I would like to offer my best wishes to you all for the new year.

First of all, I would like to express my deepest sympathies to all those affected by the 2024 Noto Peninsula Earthquake that occurred in the Noto region of Ishikawa Prefecture. On behalf of the entire BHN Association (BHN), I would like to express our deepest condolences to the victims and sincerely hope for the earliest possible recovery of the affected areas.

BHN was established in September 1992 based on the belief that telecommunications is one of the basic human needs (BHN: elements that constitute the foundation of life, such as food, clothing, and shelter) and celebrated its 30th anniversary in September of the year before last. Our first support activities were related to the Chornobyl (formerly known as Chernobyl) nuclear power plant accident in Ukraine. Since then, we have been steadily improving our support activities and have been engaged in various support activities in Japan and abroad with social development support, emergency humanitarian assistance, and human resource development support forming the three main pillars of our activities. We are proud of the fact that we have been able to contribute to improving the lives of those in need through these activities. I would like to take this opportunity to express my deep appreciation to the NTT Group, other companies and organizations, and our individual members for their warm support and cooperation, which have made these activities possible.

Looking at the recent world situation, the number of people in need of assistance continues to increase, both in Japan and abroad, due to the intensification of natural disasters caused by extreme weather conditions due to global warming, earthquake damage in various areas, the ravages of war in Ukraine, in what could be the beginning of a new Cold War, civil war in Myanmar, and the conflict between Israel and Hamas, to name just a few. The number of people in need of assistance, both at home and abroad, continues to increase. As we enter the New Year, BHN is determined to continue and improve its support activities with renewed vigor, based on the experience and knowledge we have accumulated in our support activities over the past 30 years.

I want to thank you for the awareness you have shown of BHN’s activities throughout the previous year and like to ask for your continued support and cooperation during the year ahead.