A Quick Guide to Unicharm
(Chapter 3: Unicharm’s objectives)

Unicharm concluded Project L, our 12th Medium-Term Management Plan—which was initially due to cover the three years from 2024 to 2026—in 2025. Through back casting from 2030, the year by which Unicharm aims to become the company we aspire to be, we have formulated Project Renaissance, our 13th Medium-Term Management Plan covering the five-year period from 2026 to 2030. This transition a year ahead of schedule aims to respond rapidly to dramatic changes in the business environment and return Unicharm to a new growth trajectory early on.

Under this plan, we will address unresolved issues that occurred during the 12th Medium-Term Management Plan while drawing on our previous successes to realize further growth.

The 13th Medium-Term Management Plan does not aim for growth that is a continuation of the past. Rather, the new plan seeks to break away from the past and set us on a discontinuous growth trajectory based on a complete rebuild of Unicharm's long-standing successful business model and on the decisive execution of a structural transformation centered on the “3Rs”, which combine the latest AI technology with human sensibilities. To drive this transformation forward, we launched the Companywide Make Unicharm Renaissance Project (MURP) in January 2026. Under this new project, the president & CEO proactively accelerates Groupwide transformation by serving as a “data strategy command center” and a “knowledge hub” who transcends barriers between SBUs (strategic business units), functional divisions, and other organizational units.

Unicharm positions returning profits to shareholders as one of our top management priorities. While prioritizing business investments to achieve further growth, we have consistently provided stable dividends based on our medium-to-long-term consolidated performance. In addition, by flexibly conducting share buybacks as necessary, we had previously targeted a total shareholder payout ratio of 50% or more. For the period of the 13th Medium-Term Management Plan, announced in February 2026, we have significantly raised this target to 65% or more. Furthermore, our shareholder return policy entails maintaining a dividend on equity (DOE) of 4.5% or more for five years and achieving consecutive dividend increases. Going forward, we will continue to enhance our capacity to generate cash flows and endeavor to enhance our corporate value, while striving to meet the expectations of our stakeholders through proactive shareholder returns.