To Our Stakeholders
Since our founding in 1930, Iwatani Corporation has provided a wide range of products and services for both daily life and industrial applications, including energy, industrial gases, and materials, based on our corporate philosophy: Become a person needed by society, as those needed by society can prosper. These efforts are grounded in our desire to contribute to society by creating new value society will need in the future. This is the major driving force underlying the progress of our businesses.
Since 1941, when we identified hydrogen as the ultimate clean energy source, we have pushed for progress toward widespread use of hydrogen energy. Under the corporate slogan adopted in 1970 on the 40th anniversary of our founding－Creation of a more comfortable space on the Earth is what Iwatani wishes and strives for－we strive to help achieve the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and realize carbon neutrality by 2050 through hydrogen.
As a co-representative of the Japan Hydrogen Association established in December 2020 and as a key member of the Hydrogen Council established chiefly by global energy firms, we are acting to promote use of hydrogen around the world with the aim of moving toward a hydrogen energy-based society.
To stimulate new hydrogen demand, we are developing hydrogen- refueling stations in Japan and in the United States in response to the spread of fuel cell vehicles (FCVs). In particular, we are focusing on developing hydrogen-refueling stations for fuel cell commercial vehicles, including trucks and buses, whose use is expected to grow in the future.
We are securing new hydrogen demand by meeting customer needs to reduce carbon emissions through means including factory decarbonization and hydrogen supply as a fuel to enable real-world means of transportation and mobility, whether by train, marine craft, or other, at large scale.
Our efforts to secure CO2-free hydrogen sources include studying the commercialization of green liquid hydrogen production with a power utility in Australia. In addition, the Liquefied Hydrogen Supply Chain Commercialization Demonstration Project in which we participate has been selected by the New Energy and Industrial Technology Development Organization (NEDO) for funding from the Green Innovation Fund. This project will include feasibility studies on developing global liquid hydrogen supply chains integrating hydrogen production, liquefaction, shipping, marine transport, and receipt to establish the world’s first large-scale hydrogen liquefaction and transport technologies capable of handling capacities on the order of tens of thousands of tons per year.
In Japan, we are participating in the Fukushima Plan for a New Energy Society, a project intended to produce green hydrogen using electric power generated from renewable energy sources, as well as a project to produce hydrogen from plastic waste.
We are also studying a broad range of practical projects, including efforts to launch a new liquid hydrogen production plant. Our main LPG business has a customer base of more than 3.3 million households across Japan. We support our customers’ lives in various aspects, including stable supplies, solutions, security, community contributions, and the environment. We are making energetic progress to achieve LPG decarbonization through various efforts, including research on decarbonization through supplying LPG mixed with hydrogen, as well as synthetic green LPG production, as we head toward becoming the energy & living total service provider of choice for our customers and communities.
At the same time, to accelerate our efforts to increase our corporate value, we acquired stock in Cosmo Energy Holdings Co., Ltd. in December 2023 and March 2024, raising our stake to more than 20% and making Cosmo Energy Holdings an equity method investee. Both companies will move forward with efforts to achieve a decarbonized society through the hydrogen business and other activities, as well as strengthening their relationships in existing business fields such as LPG.
As we advance toward our 100th anniversary and beyond, we remain firmly committed to achieving sustained growth, and will continue to offer new value to all our stakeholders.
Chairman and CEO
President