As megacities confront congestion, sustainability, and demographic change, Tokyo Metro Co., Ltd. is leveraging railway efficiency, transit-oriented development, and operational expertise to strengthen Tokyo’s smart city model while pursuing long-term international expansion. Today I would like to take the time to discuss several important themes in depth. To start, I would like to talk about the strengths of Japanese railway operating companies. In many Western metro systems, the emphasis tends to be on public ownership, and in many cases the systems are operated by government organizations or heavily supported by public subsidies. Historically, however, railway operators in Japan have developed a vertically integrated model. From your perspective, how would you describe the strengths of Japanese railway operators, and how does the Japanese model compare with those in Europe or the United States? One very important difference is the population density of cities. I believe that globally there are very few cities that can operate railways profitably without subsidies, and most of those examples are in Asia. For a railway system to be profitable, the city needs to have a certain level of population density. However, I’m not sure if railways in which can operate independently are sufficient. To illustrate this point, imagine a Japanese city with a population of around five hundred thousand people. Cities such as Kanazawa or Kagoshima fall into that category. Kagoshima has a tram system, but it does not have a subway network like those found in larger metropolitan areas. However, if you look at Europe, many cities of roughly five hundred thousand people have both a subway system and a surrounding tram network that together form a well-developed public transportation structure. In Japan, urban railways tend to exist primarily in cities where they can operate independently and sustain themselves financially. In Europe, on the other