Message From CEO
Contributing to a Sustainable Future through Chemistry
Contribution to the improvement of the quality of life of humans under the TOK purpose
In 2020, TOK formulated the management vision “The e-Material Global Company™️” for contributing to a sustainable future through chemistry, inclusive of its purpose of contributing to a sustainable future through chemistry, with the aim of achieving its long-term vision TOK Vision 2030 toward the year 2030. The Vision has been formulated with the aim of becoming a 100-year company by 2040 based on the diverse accomplishments of value creation to be made through initiatives over the ten years ending in 2030.
The purpose of contributing to a sustainable future through chemistry was defined when I took the position of president in 2019 through my comprehensive examination concerning why TOK exists and what a company is. The character “応” in the company name, 東京応化 (TOK), represents our attitude of responding to the expectations of society and customers as we explained in the Integrated Report 2018.
This purpose is supported and practiced by the three competences stated: world-leading microprocessing technology, world-leading high-purity processing technology, and customer-oriented strategies. In particular, microprocessing technology is the very source of our value creation, which provides three benefits (higher performance, lower power consumption, and higher integration) to semiconductor devices that have become essential to human society as the “water of the industry.”
For example, semiconductor devices have acquired higher processing speeds owing to the higher performance achieved through miniaturization and have made our economic and social activities more efficient and comfortable with faster PCs and servers, thereby contributing to reduced work hours, work-style reforms, and the development of remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic.
These days, we are able to use smartphones with performance equivalent to that of supercomputers in earlier times but with compact batteries because of the lower power consumption of semiconductors achieved by microprocessing technology. Needless to say, this contributes to decarbonization, which has become a common global social requirement. Through the course of miniaturization in which TOK has been engaged for more than 50 years, the power consumption of semiconductors has been reduced to 1/4,000,000* compared to 1970.
In the meantime, the higher integration of semiconductors, the third benefit of microprocessing technology, has achieved lower cost and smaller sizes for each transistor. This has enabled the broad delivery of higher performance and lower power consumption as the first two benefits to people around the world and has contributed to resource savings as an urgent sustainability requirement through terminals of smaller sizes. The data capacity of iPhones, which were first marketed in the United States in 2007, increased by 125-fold over the past 15 years. This was due to the efforts of TOK and other fine chemical manufacturers that continuously advanced photoresists and other materials in collaboration with global semiconductor and equipment manufacturers, thereby reducing the line width of semiconductors to less than one-fifth over the past 15 years.
In short, I believe that these three benefits of semiconductors achieved by microprocessing technology (higher performance, lower power consumption, and higher integration) contribute to improvements in the quality of life of humans. Under the purpose of contributing to a sustainable future through chemistry, TOK will continue to upgrade its world-leading microprocessing technology and other core competences, thereby contributing to improvements in the quality of life of humans
*A rough estimate for two-dimensional semiconductors (1970: 10,000 nm ➞ 2022: 5 nm); Based on scaling laws where a miniaturization in line width to approximately 1/2,000 of its original size leads to power consumption of approximately 1/2,0002 , or approximately 1/4,000,000.
DNA & corporate culture
Value creation based on this purpose can only be achieved and further developed because it has been established as the TOK corporate culture under the management principles and DNA inherited more than 80 years ago in the era of Shigemasa Mukai, founder of the TOK Group. As the original management principles presented by Founder Mukai (“Create a frank and open-minded business culture, continue efforts to enhance technology, raise the quality levels of our products, and contribute to society”) indicate, the management vision and purpose of the TOK Group has its roots in integrated thinking that aims to make sure that all management resources and initiatives ultimately contribute to society. TOK will continue practicing the proprietary business model based on this robust corporate culture while pursuing the sustainable improvement of corporate value.