News Releases

Hitachi Begins "Kizashi Project" with the University of
Campinas to Identify Future Social Trends in Brazil

Project aims to contribute to the discovery of new areas of development in
Social Innovation Business

São Paulo, Brazil, February 28, 2014 --- Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501, "Hitachi") and the Division of Research and Development ("Brazil Lab") in Hitachi Brazil Ltda, today announced that it has started "Kizashi Project" with the University of Campinas. The goal of the project, which is one of Hitachi's R&D localization activities, is to identify future social trends in Brazil and to anticipate new business opportunities in that country.

Kizashi is a method of intelligence gathering that seeks to identify changes in future user's values. This practical design method is created using the know-hows and the design methodologies that are cultivated from Hitachi's holistic design covering products, information and services. By conducting research focusing on documents and digital data with a perspective of PEST analysis (Political, Economic, Social and Technological analysis), the analyzed factors will be applied to a timeline to identify future directions and trends. With this project, Hitachi and the University of Campinas will examine the following:

(1)

Future trends in Brazil will be investigated through the PEST analysis, and the results will be evaluated with the University of Campinas students. The factors that generate the most discussion will be extracted for deeper exploration. Since these university students will be among Brazil's future leaders, it will benefit them to have a greater understanding of the "Kizashi" methodology and how it can be used to anticipate future trends in the social and economic development of their country.

(2)

The validity of the extracted information will be assessed by professionals through interviews. Validated Kizashi will be applied to targeted business segments for visualizing potential situations. The results of this project will be valuable for targeting areas of potential future new business development in Brazil.

Through these activities, the Brazilian lab aims to identify the technologies and systems that Brazil really needs to further develop its economy and to promote future business expansion. It is hoped that the results of the project will contribute to the development and implementation of a sustainable Brazilian society using Social Innovation technologies as well as the expansion of existing enterprises.

About Hitachi, Ltd.

Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE: 6501), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company with approximately 326,000 employees worldwide. The company's consolidated revenues for fiscal 2012 (ended March 31, 2013) totaled 9,041 billion yen ($96.1 billion). Hitachi is focusing more than ever on the Social Innovation Business, which includes infrastructure systems, information & telecommunication systems, power systems, construction machinery, high functional material & components, automotive systems and others.
For more information on Hitachi, please visit the company's website at http://www.hitachi.com.