ASICS's Dividend: One Sentence and Fifty Percent

３【配当政策】, the dividend policy item of ASICS Corporation's annual securities report for its 72nd fiscal year, January to December 2025, filed on EDINET on March 4, 2026, is page 70 of 183. It sits inside 第４ 提出会社の状況, the section on the filing company, after ２【自己株式の取得等の状況】, the treasury-share section on pages 68 and 69, and before ４【コーポレート・ガバナンスの状況等】 on page 71. It is four paragraphs of prose and a table of two lines. This piece reads the item beside the same item on page 67 of 173 in the 71st report, filed March 31, 2025, and follows its figures to the five-year table on page 3, the treasury-share section, the notes on pages 109, 110, 124 and 125, the extraordinary report of March 27, 2026 that records the shareholders' meeting, and the half-year report filed August 14, 2026.

The first paragraph opens アシックスは、株主の皆様に対する利益還元を経営上の最重要課題のひとつとして認識しております, ASICS recognises the return of profit to shareholders as one of the most important issues of management. The sentence that follows is the one this piece is about: 「中期経営計画2026」において設定いたしました、中期経営計画期間内における連結総還元性向50％を達成すべく、累進配当の継続を前提に利益配分を検討してまいります — in order to achieve the consolidated total-return ratio of 50 percent within the period of the mid-term plan, as set in 中期経営計画2026, we will consider the allocation of profit on the premise of continuing a progressive dividend. The paragraph closes with the capital-allocation policy of the same plan, 株主還元と成長投資をバランスよく実施していきます, shareholder returns and growth investment carried out in balance, and the second paragraph adds 財務規律の維持も図りつつ, while also maintaining financial discipline, that retained funds go to investment in growth areas.

The sentence carries two undertakings of different kinds. 連結総還元性向50％ is a number: a ratio of total returns to shareholders on a consolidated basis, and the item ties it to a period, 中期経営計画期間内, rather than to any single year. 累進配当の継続 is a word, and the item makes it the premise, 前提, on which profit allocation is considered, rather than a target with a figure. In the text this desk extracted from the 183 pages, the term 総還元性向 occurs only in this item, so the report's own arithmetic for the ratio in 2025 is not printed beside the sentence; the components a reader would start from are on other pages, and this piece quotes them without combining them.

The period is described on page 15, in the section headed （Ⅲ）中期経営計画2026. The plan was announced in November 2023 and its financial targets were revised upward in November 2024; the report states that the revised targets — 営業利益1,300億円以上 (US$794 million or more), 営業利益率17.0％以上 and ROA15％前後 — were reached one year early, and that the current year is the plan's final year, 中期経営計画2026の最終年度である当年. The next plan, with 2029年12月期 as its final year, is to be announced around the fourth quarter of 2026. So the period within which the 50 percent ratio is to be achieved runs through 2026 on the report's own description, and the half-year report of August 14, 2026 states on page 8 that there was no important change in the half to the objective indicators for judging the achievement of management targets.

Set beside page 67 of the 71st report, the policy is the same text. Once the whitespace is removed, and 当社, the Company, in the 71st report is read as アシックス, the name the later report uses of itself throughout, the first three paragraphs of the two items — two of policy and one on the mechanics of the dividend, 428 characters — are identical, and the common text runs 42 characters further, to 470, into the year's sentence as far as 売上高、営業利益. The plan, the ratio, the period and the word 累進 were all already in the report filed March 31, 2025. What differs is the year's sentence. The 71st report's reads 売上高、営業利益ともに過去最高を記録したことから、１株につき年間20円00銭（うち中間配当金10円00銭）となります, net sales and operating profit both having reached records, the dividend is ¥20 (US$0.12) for the year with ¥10 (US$0.06) of it as interim; the 72nd report's reads 売上高、営業利益及び親会社株主に帰属する当期純利益は過去最高を記録したことから、１株につき年間28円00銭（うち中間配当金12円00銭）を予定しております, adding net income attributable to owners of the parent to the list of records and ending with 予定, planned, where the earlier sentence ended with となります. The 72nd report was filed on March 4, 2026, and the table beneath the sentence marks its second line 定時株主総会決議（予定）; the meeting was held on March 25.

