HitachiSoft Launches New Business Development Department

Program calls for employee-submitted business proposals tostrengthen business creation at HitachiSoft

TOKYO, August 20, 2007 - HitachiSoft today released the initial results of an internal program that calls for employees to submit ideas for new businesses. The program, which is open to all employees of HitachiSoft, is designed to promote new business creation at the company. Out of 229 proposals received during the submission period from April to May 2007, the company has chosen 53 proposals to pass the initial screening phase. In order to further accelerate business creation under the program, HitachiSoft has created a New Business Development Department, whose purpose is to build working businesses from employee-generated proposals. Taking into account both market needs and customer needs, the new department will examine employee-submitted proposals in order to identify businesses with market promise, with the goal of developing them as the foundations for new businesses.

The internal call for business proposals is part of a general initiative to boost vitality in the workplace, as one of the goals of the Challenge 8+ (Eight Plus) Strategy initiated by the HitachiSoft Group. The program was formulated by an internal working group at HitachiSoft to further the development of younger employees, and was chosen by the company for implementation to serve the dual purposes of promoting business creation through bottom-up proposals and developing the business awareness of HitachiSoft employees. Under the program, employee-submitted proposals must pass three screening phases in order to be given the green light for launch of the business, with the company awarding a prize of more than one million yen to the employee that submits an accepted proposal. HitachiSoft is also providing various incentives to employees who submit business proposals that successfully pass each screening phase, even if the proposals are not implemented.

With the launch of the New Business Development Department, HitachiSoft has set in motion preparations to generate new businesses linked to the program for employee-submitted business proposals. HitachiSoft is positioning the program as a vehicle to germinate new businesses in its core business segments of Services and Products & Packages, with the aim of revising the composition of its overall business portfolio. Once the company has decided on the winning proposal, the company will move quickly to put the necessary resources in place to launch the new business, starting with the implementation of feasibility studies for test marketing in October 2007. HitachiSoft will rapidly move to launch the business by fiscal 2008, in order to lay the foundations for the new business.

For inquiries about this news release, contact HitachiSoft as shown below.

Toru Takehashi, Miki Takano

Corporate Communications

Hitachi Software Engineering Co., Ltd.

Tel: +81-3-5780-6450

E-mail: press@hitachisoft.jp

*The official name for HitachiSoft is HitachiSoft Engineering Co., Ltd.