Nitto Denko's Research: One Total and Five Lines

Section 6 of 第２ 事業の状況 in NITTO DENKO CORPORATION's annual securities report for its 161st fiscal year, April 2025 to March 2026, filed on EDINET on June 17, 2026, is headed 研究開発活動, research and development activities, and runs from page 44 to page 46 of 191. The sentence a reader comes for sits near the foot of page 44: 当社グループの研究開発費の総額は48,025百万円です — the group's total research and development expense was 48,025 million yen (US$293.2 million). The sentence after it takes a corporate part out of that total: このうち、各事業セグメントに直接関連しない全社技術部門の研究開発費は11,184百万円です — of which the expense of the corporate technology division, not directly related to any business segment, was 11,184 million yen (US$68.3 million). Then comes セグメント別の研究開発活動成果は下記のとおりであります, the results of research and development by segment are as follows, and four headed passages, each closing with its own sentence 当連結会計年度における研究開発費の金額は…百万円です: (1) インダストリアルテープ, Industrial Tape, 8,331 million yen (US$50.9 million); (2) オプトロニクス, Optronics, 16,602 million yen (US$101.4 million); (3) ヒューマンライフ, Human Life, 6,503 million yen (US$39.7 million); (4) その他, Other, 5,403 million yen (US$33.0 million). This piece reads the five figures, the four passages, the corporate paragraphs above them, and the other pages of the report where the total reappears.

The four names are the four segments. Page 6, 事業の内容, says the company and its related companies — 子会社87社及び関連会社１社, 87 subsidiaries and one affiliate at March 31, 2026 — mainly carry on business in インダストリアルテープ、オプトロニクス、ヒューマンライフ、その他の４部門, and that these four are 「第５ 経理の状況 … ５．セグメント情報」に掲げるセグメントの区分と同一, identical to the segment classification in note 5. Its table gives each a product list: Industrial Tape is 基盤機能材料, base functional materials, in parentheses 接合材料、保護材料、プロセス材料、自動車材料等, bonding, protective, process and automotive materials; Optronics is 情報機能材料, information functional materials, 光学フィルム等, optical film and the like, plus 回路材料, circuit materials, CIS (Circuit Integrated Suspension) and 高精度基板, high-precision boards; Human Life is ライフサイエンス, life science, listed as 核酸受託製造、核酸合成材料、核酸創薬、医療関連材料等, contract nucleic acid manufacturing, nucleic acid synthesis materials, nucleic acid drug discovery and medical materials, then メンブレン, membranes, 高分子分離膜, polymer separation membranes, and パーソナルケア材料, personal care materials, 衛生材料等機能性フィルム, functional film for hygiene materials; Other is 新規事業、その他製品, new businesses and other products.

The total appears twice more in the same report. The management analysis on page 43 prints it with a change and a ratio: 研究開発費は、前期比2.7％増の48,025百万円となりました。売上収益に対する研究開発費の比率は、前期より0.1ポイント増加し4.7％となりました — research and development expense rose 2.7 percent on the prior year to 48,025 million yen (US$293.2 million), and its ratio to revenue rose 0.1 point to 4.7 percent. The lines around it on the same page: revenue up 1.4 percent to 1,028,171 million yen (US$6,277.0 million), 売上原価, cost of sales, up 3.1 percent to 637,408 million yen (US$3,891.4 million) at 62.0 percent of revenue, 販売費及び一般管理費, selling, general and administrative expenses, up 3.0 percent to 156,322 million yen (US$954.3 million) at 15.2 percent, and 営業利益, operating profit, down 1.1 percent to 183,615 million yen (US$1,121.0 million). The consolidated income statement on page 103 prints 研究開発費 as a line of its own between 販売費及び一般管理費 and その他の収益, other income, at 46,771 and 48,025 million yen (US$285.5 million and US$293.2 million) for the two years, with note references 9, 11, 16, 21 and 22. Note 3 to the five-year table on page 2 says the statements are prepared under 国際会計基準 (IFRS), and the fixed-asset notes on pages 122 and 124 say depreciation of property, plant and equipment and amortisation of intangibles are booked in 売上原価, 販売費及び一般管理費 and 研究開発費 (and, for depreciation, その他の費用). The 4.7 percent and the 2.7 percent are the report's own; nothing in this piece is divided.

