Taizo Nishimuro, Chair man of the Board (Left), Tadashi Okamura, President and Chief Executive Officer (Right) headcount in Japan by some 12,000. At the end of March 2002, the Group had approxi- mately 176,400 employees, and we are on course to achieve our target reduction with a year to spare, by the end of March 2003. Although this resulted in major restruc- turing charges in fiscal 2001, it will yield savings this fis- cal year and in years to come that add to the bottom line. During fiscal 2001, we reduced total assets by ¥219.4 billion (US$1,650 million) through a wide rang- ing Asset Light program: ¥31 billion by securitization, ¥54.3 billion by liquidating real estates, ¥25 billion through leasing schemes, and ¥107.6 billion by expanding our global cash management systems. Across our businesses, we are open to collaboration with other leading-edge companies, in order to maximize allocation of assets, reinforce know-how and build market presence and profitability. In fiscal 2001, we entered into joint ventures that will support future growth in key business areas. We have agreed to develop third-generation (3G) cellular phones with Mitsubishi Electric Corporation. In semiconductors, we are working on a next-generation microprocessor with IBM Corporation and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc., and we are investigating a com- prehensive tie-up with Fujitsu Ltd., particularly in system-on- chip (SoC) solutions. Toshiba defines two broad business areas: Rapid growth businesses and consistent growth businesses, and we will follow the strategies necessary to enhance both. Our energies will not be confined to manufacturing. The collapse of the dot-com bubble was not the failure of the vir- tual economy but of an over-optimistic business model. There can be no doubt that, in coming years, people will increasingly turn to the Internet for information, education, entertainment, shopping and much more. We will support this with platform businesses that create e-platforms, the virtual infrastructure for B2B and B2C, and with ASP and other services. We will also realize the wider world of anytime, anywhere delivery of information and services by supporting development in mobile broadcasting and ITS. We see these as areas where strong competitiveness in products. Chip sets, displays, com- puting, imaging know-how and high-capacity storage devices are all must-haves for the broadband age. To these, Toshiba can also add technologies in areas as diverse as image com- pression, wireless networking and voice synthesis. Adroit inte- gration of these technologies opens the way for Toshiba to bring to market new value-added products and services. To sum up, Toshiba has the ability to meet increasingly diverse customer needs with total solutions. Toshiba can boast of cut- ting-edge experience and Breathtaking advances in IT are making a reality of digital convergence. And putting the focus on areas where Toshiba has industry-defining capabili- ties. The emergence of high- capacity broadband networks, especially advances in wire- less and video communica- tions, will support our growth in digital, mobile and broad- casting technologies, products and systems. 1. Rapid Growth Businesses: Digital Media, Mobile, Semi- conductors, LCDs, Solutions and Platforms Collaboration and Joint Ventures Future Business Development 3