Iwata:
As you know, video game business is a very high risk business. It takes only one product to change the landscape all at once. Today's video game market is advancing with a scenario which was unimaginable just a few years ago. Several years ago, some people in the stock market used to openly announce that there was no need for companies to keep cash deposits because you could borrow them whenever necessary. I think I can today say that the situation in the last 6 months has proved that they were wrong. As long as we are doing business where we have great risk at times, my belief is that we have to be cash-rich if we commit ourselves to continuing our business.
So, it is very hard for me to imagine that Nintendo will abandon its cash-rich position all together anytime soon because doing so will significantly narrow down the options we can choose from in the future, which will weaken the competitive edge of the company towards the future and, as a result, the company will have a harder time being appreciated by the shareholders. This is my basic stance.
Being able to hold sufficient cash means that the company has a number of different options. The possibility of stock buyback that you mentioned is one of them, and when we feel the need to do so, we will. Or, even though we do not have any such concrete plan today, if we encounter a great technology or patent that could give us a great edge for future challenges, Nintendo may be able to exercise the option of M&A even though we have hardly done so in the past. When that one technology or one patent is going to be the decisive factor for our future, we want to be able to exercise our option to take it. We hope that people invest in Nintendo by understanding that being able to have the freedom to choose our business structure and our operational structure is one of the most important factors and strengths that allows us to move towards our challenging goals.