The mechanics paragraph, unchanged between the two years apart from 当社 and アシックス, sets two dividends a year: an interim with a record date of June 30 and a year-end with a record date of December 31, and it names the body that resolves each — 配当の決定機関は、中間配当は取締役会、期末配当は株主総会であります, the board for the interim and the shareholders' meeting for the year-end. The same paragraph notes that the articles of incorporation, under Article 459(1) of the Companies Act, allow the board to resolve dividends of surplus. Page 77 repeats the provision under ・剰余金の配当等の決定機関 and gives its purpose as 機動的な資本政策及び配当政策を可能とすること, making agile capital and dividend policy possible, and a later entry on the same page, ・自己株式の取得, gives the same Article 459(1)(1) basis for the board's power to acquire the company's own shares.

For 2025 the item states 年間28円00銭（うち中間配当金12円00銭）, ¥28 (US$0.17) a share for the year with ¥12 (US$0.07) of it as interim, and the table beneath prints the two resolutions: 2025年８月13日 取締役会決議, 8,600 million yen (US$52.5 million) at ¥12 (US$0.07); and 2026年３月25日 定時株主総会決議（予定）, 11,338 million yen (US$69.2 million) at ¥16 (US$0.10). Note 3 to the five-year table on page 3 makes the same reservation: of the ¥28 (US$0.17) for the year to December 2025, the year-end ¥16 (US$0.10) was a matter for resolution at the shareholders' meeting scheduled for March 25, 2026. The note on page 125, in the section on the consolidated statement of changes in equity, prints the year-end line as an item to be put to that meeting, with its source, 利益剰余金, its record date, December 31, 2025, and its effective date, March 26, 2026.

What the item marked 予定 was resolved. The extraordinary report ASICS filed on March 27, 2026, three pages, records the 2025年度定時株主総会 of March 25: 第１号議案 剰余金の処分の件, a year-end dividend in cash of 金16円, ¥16 (US$0.10), a share, 配当総額 11,338,165,840円 (US$69.2 million), effective March 26, 2026. It passed with 5,633,877 votes for, 3,478 against and 288 abstaining, a 賛成割合 of 99.33 percent on the count the report presents as the result of the resolution; a second set of columns, marked ご参考, adds the votes of shareholders present on the day and reads 5,668,187 for and 99.93 percent. The half-year report's note on page 22 then prints the same line among dividends paid: 11,338 million yen (US$69.2 million) at ¥16.0 (US$0.10), effective March 26, 2026.

The record the sentence stands on is the five-year table of the filing company's indicators on page 3, row １株当たり配当額 with the interim in parentheses: 第68期 (2021) 6.00 (3.00); 第69期 (2022) 10.00 (4.00); 第70期 (2023) 16.25 (6.25); 第71期 (2024) 20.00 (10.00); 第72期 (2025) 28.00 (12.00), all in yen — ¥6 (US$0.04), ¥10 (US$0.06), ¥16.25 (US$0.10), ¥20 (US$0.12) and ¥28 (US$0.17) for the year, with interims of ¥3 (US$0.02), ¥4 (US$0.02), ¥6.25 (US$0.04), ¥10 (US$0.06) and ¥12 (US$0.07). Note 2 states that a four-for-one split took effect on July 1, 2024 and that the per-share dividend figures are calculated as if the split had been made at the start of the 68th term. The same row in the 71st report begins one term earlier, with 第67期 (2020) at 6.00 and no interim, printed as (−); across the six terms the two tables print, the series does not fall in any year, and the narrative that opens the management analysis in the 71st report, on page 41, called the 2024 figure 過去最高（分割後換算）の20円, a record ¥20 (US$0.12) on a post-split basis. The chart plots the printed values.

