June 5, 2006 Hitachi Maxell, Ltd. Mitsubishi Kagaku Media Co., Ltd. Joint Development of Next-Generation DVD Commercialization of Recordable Blu-ray Disc, HD DVD Hitachi Maxell, Ltd., (Yoshito Tsunoda, President and Chief Executive Officer) and Mitsubishi Kagaku Media Co., Ltd., (Shigenori Otsuka, President) have jointly developed next-generation recordable optical discs since 2001. The companies have completed development of a next-generation DVD (recordable Blu-ray Disc, HD DVD) that employs a blue laser. The companies plan the launch of lineups under their respective brand names to coincide with the start-up of the market. In July 2001, the companies embarked upon joint development of next-generation optical recording media with a view to combine their respective areas of expertise, accelerating development, and enhancing efficiency. Since July 2002, both companies’ development teams have worked together at Hitachi Maxell’s R & D Division (Tsukubamirai City, Ibaraki Prefecture), and pursued the development of blue laser technology based recordable discs. These joint efforts have developed unique materials for phase-change rewritable media, inorganic write-once media, and organic dye write-once media. In conjunction with these efforts, the companies have established mass-production technologies (mastering technology, molding technology, cover-layer deposition technology, and dual-layer media production technology) for various types of Blu-ray Disc, HD DVD formats which specifications are currently being pursued. Moreover, the companies have completed product design for discs with advanced characteristics for all recordable Blu-ray Disc, HD DVD products. Leveraging the advantage afforded by their ownership of technology for various next-generation DVD products for both formats, the companies will prepare their respective production systems to implement mass-production. Further, the companies plan to commercialize products to coincide with the start up of the market, steadily marketing products that fits for ’the consumer needs worldwide under their respective brand names (Maxell, Mitsubishi/Verbatim). For blue laser based next generation recordable DVDs, both companies intend to continue joint development to leading the market with step up production as higher speeds, multiple layering, and other additional characteristics.