The 160th report, filed June 18, 2025, printed the corresponding section on pages 44 and 45 of 186 with that year's figures: total 46,771 million yen (US$285.5 million), of which the corporate technology division 10,725 million yen (US$65.5 million), then Industrial Tape 7,504 million yen (US$45.8 million), Optronics 17,249 million yen (US$105.3 million), Human Life 5,962 million yen (US$36.4 million) and Other 5,329 million yen (US$32.5 million). Its page 43 analysis read 研究開発費は、前期比7.6％増の46,771百万円となりました。売上収益に対する研究開発費の比率は、前期より0.2ポイント減少し4.6％となりました — up 7.6 percent, at 4.6 percent of revenue, down 0.2 point. Its income statement on page 98 also carries the line for the year to March 2024, 43,485 million yen (US$265.5 million). Three printed totals, then: 43,485, 46,771 and 48,025 million yen for the years to March 2024, 2025 and 2026 (US$265.5 million, US$285.5 million, US$293.2 million), against revenue in the five-year table on page 2 of the 161st report of 915,139, 1,013,878 and 1,028,171 million yen (US$5,586.9 million, US$6,189.7 million, US$6,277.0 million). The chart plots the three totals and, beneath them, the five component figures printed in the two sections.

The section opens with policy before money. 当社グループにおける研究開発は、「イノベーションによる社会課題の解決」を基本方針に掲げ — research and development in the group holds up as its basic policy solving social issues through innovation — aiming at new products, services and businesses for 地球の環境保全・改善, conservation and improvement of the global environment, and 人々の生活の質の向上, better quality of life. It then lists eight 基幹技術, core technologies, in quotation marks: 「粘接着」「光学設計」「回路形成」「薄膜形成」「多孔」「分離」「核酸合成」「ドラッグデリバリーシステム」 — adhesion, optical design, circuit forming, thin-film forming, porous structures, separation, nucleic acid synthesis and drug delivery systems — and says value comes from combining them.

The 全社技術部門, corporate technology division, is described as three departments, 研究開発本部、事業開発本部、核酸医薬開発統括部, the research and development headquarters, the business development headquarters and the nucleic acid medicine development division, working closely with 技術知財戦略本部, the technology and intellectual property strategy headquarters. The 160th report's sentence named the second of the three 新規事業本部, the new business headquarters; the 161st reads 事業開発本部. The research bases are the same in both years: “inovas”（イノヴァス）, opened in March 2016 in 大阪府茨木市, Ibaraki in Osaka Prefecture, as the core, and abroad Nitto Denko Technical Corporation (U.S.A.-Oceanside), Nitto BioPharma, Inc. (U.S.A.-San Diego), Nitto Bend Technologies, Inc. (U.S.A.-Farmington) and Nitto Denko Asia Technical Centre Pte. Ltd. (Singapore). The company's history on page 5 records the inovas entry as 2016年３月 研究開発と人財育成を一体的に行う施設「inovas（イノヴァス）」を茨木事業所内に設立, a facility for research and development and human resource development together, established inside the Ibaraki site.

Three corporate-level paragraphs carry the year's names, and each was rewritten from the year before. On carbon dioxide, the 161st report says the group is developing technology to separate and recover CO2 from gases emitted by manufacturing sites, and that during the year it signed a 共同開発契約, joint development agreement, with Aqualung Carbon Capture (本社：ノルウェー、CEO：Andrew Robbins), described as 先駆者, a pioneer, in CO2 separation membrane technology, and 戦略的投資を実行しました, made a strategic investment in it; the stated aim is a solution 業界をリードする, leading the industry, in both cost efficiency and performance. The 160th report's paragraph at the same place was about boiler exhaust gas, the first exhibition of the technology at the ジャパン・パビリオン of COP29 in Azerbaijan, and 2025年度中の事業化に向けて開発を加速, accelerating development towards commercialisation during fiscal 2025. On open innovation, the 161st names Numat Technologies, Inc. (本社：イリノイ州シカゴ CEO：Benjamin Hernandez), described as the first company in the world to bring 金属有機構造体（MOF）, metal-organic frameworks, into practical use, with which a 戦略的パートナーシップ, strategic partnership, was concluded to accelerate next-generation decarbonisation technology; the 160th's example was joint research with 北海道大学, Hokkaido University, that established a technique for delivering mRNA selectively to the spleen. On intellectual property, both years report selection for クラリベイト Top 100 グローバル・イノベーター, Clarivate's Top 100 Global Innovators: the 2026 list, 13度目, the 13th time since the list began in 2012, against the 2025 list and 12度目 a year earlier.