The split leaves two sets of per-share numbers in the reports, and both are printed. The note on page 114 of the 71st report, repeated in the prior-year column on page 124 of the 72nd, lists the 2024 payments at pre-split amounts: 2024年３月22日 定時株主総会, 7,329 million yen (US$44.7 million) at ¥40 (US$0.24), and 2024年８月13日 取締役会, 7,232 million yen (US$44.2 million) at ¥40 (US$0.24), with the note 「１株当たり配当額」につきましては、当該株式分割前の金額を記載しております, the per-share figures being the amounts before the split. The year-end for 2024, resolved on March 28, 2025, is printed post-split: 7,157 million yen (US$43.7 million) at ¥10 (US$0.06), effective March 31, 2025. This piece quotes the per-share figures as each table prints them and does not convert one basis into the other.

Beneath the dividend row the same table prints 配当性向, the payout ratio: 62.6, 105.9, 55.7, 26.3 and 25.9 percent for the 68th to 72nd terms. The row is in (2）提出会社の経営指標等, the filing company's own table, where 当期純利益 runs 7,020 million yen (US$42.9 million), 6,914 million yen (US$42.2 million), 21,388 million yen (US$130.6 million), 55,001 million yen (US$335.8 million) and 77,351 million yen (US$472.2 million) and １株当たり当期純利益 for 2025 is ¥108.23 (US$0.66); the consolidated table on page 2 prints 親会社株主に帰属する当期純利益 of 98,719 million yen (US$602.7 million) for 2025 and ¥138.13 (US$0.84) a share, and as extracted it has no 配当性向 row. The 71st report's table, starting a term earlier, prints 467.8 percent for 第67期, a year in which the filing company's 当期純利益 was 938 million yen (US$5.7 million). The policy sentence names no payout ratio; the number it names is the total-return ratio on a consolidated basis, and the 配当性向 row is the filing company's.

The totals are printed in three places under three labels. The consolidated statement of changes in equity on pages 109 and 110 prints 剰余金の配当 of 14,562 million yen (US$88.9 million) for 2024 and 15,757 million yen (US$96.2 million) for 2025 as reductions of retained earnings. The cash-flow analysis on page 49 prints 配当金の支払額 of 15,734 million yen (US$96.1 million) among the uses of cash in financing activities for 2025, and page 47 of the 71st report prints 14,542 million yen (US$88.8 million) for 2024. The two-line table in the item prints the resolutions by record date, 8,600 million yen (US$52.5 million) and 11,338 million yen (US$69.2 million) for 2025. This desk lists the three and does not reconcile them.

The 50 percent is a 総還元性向, a total-return ratio, and its other component is on the two pages before the item. ２【自己株式の取得等の状況】 on page 68 prints two board resolutions in 2025 under （２）【取締役会決議による取得の状況】. The board of 2025年２月14日 authorised up to 7,000,000 shares and 20,000,000,000円 (US$122.1 million) between February 17 and September 30, 2025, and 6,515,500 shares were acquired in the year for 19,999,927,400円 (US$122.1 million), leaving 484,500 shares of the authorisation, an unexercised ratio of 6.9 percent by shares and 0.0 percent by value at year end and at the filing date. The board of 2025年11月12日 authorised up to 10,000,000 shares and 30,000,000,000円 (US$183.2 million) between November 13, 2025 and January 31, 2026, and 8,072,900 shares were acquired in the year for 29,999,803,800円 (US$183.1 million), with 19.3 percent of the shares unexercised at year end and at the filing date. The management analysis on page 45 calls this 総額500億円の自己株式取得, buybacks totalling ¥50 billion (US$305 million), the equity statement on page 110 prints 自己株式の取得 of 50,003 million yen (US$305.3 million), and the cash-flow analysis on page 49 prints the same amount as 自己株式の取得による支出. Page 69 adds, under （３）, 1,031 shares acquired on odd-lot purchase requests for 3,641,755円 (US$22,233), so the 50,003 million is the equity statement's line for the year's acquisitions as a whole, and this desk has not added the three amounts.

