CEO Introduction

Long History
ITOCHU Corporation, founded in 1858, boasts a history of 160 years. We opened our Seoul branch in February 1967 shortly after the normal diplomatic relations were established between Korea and Japan. Since then, we have been promoting trades and businesses in various fields for 56 years.
We are honored to contribute to the Korea’s rapid economic growth, called “the Miracle of Hangang River”, by investing technology and funds to expand various businesses.

New Paradigm, New Mission, and New ITOCHU Korea Ltd.
In September 1994, we newly established a local corporation ITOCHU Korea Ltd. in accordance with the Korean government’s encouragement to expand its exports. Since then, the Korean economy and corporations went global facing a new paradigm through the 1997 financial crisis and the 2008 Lehman crisis. Against this backdrop, we strive every day to become a new ITOCHU Korea that can meet our new mission as a Japanese trading firm.

Business Environment – Korea-Japan Partnership in the 21st Century
With US-China economic tension still ongoing, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year took the world by surprise. Consequently, the global community is further divided between countries that share the universal values of freedom, human rights, and rule of law against autocratic states centering around China and Russia. Furthermore, global production system and supply chain which were built upon post-Cold War globalization trend are now being redefined, stressing the need for a new supply chain system that is driven by the concept of “friend-shoring”. Cooperation between Korea and Japan has never been as vital with the two countries facing common challenges, such as decarbonization, securing of energy resources, managing relations with neighboring China, and security issues. With the new administration taking office, the Korean government is making various efforts to improve Korea-Japan relations, which is expected to further solidify the economic bond and to improve the relationship between the two countries better than it had even been before. As a result, more business and investment opportunities will emerge and partnerships in diverse fields will be achieved.

Together with ITOCHU Group
ITOCHU Group has approximately 90 global offices in over 61 countries. Despite COVID-19, ITOCHU was able to achieve a net profit of 800.5 billion yen (2022) in the consolidated financial statement, which is comparable to the number in 2021, which achieved the highest profit, in the areas of textile, machinery, metal, energy, chemical, food, general merchandise, information, and finance industries. This is the result of ITOCHU Group’s unified sense of approach, putting into practice “Lean Management” to “Earn” through profitable projects, to “Prevent” unpredictable losses in advance, and to “Reduce” expenses for effective use of funds. Based on such philosophy, ITOCHU Korea, an independent local entity, is also engaged in businesses in the fields of chemical, energy, metal, textile, machinery, food, and general product.

Vision of ITOCHU Korea
Today, we are in the middle of a global wave of structural transition: the new way of thinking and business prompted by COVID-19, the transformation and reshuffling of corporations and industries due to the technology innovations such as IT, EC, DX, and Cloud, the response to ESG, and the geopolitical issues in East Asia. The wave of structural change that we face is accelerating and the tasks that ITOCHU Korea has to deal with are infinite.
Under the idea of “Market in” which believes profit sources lie closest to consumers, ITOCHU will achieve business reforms. At the same time, we will play our role to shape a capitalistic world that contributes to all stakeholders and create a sustainable society to realize UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) by supporting the maintenance of livelihood and improving the environment.

President & CEO
Haruo Maeda