October 2023
Representative Director, Chairperson and CEO, Yumiko Takano
Our unchanging value is to offer “Wonderful Dreams, Moving Experiences, Happiness and Contentment.” I will give my all to carrying out my duties so that our Group can contribute to society, seamlessly linking its dreams of the past, present, and future.
In April 2023, Tokyo Disney Resort celebrated its 40th anniversary. I wish to sincerely thank all our stakeholders for their generous support over the years.
I am honored to take up the position of Representative Director, Chairperson and CEO in this milestone year. I feel a great responsibility in this role to carry on the heritage and business built up by the management teams and senior colleagues who have gone before us. Taking all the high expectations of our Group, and a fondness toward our business to heart, I am committed to evolving our management.
I joined the Company in 1980, three years before the opening of Tokyo Disneyland. I was drawn to the vision of bringing Disneyland to Japan. I wanted to do whatever I could to be part of launching the Japanese version of Disneyland. Since then, I have worked to develop Tokyo Disney Resort, guided by the unchanging value of our philosophy, “Wonderful Dreams, Moving Experiences, Happiness and Contentment.” I am ready to give my all to my work so that we can continue contributing to society, seamlessly linking our Group’s dreams of the past, present, and future.
Our Goal for 2030 at the OLC Group is “Bringing more Happiness to you and the community.” As part of this, we are currently carrying out reforms aimed at a better future for society, with the aim of continuing to be a corporation in which employees can truly take pride in.
The goal of our sustainability management is to achieve long-term sustainable growth while contributing to a sustainable society. Above all else, we value the strength of our people. It is vital to have people who feel happiness and joy at being part of this business, people who feel happy when they make others happy. Sustainable management cannot be done by one company alone. It is only possible when a business is accepted by those around it. A company must cooperate with those around it to create a virtuous cycle, and this can only happen when there is love for the earth and for others.
Disney theme parks are based on the core value of telling a story. They are based on love for family, friends, children and animals, and for the environment and nature that surround them. Because we feel love unconsciously, we get a sense of nostalgia, warmth, and affection. As that feeling builds up little by little, people feel moved. Resonating with that feeling is the role of our cast members. In the end, the value we provide is passed on from the cast members to our guests. So if the cast members themselves are not happy, they will not be able to sow the seeds of joy around them.
Our Group has set eight ESG Materiality including “Employee happiness,” and promotes measures to complement and strengthen the sustainable development of our business.
I personally supervised our strategy on ESG materiality as the Director of the Corporate Strategy Planning Division until June 2023. Through talks with management and many employees, I realized that we had made a strong impression on employees with the concepts of sustainability and ESG perspectives, which were spreading within our company.
On June 6, 2024, we will open Fantasy Springs, our largest development since Tokyo DisneySea. This new theme port will recreate the world of Walt Disney Animation Studios movies Frozen, Peter Pan, and Tangled, which are loved by people of all ages. It will also include the Tokyo DisneySea Fantasy Springs Hotel, a park integrated hotel with luxury rooms. We are confident that we will be able to deliver a dreamlike experience unlike anything else in the world.
In 2027, at Tokyo Disneyland we will renovate Space Mountain and the surrounding area, a popular attraction since the opening of the park. Through the redesign, we will offer our guests a novel and unique immersive experience in Tomorrowland.
Beyond that, we will go on creating new excitement through our attractions and entertainment, enhancing our brand value and taking on the challenge of various business possibilities.
I hope that you will continue to take an interest in our business. Thank you all for your understanding and support.
October 2023
Representative Director, President and COO, Kenji Yoshida
Two years have passed since I took up the role of president. With a pandemic underway unlike any other before it, it has been a unique two years to have to steer the business through. cast members and our other employees thought about what they could do in the face of so many constraints. They used their creativity and gave their all to providing happiness to our guests. Thanks to those efforts, we were able to overcome the crisis.
Seeing this, I felt a strong sense of the power of people that drives the business of our Group and opens up the future. It also made me think deeply of the purpose of the Group, which has developed its business in a kind of industry of the heart that values interactions between people. Amid risks of extended closures, I also felt keenly how much our business model has come to rely on attracting visitors.
Drawing from this experience, in April 2022 we set forth our direction for long-term growth with our Goal for 2030, “Bringing more ’Happiness‘ to you and the community,” and identified eight ESG Materiality.
We also formulated our 2024 Medium-Term Plan, putting in place a policy we call “Recovery from the pandemic and taking on challenges for the future,” and have endeavored to achieve financial recovery.
Regarding the 2024 Medium-Term Plan, our performance has, as mentioned above, recovered rapidly. In my view we have taken a good step forward in terms of addressing our challenges for the future.