Page 65 of the 71st report prints the two 2024 resolutions the same way: 2024年２月９日, up to 4,000,000 shares and 15,000,000,000円 (US$91.6 million), of which 2,409,600 shares were acquired for 14,999,550,100円 (US$91.6 million), a count the note beneath states is on the pre-split basis; and 2024年８月13日, up to 10,000,000 post-split shares and 20,000,000,000円 (US$122.1 million), of which 7,566,300 were acquired for 19,999,893,400円 (US$122.1 million). Page 43 of that report calls them 総額350億円の自己株式取得 (US$214 million), and the equity statement on page 109 of the 72nd report prints 自己株式の取得 of 35,014 million yen (US$213.8 million) for 2024. Between the two years two other movements are printed. On February 28, 2025, 25,000,000 shares were cancelled, 3.29 percent of the issued total, for which the 71st report's subsequent-events note on page 147 gives the reason 将来の潜在的な株式希薄化懸念の払拭のため, to dispel concern over potential future dilution, and page 69 of the 72nd report prints the cancellation at a 処分価額の総額 of 26,025,513,341円 (US$158.9 million). On May 15, 2025, 7,000,000 treasury shares were disposed of by third-party allotment to 一般財団法人ASICS Foundation, 本財団の活動を継続的、安定的に支援することを目的として, to support the foundation's activities continuously and stably, on the basis of the shareholders' meeting resolution of March 28, 2025, as note 1 on page 69 states. The table on that page prints the disposal at a 処分価額の総額 of 10,322,823,378円 (US$63.0 million); the terms of the allotment, in the subsequent-events note on page 148 of the 71st report, were 処分価額：１株につき１円, ¥1 (US$0.01) a share, and 調達資金の額：7,000,000円, 7,000,000円 (US$42,735) of proceeds, and the half-year report's note on page 22 prints the disposal as reductions of 利益剰余金 by 10,315 million yen (US$63.0 million) and of 自己株式 by 10,322 million yen (US$63.0 million).

The same subsequent-events note on page 147 of the 71st report gives the stated basis of the February 2025 buyback as 中期経営計画2026で掲げる資本水準の最適化及び株主還元方針, the optimisation of capital levels and the shareholder-return policy set out in the plan, and adds that it also served as a further response, following the previous August, to the dilution accompanying the disposal of treasury shares for the foundation. Page 41 of the same report, in the narrative that opens the management analysis, describes the two 2024 buybacks, the split and an expansion of the shareholder benefit programme together as 総額350億円となる２度の自己株式取得や株式分割、それに伴う株主優待拡充 — two buybacks totalling ¥35 billion (US$214 million), a stock split and the accompanying expansion of shareholder benefits — and says the buyback begun in August 2024 had already addressed the potential dilution from the foundation's establishment. These are the report's descriptions of its own actions; this piece adds nothing to them.

The half-year report for January to June 2026, filed August 14, 2026, carries the sentence forward. Page 3 states that, with the upward revision of the full-year forecast, the company plans an increase, 増配を予定しております: the interim dividend was set at ¥20 (US$0.12), ¥2 (US$0.01) above the previous forecast, and the year-end forecast was raised by ¥4 (US$0.02) to ¥24 (US$0.15), so that the annual forecast moved from ¥38 (US$0.23) to ¥44 (US$0.27). Page 8 repeats the three figures under （配当金予想について）, and the note on page 22 prints the interim resolution: 2026年８月14日 取締役会, 14,178 million yen (US$86.6 million) at ¥20.0 (US$0.12), record date June 30, 2026, effective August 20, 2026. The year-end ¥24 (US$0.15) is a forecast, to be resolved by the shareholders' meeting under the mechanics the item describes; the interim ¥20 (US$0.12) is a board resolution and is printed as one.

What the sentence promises, then, is one figure tied to a period and one word set as a premise: a consolidated total-return ratio of 50 percent within the period of a plan whose final year is 2026, and the continuation of a progressive dividend. What the reports print beside it is a per-share series that runs 6.00, 6.00, 10.00, 16.25, 20.00, 28.00 yen (¥6 (US$0.04) to ¥28 (US$0.17)) across the six terms the two tables cover, on the post-split basis the reports themselves restate; a payout-ratio row in the filing company's table that ends at 25.9 percent; totals paid under three labels; two years of buyback resolutions with their authorised and acquired amounts; and, in the half-year report, an interim of ¥20 (US$0.12) and a year-end forecast of ¥24 (US$0.15) for 2026. The ratio the sentence names is not printed as an outcome in the pages read, and this piece does not compute it.