News Releases

Hitachi Hosts “Hitachi SOCIAL INNOVATION FORUM 2015 -TOKYO-”

The Largest Scale Hitachi Group Event in the World

Tokyo, September 15, 2015 --- Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501) today announced that it will host “Hitachi SOCIAL INNOVATION FORUM 2015 -TOKYO-” on October 29 and 30 as part of growth strategies for expanding the Social Innovation Business. This event, scheduled to be held at the Tokyo International Forum, a convention center in Tokyo metropolitan area, is the largest of any Hitachi Group event in the world.

This event is positioned as the flagship among Hitachi events held in various regions throughout the world, including North America, Europe, and Asia. Through lectures, seminars, and exhibits, it introduces to customers and business partners the Group's desire to resolve a variety of issues that the world is facing and to create a bright and prosperous future through the Social Innovation Business, which organically combines Hitachi's infrastructure technologies and cutting-edge IT to build more advanced social infrastructures. This year's event is expected to welcome 45,000 visitors, an increase of 10% compared to 2014.

In a keynote speech entitled “Social Innovation - Delivering New Value Through “Collaborative Creation””, Hitachi, Ltd. Chairman & CEO Hiroaki Nakanishi will talk about how the Group will create new value by achieving innovations through “Collaborative Creation” with a variety of partners, in the midst of dramatic and ongoing changes to society and business brought about by the Internet of Things (IoT).

The Forum promises to offer many hints from leaders in various fields for accelerating social innovations. In a special speech, Chris Anderson, the author of the bestsellers “The Long Tail” and “Free,” will give his outlook on the creation of new value through open innovation in a presentation entitled “The 21st Century Industrial Revolution.” The Forum will also feature a dialogue between Shinichi Fukuoka, a biologist and professor at Aoyama Gakuin University, and the architect Kazuyo Sejima, about the future image of urban area from the perspectives of both life and architecture; a speech by Tom Kelly, a partner at the design consulting company IDEO, introducing “Design Thinking” and other secrets to innovations; and a speech by Tomoko Namba, Chairman of the Board of DeNA Co., Ltd. (which operates “Mobage,” one of the most popular mobile game platforms in Japan) about teamwork for generating new value.

In the Business Session, Hitachi executives, along with opinion leaders, experts, and managers active in a wide range of fields throughout the world, will introduce seven areas of activities that have gained considerable attention recently: IoT, social infrastructures, service innovations, health care, new energy, railways, and business incubation. This session will offer a glimpse into the rich future that is being opened up by Social Innovations. Participants in the Business Session will include Professor Jun Murai, Dean of the Faculty of Environment and Information Studies at Keio University; and, from Hitachi, Yutaka Saito, President & CEO of the Information & Telecommunication Systems Group; the landscape architect Masayuki Wakui; and from Hitachi Kunizo Sakai, President & CEO of the Infrastructure Systems Company; Masaya Watanabe, President & CEO of the Healthcare Group; and Alistair Dormer, Global CEO in charge of the Rail Systems Business.

At the SOCIAL INNOVATION Theme Stage, which will serve as the exhibit venue, Hitachi will introduce a broad range of hints that will accelerate Social Innovations, through more than 90 experience-based and stereoscopic displays that will arouse visitors' interest and stimulate dialog. Exhibits will be divided into a total of seven categories; six business categories - Infrastructure (water and mobility), Energy (deregulation of electric power and stable supply), Urban (office building sectors), Healthcare (the care cycle), Industry (manufacturing), and Business & Service (work styles, creating business, and strengthening platforms) - and Security (physical and cyber security), which serves as a common base for those six business fields. In addition, Hitachi will demonstrate the appeal of its Social Innovation Business through more than 40 easy-to-understand seminars introducing solutions and practical case studies using platform technologies that are being rolled out at an increasingly rapid pace, including Symbiotic Autonomous Decentralization and the IoT, as well as the Cloud, Big Data, and artificial intelligence.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, delivers innovations that answer society's challenges with our talented team and proven experience in global markets. The company's consolidated revenues for fiscal 2014 (ended March 31, 2015) totaled 9,761 billion yen ($81.3 billion). Hitachi is focusing more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes power & infrastructure systems, information & telecommunication systems, construction machinery, high functional materials & components, automotive systems, healthcare and others. For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.