In FY2023, we will continue to steadily implement various measures, verifying the impact on experience value, such as, for example, concentrated areas of demand within the theme park. As we do so, we will, as appropriate, consider initiatives for improving experience value.
We recently shifted to a phase of implementation. This has included changing our system for promoting ESG, which had previously been centered on the ESG department, and also broadening the ESG materiality initiatives led by directors of the business department.
I have a real sense that, as we have made this shift, we have integrated into our management the concepts of ESG and sustainability, which are now spreading gradually throughout the company.
ESG matters have become part of our discussions at management meetings and meetings of the Board of Directors. At the Sustainability Promotion Committee, which I chair, we had a wide-ranging discussion about our employees and environment related matters. We covered various considerations such as social trends and the needs of our guests before putting the matter to a vote.
We view respect for human rights and diversity as the foundation of our Group’s business. While continuing to discuss them in this way, we must accept each other's differences, reinforcing our organizational structure so that it we can respond flexibly to change.
My background is in the Food Division, so I am always sensitive to the topics of reducing single-use plastics in restaurant cutlery and curbing food loss. At the restaurants in the theme parks, we are eliminating straws and replacing them with straw-less lids. At some restaurants, paper cups for beer are gradually being replaced with aluminum ones. Through measures like these, we are making steady progress in conserving resources and in using resources more effectively.
I believe that invisible capital becomes visible in the future. I believe that strive to provide value to society through ESG materiality is vital and it leads to future improvements in our financial indicators. This is because continuing our business activities naturally requires that we have a relationship with the environment and society; and our employees, including our cast members, are themselves members and guests of society.
We will advance ESG and sustainability one step at a time, building our relationship of trust with society and stakeholders in the same way that we build relationships of trust between people. I believe this will lay the foundation for our future finances.
For the Group, human capital is the core of our business and the wellspring of our earnings. Originally, the Group had a culture in which senior staff nurtured juniors, while junior staff respected seniors and learned from them, so that there was a sense of encouraging independent growth. As we re-examine the importance of personal relationships in the wake of the pandemic, I have a strong intention to reinvigorate this culture, which is part of our DNA.
Being able to work with a sense of pride means being able to feel that you are growing through your work. In that sense, I think it is very important to take one step forward and encourage others, as stated in the personnel measures of our 2024 Medium-Term Plan. In the past year, I have been quite active in communicating the importance of employees taking one step forward by themselves, and the importance of Company management prompting and supporting that one step.
So how exactly do we do that? I believe that while it is important to build a system that encourages employee development and growth, it is in the end still vital to maintain dialogue. Over the past year, we have begun to resume dialogue throughout the Company, internally and externally. We are just at the stage of having begun to turn the gears of communication again. It will take time, but as the gears of communication turn, I am confident that it will lead to an enormous and formidable organizational strength.
”KATARIBA” meetings as a forum for dialogue between managers about job satisfaction and the ideal state of the organization. My focus has been on having these dialogues at the management level to begin with. Instead of deciding on a particular theme, we have a wide-ranging and free-form discussions on topics such as opinions on the 2024 Medium-Term Plan and the background to my becoming President. It is a fulfilling time when you can hear various ideas that you had not thought of. As you listen to them, you gain many insights, so the time passes by quickly. In the future, I would like to expand these dialogues to include regular staff.
As we celebrate the 40th anniversary of Tokyo Disney Resort, I feel that we have finally overcome the challenging period of the past three years.
When we see the smiles of our guests in the theme park, we realize that the space we create is an essential part of their lives. “Aiming to create a square where a never-ending hymn to humanity resounds.” When we drew up the land plan for Maihama, all executives and employees shared that sentiment toward the operations they were part of. People come into contact with each other regardless of their age, gender, nationality or lifestyle. Together they rejoice, laugh, and are moved, and their voices resound. It is truly the formation of a “culture of mutual human understanding.” Our mission in our business is to continue realizing and providing that wonderful world. It was precisely because of these three years that we have been able to reaffirm the Group’s purpose.
Looking ahead, my role as president will be to pursue different approaches to growth for our Group, including new businesses. My aim in doing so is to set the Group up for sustainable growth in the next 50 to 100 years. To this end, while firmly responding to the situation at hand, we will consider management from a long-term perspective. I believe that turning these two wheels will ultimately lead to employee happiness, create happiness, and contribute to society. That belief will guide me as I carry out my duties.
To grow as a company that exceeds the expectations of investors, shareholders, and many other stakeholders, we will continue carrying out dialogues as we strive for the sustainable development of our business. Thank you for your continued confidence and support.
