Messages from External Directors and Audit ＆ Supervisory Board Members

Fast Retailing is expected to grow strongly in the future. To help fulfill those expectations, I intend to ensure solid global risk management and offer advice from a broad range of perspectives. I believe the best way to increase shareholder value is to value capital market perspectives and objectively judge how these markets perceive Fast Retailing's corporate value.

Fast Retailing is actively transforming into a digital consumer retailing company by making efficient investments in the IT area, and is accelerating internal efforts to convert analyzed data into useful wisdom. It is also earning greater recognition as a company that successfully employs IT from a social perspective as well. Fast Retailing is attracting exceptionally talented IT employees and building frameworks to support its next stage of growth. I will continue to support this process as an external director.

Our Board is well-balanced and boasts members with diverse business backgrounds. Everyone exchanges lively opinions and Mr. Yanai is always open to ideas. During my career as a senior manager, I believed that a company's frontline operations were paramount, and I still do. I make casual visits to stores and listen to customer opinions. I also propose management improvements gleaned from my experiences as an individual consumer.

Fast Retailing has reached the stage where it will want to accelerate the development of global operations. The company will have even greater growth potential if it encourages employees from diverse backgrounds to take on more active roles. I feel my task as a female external director who is not a Japanese national is to offer advice on how to optimize this potential. I also draw on my experience working in a securities company to help promote further growth while also highlighting capital markets and governance perspectives.

I intend to use my experience and expertise in construction to offer better proposals and advice on the building of sustainable next-generation stores that will meet future standards. That means determinedly balancing profit and sustainability and pursuing necessary steps based on future scenarios. As an external director, I want to support this kind of innovation at Fast Retailing.

I worked for many years in the food industry, so the idea of LifeWear as a daily necessity resonates with me. I apply the international management knowledge acquired during postings to the United States and Asia to my role as an external director. I want to help improve medium- to long-term corporate value at Fast Retailing, while also remaining aware of the importance of balancing the desire to take on new challenges with the need to address increasingly diverse global risks.

Companies that operate in the global arena often face unexpected challenges. I believe it is extremely important that external Audit & Supervisory Board members support Fast Retailing's corporate growth while also offering risk-mitigating advice from multiple perspectives. I will continue to do my utmost to conduct vigilant reviews and strengthen corporate structures from a fair and objective standpoint.

The stronger the opinion, the more attentively Mr. Yanai listens, so Audit & Supervisory Board Members and directors can always conduct open-minded discussions. With over 30 years' experience as a corporate restructuring consultant, accountant, and tax expert, I can advise on these matters and also offer suggestions on various issues that go beyond my external Audit & Supervisory Board Member remit.

I believe it is the duty of every Audit & Supervisory Board member to carefully examine whether the decision-making process is appropriate, whether there are any risks that might interfere with the company's business plans, and whether the proper internal controls have been established across all businesses. I want to use my experience in global corporate management, IT, and management system design to help promote sustainable growth for Fast Retailing, which is currently expanding rapidly on a global scale.