March 5, 2009

Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation
Establishes KAITEKI Institute

Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation

Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation (MCHC; Head office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Yoshimitsu Kobayashi) today announced the establishment of the KAITEKI Institute, Inc. (Head Office: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President: Yoshimitsu Kobayashi), a global research institute focused on meeting 21st century challenges in energy, the environment, and healthcare. The institute starts operation on April 1 of this year.

MCHC Group set out "Sustainability (resources and the environment)," "Health," and "Comfort" as the decision criteria of corporate activities in its mid-term management plan APTSIS 10. The Group aims at global leadership while creating and executing strategies to build sustainable corporate value. One such strategy is to promote sustainability by addressing issues including not only intensifying climate change resulting from increased CO2 emissions, but also environmental protection, depletion of energy resources, water and food supplies, and health care. The MCHC Group seeks to promote health and prosperity of people through providing solutions to solve the above-mentioned various issues.

"Kaiteki," which traditionally means "comfort" or "ease" in Japanese, was chosen for the institute's name to represent the global quality of life that will be made possible through sustainable technologies and through breakthrough scientific advances in human health care.

The KAITEKI Institute was established to implement these strategies through the following:

1. Grasp future paradigm shifts, and monitor societal trends, needs and challenges by continually gathering and analyzing information on social changes, and regularly communicating the results to the MCHC Group.
2. Develop a concept for MCHC Group business based on these paradigm shifts, and direct leading-edge researchers from around the world to conduct multidisciplinary investigations, incorporating methods and concepts from both the social and natural sciences.
3. Based on the acquired study results, propose solutions with technology platforms to the above-mentioned issues to the MCHC Group for the incubation of new business

The MCHC Group will set its research targets in consultation with the KAITEKI Institute Advisory Board (see the attachment), which comprises outside experts in various fields. The basic areas of research and study are as follows:

1. The environment, resources, energy (e.g. recycling carbon from CO2)
2. Water, food
3. Health (breakthrough technologies in medical care)

The KAITEKI Institute will help make society healthier and more affluent by supporting long-term MCHC Group research activities and business activities, while taking advantage of a global scientific and information network.

Company outline

Company name :	The KAITEKI Institute, Inc.
Representative Director, Member of the Board, President:	Yoshimitsu Kobayashi Representative Director, Member of the Board, President, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation
Member of the Board, Executive Director:	Glenn H. Fredrickson Professor, Chemical Engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara
Member of the Board, Deputy Director:	Eiji Tanaka* Executive Officer, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation
Chair of the Advisory Board:	Tokio Niikuni* Managing Executive Officer, Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation
Advisors(INPO):	Hiroaki Kitano Director, The Systems Biology Institute Hiroshi Komiyama President, The University of Tokyo Makoto Shiho Chief Scientist, Institute for Applied Optics George Hara Group Chairman and CEO, DEFTA Partners Two more members are to be participated.
Establishment:	April 1, 2009
Capital:	10 million yen
Head office:	Minato-ku, Tokyo
Initial employees:	10

*They will leave the current positions of Mitsubishi Chemical Holdings Corporation and be committed to operation of the KAITEKI Institute, Inc. effective April 1, 2009.