(1) インダストリアルテープ, Industrial Tape, closes at 8,331 million yen (US$50.9 million), against 7,504 million yen (US$45.8 million) in the 160th report. The passage begins with CO2: expanding development of 有機溶剤を使用しない新製品, new products that use no organic solvent, to cut emissions in production, and, for the supply chain, バイオマス粘着剤, biomass adhesives, リサイクル材料, recycled materials, and a 剥離技術, peeling technology, triggered by 「熱・光・電気等」, heat, light, electricity and the like, so that products can be reworked and recycled. New product development is then given its fields: 新製品開発はデジタルデバイス、半導体分野に注力し — focused on digital devices and semiconductors. The 160th report's sentence at this point set three priority fields, デジタルデバイス、半導体、水素・電池の３つを重点分野と定め; in the 161st, hydrogen and batteries move to a later sentence that opens また、グリーンエネルギー分野にも注目しており, the group is also watching the green energy field, and continues with marketing and development of new applications in 水素・電池分野. Between them, digital devices get 再剝離性の付与, removability, and recycled content, and semiconductors get プロセステープ, process tapes, for 先端半導体向け製造工程, manufacturing processes for advanced semiconductors, to raise productivity in customers' lines. The segment note on page 119 prints the segment's 外部顧客からの売上収益, revenue from external customers, at 364,827 million yen (US$2,227.3 million) and 営業利益 at 51,662 million yen (US$315.4 million) for the year, against 348,960 million yen (US$2,130.4 million) and 45,864 million yen (US$280.0 million) on page 118 for the year before; the employee table on page 98 counts 8,796 people in the segment.

(2) オプトロニクス, Optronics, is the largest of the four at 16,602 million yen (US$101.4 million), and the only one printed lower than the year before, 17,249 million yen (US$105.3 million). Its display paragraph is unchanged in substance across the two years: 有機ELディスプレイ（OLED）, OLED, spreading in smartphones with adoption expected in tablets, notebook PCs, home appliances and car displays; 偏光フィルム、位相差フィルム、粘着剤, polarising film, retardation film and adhesives, each given functions and optimised as a set; and product development that raises productivity in customers' processes. The device paragraph is where the 161st report adds. Its new sentence reads: 新規デバイスでは、仮想現実（VR）向け超高品質光学フィルムの開発に加え、2024年度に出資したTruLife Optics社との協業を深化させ、拡張現実（AR）グラス向け光学部材の研究開発を本格化しました — beyond ultra-high-quality optical film for VR, the collaboration with TruLife Optics, invested in during fiscal 2024, was deepened and research and development of optical components for AR glasses began in earnest — followed by a sentence on 低屈折率光学材料, low-refractive-index optical materials, that combine lightness and high transmittance for AR's optical requirements. The 160th report's version said development of optical film for AR glasses with the same partner にも着手いたしました, had been started. Outside displays, sputtering technology from ITO film is applied to 電極フィルム, electrode films, for sensors including 自動車の調光ルーフ, car dimming roofs, and the 161st adds durability and reliability for automotive and industrial equipment.

The circuit-materials half of the Optronics passage carries one dated item and one change of tense. Its subject is 回路基板, circuit boards, for ハードディスク（HDD）, hard disk drives, used in data centres, a market the report says is growing with AI, plus development towards higher HDD capacity. The 高精度基板, high-precision boards for smartphones derived from the HDD boards, are described in the 161st as 製品化しており, commercialised, with sales expansion and capacity expansion under way, and then: 2025年度にはスマートフォン内の新用途に技術展開し量産を開始しました — in fiscal 2025 the technology was extended to a new application inside smartphones and mass production began. The PFAS sentence changes tense: the 160th said an insulating material compliant with フッ素規制（PFAS）, fluorine regulation, had been developed and its application to the company's own products 推進してまいります, would be promoted; the 161st says 適用を開始しました, application began. The sentence headed 新しい市場への挑戦, the challenge of new markets, differs between the years: in the 160th it reported the start of mass production of flexible circuit boards using a 低誘電材料, low-dielectric material, made with the group's own porous technology, for high-speed signal transmission; in the 161st it reads as product development for markets where 絶縁材料と配線形成技術, insulating materials and wiring formation, are the company's strengths. The segment note prints Optronics revenue from external customers at 524,598 million yen (US$3,202.7 million) and operating profit at 149,871 million yen (US$915.0 million), against 537,852 million yen (US$3,283.6 million) and 173,117 million yen (US$1,056.9 million) a year earlier; the employee table counts 13,298 people, the most of any segment.

