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Goals and Results Promoting Cooperation with Industry Promoting Joint Research Projects

Promoting Global Collaboration

Working with Industry, Government, and Academia

Front and center in the Mitsui Chemicals Group’s Long-term Business Plan as it looks toward 2025 is the promotion of“customer-driven innovation.” With this in mind, it is vitally important that the Group quickly uncover the needs andrequirements of customers and end-users in downstream domains. The Mitsui Chemicals Group will actively promotecollaboration with industry, government, and academia throughout its R&D process in order to further deepen itscapabilities in such core technological fields as organic and polymer chemistry, which it has nurtured over many years, andto forge a presence in new technology fields that are more in line with the values of downstream customers and end-users,an area in which the Group has been weak.

Management System

Policy

Serving as a technology platform, the Mitsui Chemicals Group maintains technologies and personnel that lay at the heart ofits efforts to create a diverse array of products and services. Based on these platforms, we are uncovering the technologiesnecessary to realize customer-driven innovation while putting forward and carrying out utilization plans encompassing awide range of areas including open innovation in a bid to secure the aforementioned technologies. Moreover, we are alsooverseeing efforts to strengthen technologies in core domains and develop human resources in line with technologicalplatforms.

System and Responsible Officers

With the responsible director in charge of the R&D Center, R&D managers periodically hold the R&D Strategy Conferenceand other meetings. Through each avenue, the Group is deliberating on strategies and management issues as they relateto R&D while working to put forward solutions.

Monitoring Methods

We use a Stage Gate System during product development in an effort to visualize the degree of progress made. Using thissystem, we are able to make efficient and rational decisions about continuing or discontinuing development, resourceallocation, and other issues.We are taking steps to assess whether there is any waste or delay in the development process based on our technologicalplatforms and Stage Gate System. Every effort is being made to ensure efficient operations. We have also received highmarks from public institutions for our joint research projects with industry, government, and academia.

Goals and Results

Goals for Fiscal 2016

Promote new business/product development through external collaborationDevelop innovative technologies by participating in joint research projectsStrengthen global networks

Fiscal 2016 Results and Assessment

Level achieved: A

Promoted new business/product development through external collaboration: new diagnostics and consulting businessfor photovoltaic power generation (PI Potovoltaik-Institut Berlin AG), joint development of the world’s highestmagnification stamp loupe (Hopnic Laboratory), metal resin integral molding technology (Taisei Plas Co., Ltd.), andlithium-ion battery safety materials (Industrial Technology Research Institute of Taiwan)Developed innovative technologies by participating in joint research projects: Artificial Photosynthesis Project(ARPChem), selected as a program in the Innovation Setup Scheme in collaboration with government and academia bythe Japan Agency for medical Research and Development (AMED), and development of a non-edible plant-basedchemical manufacturing process (New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization NEDO)Strengthened global networks: Promoted projects at the Mitsui Chemicals Singapore R&D Centre and participated in the2016 Mitsui Chemicals Catalysis Science Award lectures, etc.

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Priorities for Fiscal 2017

Promote open innovation activitiesPromote joint research projectsVerify business models that employ CVC

CVC (Corporate Venture Capital): Investment activities targeting external venture companies undertaken by businessentities.

＊ Levels of achievement based on self-assessment: A: 95% or more, B: 70% or more and less than 95%, C: less than70%

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Mitsui Chemicals’ POLYMETAC™ To Be Used in Lightweight Frames of New Autonomous Unmanned Aerial Vehicles

The new autonomous unmanned aerialvehicle from Aerosense

A hybrid product of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) and aluminum jointparts made using POLYMETAC™ technology

World’s Highest Magnification Stamp Loupe Will Help Persons with Low Vision and Age-related Vision Problems


Promoting Cooperation with Industry

Actively seeking to team up with external partners in areas that include open innovation, the Mitsui Chemicals Group ispromoting new business and new product development that will lead to the creation of new customer value, such as theunified offering of products and solutions that the Company had not previously obtained on its own.

