The 25th General Meeting was held on June 15th, starting with the new officer elections for the new fiscal year. Mr. Koki Aizawa of Pioneer Corporation - Executive Officer, General Manager of External Relations Division and RW Coordination Center as the candidate for Representative; Mr. Magohiro Aramoto of Sharp Corporation - Corporate Management Advisor as candidate for Vice Representative. Both the Representative and Vice Representative were re-elected for another year. Furthermore, Mr. Masatoshi Shikano - Corporate Officer, General Manager, Recording Media & Solutions Business Group of TDK Corporation was elected as the new Auditor.

After the elections, the speech from the Representative Mr. Koki Aizawa and Vice Representative, Mr. Magohiro Aramoto were made. Mr. Aizawa made a strong speech that RWPPI has entered its 5th year of activities. He emphasized to the group members that "almost all the DVD recorder models sold now support the DVD-R/DVD-RW formats, reflecting the user's recording format preference, in which -R/-RW will still continue its strong presence appealingly."

In continuation, the Vice-Representative, Mr. Aramoto made his speech by saying "DVD-R, DVD-RW business is now worldwide, and a clear characteristic of this business is that DVD recording has become popular overseas. The year 2004 may be more prosperous by concentrating on the overseas activities with the member companies."

Next in the agenda was the report of the 4th Fiscal Year results, and the 5th Fiscal Year Budget and Business Plans, which were both approved by the members.

Two new members: Cirrus Logic, Inc., and Princo Corporation joined on. Mr. Gen of Princo Corporation Japan Service Center said "I look forward to expanding the market with excellent products from Princo and member companies."

Following the above, the report of the successful promotion at CeBIT Asia 2004 in April was made, with the update of Round Robin Test report, and the introduction and demonstration of the new DVD Recorder "Rakureco" from Mitsubishi Electric Corporation Kyoto Plant - Mr. Nii. To meet actual demands for the switch from video cassette recorders to DVD recorders, Mitsubishi targeted on family use with "Raku"; Japanese meaning for "Easy" and "Enjoyable" and "Reco" as "Recording" concept. Special focus was on easy recording from power on position to start recording in 1.5 seconds, a new feature originated by Mitsubishi, which attracted great interest by the member companies.

Last on the agenda was the special lecture by Professor Hideo Yamada of Waseda University Business School on the topic "Standards Competition in the Digital Age." Topics involving standards competition in the digital age were arranged and formulated academically; "business models are dramatically changing in the digital world, where industries can not simply pursue de facto standardization alone without realizing and using their strong points with a profit scheme in order to survive." Professor Yamada ended his lecture by wishing all members the best for a successful and prosperous business.

Professor Hideo Yamada of Waseda University Business School