduce environmental impacts and foster a sustainable society, we will need to optimize the supply-demand balance of energy for society and industry as whole. SoftBank Corp. will endeavor to address this issue by decentralizing data processing, utilizing clean energy and leading other sustainability initiatives.

SoftBank Corp. and its group companies will continue to take on new challenges and unite to realize the “Implementation of Digitalization into Society.” At the same time, we will work to achieve the SDGs by providing our services and be the company that is most needed by the world.