text: **Pursuing Value Through**
  **Technological Excellence**
  
  “I have two prime objectives. The first is to realize our 
  
  corporate vision, ‘Enriching people’s lives,’ from an 
  
  engineering standpoint. The second is to create a 
  
  future vision for people working in R&D. Research and 
  
  development is all about providing practical value to 
  
  the customer via technological excellence, which in 
  
  turn creates value for our shareholders. Nissan has 
  
  made a major commitment to technological excellence 
  
  so that we can accomplish these objectives. 
  
  **Research and Development**
  
  Nissan’s investment in R&D has been rising. In fiscal 2004 
  
  we devoted approximately ¥400 billion to it, equivalent to 
  
  4.6 percent of our turnover. We estimate that our financial 
  
  commitment to R&D will continue to range between 4.5 
  
  and 5 percent. R&D investments take a lot of time to pay 
  
  off, of course, so it’s difficult to evaluate our evolution 
  
  over the short term. Given our expanded output, however, 
  
  I believe that we are headed in the right direction. 
  
  For example, the number of patents we have generated 
  
  is growing quickly, exceeding 4,000 in fiscal 2003—more 
  
  than twice the fiscal 1999 figure. And the number of 
  
  research papers we present at societies such as The Japan 
  
  Society of Mechanical Engineers rose dramatically in fiscal 
  
  2004. These are direct results of our commitment to 
  
  research. We are also generating more new technologies 
  
  related to safety and the environment, such as the Around 
  
  View Monitor and the lane-keeping system. 