For the past 19 years Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd. (FHI) has entered its Subaru World Rally Team (SWRT) in WRC competitions in the pursuit of our goals of further enhancing Subaru brand awareness and elevating its brand image. Through its WRC entry, the Subaru factory team has endeavored to communicate the idea that Subaru vehicles provide safe, comfortable and pleasurable driving on differing terrain or roads around the world and under any climate conditions, all of which is enabled by our core technologies: Horizontally-Opposed engines and the Symmetrical All-Wheel drive system. The FIA WRC has been the most effective venue for Subaru vehicles to demonstrate their essential traits.

Subaru has won three WRC manufacturer’s championship titles and three driver’s championship titles. We now believe that our initial objective to enhance the value of the Subaru brand through WRC participation has been attained by these achievements. In addition, WRC has provided us with the know-how and technology required for grueling rally driving, which have fed back into our work in the development of Subaru cars.

Subaru’s disappointing results in the WRC in the past three years, however, prompted us to review participation in WRC and motorsports activities in our overall Subaru branding strategy as we drew up our future management plan. In this process we mulled over the idea of “graduating” from WRC and considered withdrawal at the end of 2009 season. The business environment in the meantime has dramatically deteriorated in the context of global economic turmoil since this fall, triggered by the financial crisis in the United States. The resulting widespread economic downturn has affected the automotive industry globally. These extreme circumstances required a decisive action and a change in our plan, which led to the withdrawal from WRC at the end of 2008 season, one year earlier than our original consideration.

Reaching that decision was extremely difficult when we thought about our many fans who have supported our factory team and rally events over the years. With regard to our future involvement in rally activities, FHI will continue to support the teams and drivers of Subaru vehicles who participate in P-WRC or the Group N category. We also plan to continue our efforts in encouraging Subaru drivers to participate in motorsports activities by supporting local rallies and events in Japan and overseas.

Looking back for a moment on our WRC activities, I must say that we owe so much to them. WRC participation has raised the Subaru brand image, particularly of such cars as the Legacy and Impreza. These and other models have certainly benefited from our WRC experience, which ultimately boosted both their product appeal and their fundamental character.

I reckon that WRC has become an integral part of the Subaru image for many Subaru customers and rally fans, and that Subaru blue conjures up the image of a winning blue liveried Impreza for many people. For instance, Rally Japan, which became one of the WRC rallies five years ago, takes place in Hokkaido, where many Subaru fans drive their Subarus from all over Japan to congregate and cheer for Subaru by flying blue Subaru flags with the six-star constellation. Whenever we see groups of fans clad in Subaru blue along roadsides, cheering for Subaru in WRC rallies, we are moved and encouraged, and we resolve to make improvements and produce better cars for them. We have always appreciated the enthusiastic support and faith shown to Subaru by our fans around the world, and they will continue to be an invaluable asset to us.

It was an extremely daunting task for me to decide to bring our WRC participation to an end. Despite withdrawal from the WRC, Subaru’s main goal remains firm: to create Subaru vehicles that provide safe, comfortable and pleasurable driving. We will continue to build cars that offer an unprecedented driving experience by integrating comfort, safety, and reliability with environmental considerations. In other words, we still strive to offer an array of attractive cars that provide peace of mind to drivers while enhancing their driving pleasure. We will also continue to strengthen our after-sales service and enrich every user’s driving experience. We will fully utilize our resources to meet the needs of our users and fans by further focusing on our basic philosophy, “Our customer comes first.”

In concluding, I would like to draw attention to our long-time partner in Subaru’s FIA WRC entries, Prodrive, a motorsports and automotive engineering group in the United Kingdom. Their expertise and valuable insight into motorsports and their passion to make Subaru a winner have strengthened the SWRT since 1989. In the nascent years of Subaru motorsports activities, Prodrive was especially instrumental in helping Subaru compete among top world-class teams. I reported our decision earlier to Mr. David Richards, Prodrive chairman, and conveyed my sincere thanks to his company for our long-term professional partnership.

I also want to thank Petter Solberg and Chris Atkins for their unwavering efforts and contributions to bringing Subaru WRC championship titles over the years. We wish to continue our support of their rally activities whenever possible.

Last but not least, I thank the thousands of Subaru rallying fans around the world from the bottom of my heart, and I extend my heartfelt thanks to our staff members who supported our WRC activities, and to the members of the FIA and WRC organizations.