(3) ヒューマンライフ, Human Life, closes at 6,503 million yen (US$39.7 million), against 5,962 million yen (US$36.4 million). Life science comes first: 核酸プロセス材料のスケールアップ技術を確立し、新工場での本格生産を開始しました — scale-up technology for nucleic acid process materials was established and full production began at the new plant — and 2026年度には北米における新たな加工工場の稼働も開始する見込みです, a new processing plant in North America is expected to start operating in fiscal 2026. Development of 新規プロセス材料及び合成法, new process materials and synthesis methods for nucleic acid synthesis, has begun, with 高収量・高純度, high yield and high purity, in 核酸医薬品原薬, nucleic acid drug substances, as the stated goal. The 160th report's version of this paragraph had the new plant's full production ahead of it (2025年度本格生産に向け) and included a sentence on the 医療材事業, medical materials business, completing products with lower environmental load; that sentence is absent from the extracted text of the 161st section. The membrane paragraph names the year's product: 2025年度は、資源の分離・精製といったニーズに合わせ、１価イオンと２価イオンの選択分離性を有する膜を開発しました — a membrane with selective separation of monovalent and divalent ions, for resource separation and refining — and the internal PlanetFlags™ certification of 「飲料水用NF膜」, an NF membrane for drinking water, where the 160th had certified 「省エネ排水処理RO膜」 and 「長寿命NF膜」. New in the 161st is a public programme: a proposal with 名古屋大学 and 神戸大学, Nagoya University and Kobe University, to the 2025 NEDO先導研究プログラム, titled 「ATJに向けたソルガム糖蜜の濃縮に必要な革新的技術開発」, innovative technology for concentrating sorghum molasses for alcohol-to-jet, was adopted, and the report says its membrane technology is expected to contribute to lower production cost of bioethanol for SAF, sustainable aviation fuel.

The personal-care paragraph of Human Life keeps フィルム技術、不織布技術, film and nonwoven technology, おむつ部材, diaper components, solvent-free adhesion and lamination, and biomass and biodegradable materials, and in the 161st adds two words to that list, それらの加工技術, the processing technologies for film and nonwovens, among the core technologies and リサイクル, recycled, among the materials. Its expansion sentence narrows from 機能性フィルム・不織布の製造技術, functional film and nonwoven manufacturing technology, to 機能性フィルム, functional film, and changes its list of fields beyond hygiene: the 160th named 「半導体関連」「モバイル関連」「自動車関連」, semiconductor, mobile and automotive; the 161st names 「モバイル関連」「建築インフラ関連」, mobile and building infrastructure. The segment note prints Human Life revenue from external customers at 137,246 million yen (US$837.9 million), against 125,570 million yen (US$766.6 million), and an operating loss, 営業利益（△は損失）, of △5,041 million yen (US$30.8 million), against △11,718 million yen (US$71.5 million) a year earlier; the employee table counts 2,974 people. The capital-investment overview on page 47 attaches 16,853 million yen (US$102.9 million) of the year's investment to the segment, for 核酸材料(NittoPhase™)の拡販に向けた国内及び米国工場の生産能力増強, capacity at domestic and US plants for the nucleic acid material NittoPhase.

(4) その他, Other, closes at 5,403 million yen (US$33.0 million), against 5,329 million yen (US$32.5 million), and has the shortest passage. 新規事業関連では、デジタルヘルス領域や次世代半導体領域など新しい領域に向けて様々な製品を開発しています — in new businesses, various products are being developed for new areas such as digital health and next-generation semiconductors. Its one dated item is a service: the 160th report said that during that year a service for 心理カウンセラー, psychological counsellors, analysing and visualising biometric information in real time, was launched in California for the US mental health market; the 161st says the service launched in the United States in the prior year 当連結会計年度においても引き続き提供しております, continued to be provided. The segment note, whose note 1 says the Other category consists of 「新規事業」, prints revenue from external customers of 11 million yen (US$0.07 million), against 19 million yen (US$0.12 million), and an operating loss of △6,971 million yen (US$42.6 million), against △12,229 million yen (US$74.7 million). Page 47 attaches 1,567 million yen (US$9.6 million) of capital investment to it, including CO2分離膜の量産対応投資, investment for mass production of CO2 separation membranes, and puts investment not directly related to any segment at 5,452 million yen (US$33.3 million).

The people are counted in the section and again in the employee tables, under different headings. The section says 当連結会計年度の研究開発部門の人員は、当社単体で1,122名、グループ全体で1,756名です — research and development staff numbered 1,122 at the parent alone and 1,756 across the group — against 1,136 and 1,785 in the 160th report. The five-year table on page 2 puts group employees at 26,477 at March 31, 2026 (25,769 a year earlier), and page 3 puts the parent at 6,813 (6,729). The table on page 98 splits the 26,477 by segment — Industrial Tape 8,796, Optronics 13,298, Human Life 2,974, Other 281 and 全社（共通）, corporate (common), 1,128 — and the parent's 6,813 as 2,135, 3,754, 713 and 211. The 1,756 in the section and the 1,128 in the corporate column are counts under two headings, 研究開発部門の人員 and 全社（共通）; this piece does not map one onto the other.

