Sales for the quarter were 619.8 billion yen, essentially flat year-onyear.
Operating income increased 15% year-on-year to 70.2 billion yen, mainly due to the favorable impact of foreign exchange rates and cost reduction effects.
The FY24 forecast remains unchanged from the previous forecast.
Major markets such as North America, Europe, China and Japan remained generally stable during the quarter, and solid business operations enabled us to achieve operating income that exceeded the same quarter of the previous fiscal year.
We continue to pay close attention to inventory control, and, while overall segment sales remained essentially the same as in the same period of the previous fiscal year, we were able to reduce inventory by approximately 10% at the end of the quarter.
On the other hand, the imaging business, which significantly grew year-on-year in the first quarter ended June 30, 2024, mainly in China, was essentially flat year-on-year in the current quarter. As a result, we have incorporated into our forecast a pro-active change to a more cautious production and inventory plan in preparation for the year-end selling season.