Japan's power-generation equipment business, including nuclear power plants, has been shrinking as power utilities cut back on investments. Japanese manufacturers are seeing the need to expand overseas.

I don't think Honda's solar-panel business will ever make economic sense, or be a large money loser either.

Pretty much the only variable factors I can see in [the midterm plan] are fuel costs. For JAL to turn a profit, some tough cost management is necessary--and it will be impossible to accomplish if [another such event] were to happen.

I did not expect the latest incident to happen as I had believed the Japanese government would conduct inspections and make sure (that the conditions for beef imports were sufficiently met) before the actual importing.

We concluded that with regard to the risk of mad cow disease, the difference between Japanese beef and meat from American cattle aged 20 months or below is very small.

They've been turning off dams, tearing them out, shutting down nuclear reactors, preventing new utilities from being sited, ... We as their neighbors should not have to pick up their tab. It's just really a question of fairness.