Q1.	What was the percentage of DRAM or NAND flash memory to total orders for memory during the January-March period?
A1.	Orders for DRAM were strong, accounting for 72% of total memory orders, with NAND flash memory making up the remaining 28%.

Q2.	What are prospects of orders for the April-June period?
A2.	Orders are likely to fall by around 10-20% compared to the January-March period, indicating that there is more or less a lull in the market. We estimate that approximately 70% of orders for semiconductor production equipment represent investments for memory.

Q3.	What are prospects of orders for DRAM equipment in the future? Is there any change to the previous view that orders for semiconductor production equipment will increase toward the second half of the year?
A3.	Although there will be a phase in which orders slacken off slightly midyear, manufacturers will start to determine the scale of their investments for the second half of the year and thereafter around autumn with an eye on full-scale growth in demand for PCs running Windows Vista. Therefore, there is a possibility of orders recovering again.

Q4.	Investments for memory are prominent, but what is the status of your business with logic and system LSI manufacturers?
A4.	Further business development can be expected in the future as system LSI manufacturers collaborate with production equipment manufacturers to improve process technology. Demand for logic LSIs is expected to grow as mobile phones and other devices continue to provide higher performance in the years to come.

Q5.	Financial forecasts for the current fiscal year show that on a half-year basis sales will decline compared to the second half of the previous fiscal year. Aren't they too conservative?
A5.	In the previous fiscal year, sales concentrated on the end of the fiscal year, boosting yearly sales. For the current fiscal year, there is room for improving operating income margin and other indicators we disclosed, and we aim to increase profitability further.

Q6.

What are prospects of sales for the next several years? Can you achieve one trillion yen in sales with the current production capacity?

A6.

Since demand for devices is expected to be high in 2008, we reckon that capital investments will grow from the second half of 2007 to the first half of 2008. The current demand for equipment, meanwhile, can be met by expanding the Kyushu Koshi Plant and the Matsushima Plant. When orders peak next, a new plant in Miyagi Prefecture, which is currently being planned, is expected to contribute to revenues.

Q7.	New production equipment manufacturers are beginning to emerge overseas. What is your view of these manufacturers as your competitors?
A7.	These new manufacturers are also acquiring power, but we believe we are running ahead of them in areas that require high performance. In this industry, it is important to reduce costs at the development and design stages and provide customers with added value, areas in which we take the lead.

Q8.

What is the status of competition over oxide etch systems?

A8.

We do not believe that last year our share fell in the number of process of record. We estimate, however, that our competitors increased their market share as non-critical market segments grew where we are relatively weak. In addition, our customers where we are relatively strong kept their investments modest last year, but this year, the market environment has changed, making it likely that we can increase our market share. Furthermore, our performance of the new chamber we introduced last year is being highly evaluated by our customers, and we are confident that future sales will increase. We decided to expand the etch system manufacturing space at the Miyagi Plant because we aim to increase our share in this market segment.

Q9.	We believe immersion systems are currently shipped for NAND flash memory. Can they be offered for other applications?
A9.	So far specific technology for advancing the device miniaturization on a mass-production basis, other than immersion systems, has not been established. For this reason, we expect that immersion systems will be offered for such applications other than NAND flash memory, such as MPUs.

Q10.	The post sales business exceeded the goal of 100 billion yen. What drove such brisk sales?
A10.	Refurbish business contributed greatly to the brisk sales. In the post sales business, we set up an independent organization last year, a measure that allowed us to take flexible action in a segment where, up till then, we had lacked resources.