We see your products everywhere. Sometimes, you capture our attention, as with the paint on a gaily colored home. Other times, we see your products without even noticing that they are there, as in the weatherproof coating on a skyscraper.
I remind employees that our products always are in the public eye. We furnish color and protection for great suspension bridges that stretch across Japan's Inland Sea. We provide long-lasting beauty for home exteriors and interiors. Golfers tee off with balls coated with paints from Dai Nippon Toryo.
   So I'd say that we enjoy ample exposure. And as you say, our products also render important service in inconspicuous applications. For example, they protect the steel skeletons of towering office buildings from rust.

By the standards of the paint industry, Dai Nippon Toryo is a medium-sized company. Doesn't that put you at a disadvantage in terms of economies of scale?
Economies of scale in our industry are smaller than they might appear at first glance. That's because paint is a very local business. The economics of paint don't justify carrying the product very far.
   Internationally, you don't see much importing or exporting of paint. Even inside Japan, manufacturers tend to make paint locally in each region. For example, the wintry climate of Hokkaido differs profoundly from the balmy climate of Okinawa. We need to formulate paint differently for each region.
   Japan has about 200 manufacturers of paint. Only a handful of those companies are large corporations. To be sure, the number of companies is declining as the industry consolidates. But cost-competitiveness remains more a regional rivalry than a national struggle.

What about business outside Japan?
The pursuit of global economies of scale has been the main impetus for globalization in other industries. As I have noted, the paint industry does not favor simple economies of scale. So our strategy centers on Japan.
   I should note, however, that we operate in China, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand through joint ventures and subsidiaries. Manufacturers who have relied on our paint products in Japan have invited us to accompany them to China and Southeast Asia. Our operations in those markets will continue to grow, but Japan will remain our core market.

How much business will remain for you in Japan as manufacturers keep shifting production abroad?
A lot. The paint market comprises two main segments: industrial applications, such as automobiles and electrical appliances, and construction and civil engineering, such as office buildings, homes and bridges. Some of our customers in the industrial segment will move abroad. But construction and civil engineering demand will stay put. And those are the applications where we assert our greatest competitive strengths.

How would you characterize your competitive strengths?
Dai Nippon Toryo started out about 70 years ago as a specialized manufacturer of rust-preventive coatings. That specialty remains a core strength for us in technology and in marketing. We are a leading supplier of paint products for rust-proofing bridges, buildings, oil tanks and other large structures.
   More generally, we are a technology-intensive company that is in the forefront of technological responses to customers' mounting expectations. For example, people used to assume that a newly painted room would smell of fresh paint for a week or more. Now, they expect an interior painted on Friday to be odor-free and ready for habitation by Monday. And we supply paints that fulfill that expectation.
   Architects now design office buildings to last 100 years. Our weatherproof coating products help make that possible.
   In automobile showrooms, original body colors are becoming an important tool for differentiating new models. We help automakers increase their competitiveness by proposing new color possibilities to capture the imagination of consumers.