The laboratory is in the plant tables. 第３【設備の状況】 on page 47 puts the year's capital investment at 86,841 million yen (US$530.2 million) in total, against 92,976 million yen (US$567.6 million) in the 160th report, and lists Industrial Tape 19,339 million yen (US$118.1 million), Optronics 43,628 million yen (US$266.3 million), Human Life 16,853 million yen (US$102.9 million), Other 1,567 million yen (US$9.6 million) and non-segment 5,452 million yen (US$33.3 million). The table of the parent's principal facilities on the same page has one row whose 設備の内容 is 研究開発設備, research and development facilities: 茨木事業所（大阪府茨木市）, the Ibaraki site, assigned to all four segments, with book values of 8,870 million yen (US$54.2 million) in 建物及び構築物, buildings and structures, 2,756 million yen (US$16.8 million) in 機械装置及び運搬具, machinery and vehicles, 239 million yen (US$1.5 million) in 土地, land, on 24,777 square metres, 20 million yen (US$0.1 million) in 使用権資産, right-of-use assets, 2,692 million yen (US$16.4 million) in その他, and a printed 合計 of 14,577 million yen (US$89.0 million), with 643 employees and 9 temporary staff in brackets. The 160th report's row for the same site printed 9,250 million yen (US$56.5 million), 2,823 million yen (US$17.2 million), 239 million yen (US$1.5 million), 3 million yen (US$0.02 million) and 1,554 million yen (US$9.5 million), a printed total of 13,870 million yen (US$84.7 million), and 728 employees with 12 in brackets. The totals quoted are the tables' printed 合計 values, and the report's note on page 107 says figures are truncated below one million yen; the columns are not added here.

Two more sentences attach research to money without a figure. The dividend policy on page 58 says 内部留保資金は、急速な技術革新に対する研究開発費や顧客ニーズに応えるための生産体制構築など、将来の事業成長に向けて有効活用してまいります — retained funds are to be used effectively for future growth, including research and development expense in the face of rapid technological innovation and production systems that meet customer needs; the 160th report has the same sentence on page 57. The same page 58 says the year-end dividend is planned, 予定, at 30 yen (US$0.18) a share, to be decided at the 定時株主総会, the annual general meeting, of June 19, 2026, two days after the filing, and marked （予定） in the table beneath; the year's total is written as 当期60円, 60 yen (US$0.37), and next year's total as 64 yen (US$0.39), 4 yen (US$0.02) more, also 予定. On page 43, under 資本の財源及び資金の流動性, capital resources and liquidity, the group ranks its uses of funds ①設備投資、②配当、③M&A、④自己株式取得, capital investment, dividends, M&A, share buybacks, and says its source of funds is mainly its own cash, with cash and cash equivalents of 359,805 million yen (US$2,196.6 million) at the year end. The retained-funds sentence gives research and development expense and production systems as examples of uses for future growth; the liquidity passage ranks capital investment, dividends, M&A and share buybacks. They are different classifications, quoted here side by side, and neither of the two quoted passages places research and development inside that ranking.

Method. The desk located the two annual securities reports in the EDINET document-list API for June 17, 2026 and June 18, 2025, retrieved the PDFs through the same API, and read them with pdfplumber: the section 研究開発活動 (pages 44 to 46 of the 161st report, 44 to 45 of the 160th), 事業の内容 (page 6), the five-year tables (pages 2 and 3), 従業員の状況 (page 98), the management analysis (page 43 in both), the dividend policy (page 58 / 57), 設備の状況 (page 47 / 46), the consolidated income statement (page 103 / 98), the fixed-asset notes (pages 122 and 124) and the segment note (pages 118 and 119). Tables were read with pdfplumber's table extraction and columns confirmed against their header labels. The two years' sections were compared sentence by sentence after removing all whitespace from the extracted text; the differences reported above are the ones the desk chose to report from that comparison, not a complete list; smaller rewordings, such as the 160th membrane paragraph's サステナブルな原材料を使用するなど, using sustainable raw materials, which has no counterpart sentence in the 161st, are left out. Yen are converted at ¥163.8 to the US dollar for reference. Every percentage and change is one the reports print; the desk computed no ratio, sum or difference of its own, and where a table prints a total it is the printed total that is quoted.