Initiatives Aimed at Development of Integrated Metal/Resin Parts

Since concluding a comprehensive licensing agreement with Taiseiplas Co., Ltd. in 2012, the Mitsui Chemicals Group hasworked diligently to develop POLYMETAC™, a technology that facilitates the strong adhesion and bonding of variousmetals and resins that was not possible using conventional methods.A hybrid product of carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) and aluminum joints having been adopted for use in the framesof Aerosense Inc.’s autonomous unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) in fiscal 2015, Mitsui Chemicals is helping to improve theUAV’s range by reducing its weight and to simplify its manufacturing process by reducing the number of parts and steps.

Co-development of World’s Highest Magnification Stamp Loupe

The Mitsui Chemicals Group, together with the Nippon Lighthouse Welfare Center for the Blind and Hopnic Laboratory,announced the successful co-development of a stamp loupe with the world’s highest magnification. By drawing on HopnicLaboratory’s state-of-the-art lens manufacturing technologies to form a lens made with Mitsui Chemicals’ MRTM highrefractive index ophthalmic lens material—as is widely used in thin and lightweight glass lenses—they succeeded inachieving both high magnification and reduced burden on users.The product will help improve the quality of life (QOL) of seniors who find the reading of small print difficult and of personswith weak eyesight (amblyopia), who are unable to obtain visual acuity that is to their satisfaction even when fully corrected.

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Promoting Joint Research Projects

Through its participation in joint research projects with industry, government and academia, the Mitsui Chemicals Groupintegrates internal and external technologies and knowledge and engages in efforts to find solutions to social issues that itwould be difficult to realize independently.

Participating in the Artificial Photosynthesis Project

The Company signed up to participate in the Japan Technological Research Association of Artificial PhotosyntheticChemical Process (ARPChem) that was launched by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry in fiscal 2012. Aiming toestablish the technologies to manufacture basic chemical products, such as the raw materials for plastics, using CO2 andsolar energy from water, four private enterprises, including Mitsui Chemicals, are conducting—with The University of Tokyo,Kyoto University and Tokyo University of Science—the joint development of hydrogen production technologies by means ofphotocatalysts. Toward the creation of a sustainable society, the Mitsui Chemicals Group is working to resolve resourceand environmental challenges, including freeing ourselves from dependence on fossil fuel resources.

Joint Research with Toyama University Selected by AMED Program

The joint research that we are advancing with Toyama University has been selected by the Industry-AcademiaCollaborative Medical Innovation Creation Program of the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED).We are conducting collaborative research to provide a test kit for the novel, Toyama University-developed genetic testmethod (Tm mapping method) that rapidly identifies the bacteria that cause sepsis.

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The Mitsui Chemicals Group created the Mitsui Chemicals Catalysis ScienceAward and the Mitsui Chemicals Catalysis Science Award of Encouragementand has presented them every two years since 2004 in recognition ofresearchers who have made outstanding contributions to the field of catalysisscience. In fiscal 2016, a total of three winners were selected from among theentries from around the world, and an awards ceremony and a commemorativeevent for the award winners took place as part of the Chemical Society of Japan(CSJ) Chemistry Festa.

General view of the award presentationceremony



Through the promotion of projects at its overseas bases, such as at the Mitsui Chemicals Group Singapore R&D Centre,the Mitsui Chemicals Group aims to closely monitor the needs of its customers across the world.We are also working to make our core technology domains more elaborate through exchanges with researchers both inJapan and overseas.

Support for Fruits and Vegetable Transportation Testing in Singapore

At the Mitsui Chemicals Singapore R&D Centre, which serves as the Mitsui Chemicals Group’s overseas research anddevelopment base, a service is being conducted that supports the testing of fruits and vegetables transported from Japan toSingapore. Providing the equipment to assess the quality, such as the taste, color, and freshness, of the fruits andvegetables that have been transported, we supply large refrigerators for temporary storage and other services to enhancethe convenience of users in Southeast Asia.

Mitsui Chemicals Catalysis Science Award and Award of Encouragement

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Working with Industry, Government, and Academia · Working with Industry, Government, and Academia ... Working with Industry, Government, and ... Participating in the Artificial Photosynthesis