February 23, 2004
Mitsubishi Chemical Corp.
Toagosei Co., Ltd.

Change in Equity Participation in V-Tech

Although Mitsubishi Chemical Corp. (head office: Minato ward, Tokyo, president: Ryuichi Tomizawa) and Toagosei (head office: Minato ward, Tokyo, president: Akihiro Yamadera) have been continuing discussions regarding alteration of their equity participation in V-Tech Corporation (head office: Chiyoda ward, Tokyo, president: Shoji Hirai, currently 60% owned by Mitsubishi Chemical and 40% owned by Toagosei), in which both firms currently have a stake, a basic agreement was reached today calling for Mitsubishi Chemical to receive transfer of a portion of Toagosei's holdings in V-Tech resulting in 85.1% ownership by Mitsubishi Chemical and 14.9% ownership by Toagosei. Detailed terms of the agreement will be worked out in the future after which a final agreement is scheduled to be reached by March 31 of this year.

V-Tech deployed various streamlining policies last year in order to enhance its competitiveness amidst the severe environment surrounding the vinyl chloride business. (see Appendix 2 for a description of steps taken to enhance competitiveness). During the course of this streamlining, since the roles and degrees of contribution regarding V-Tech by both parent firms have changed since the firm's establishment in terms of equipment operation and ethylene and other raw material supply sources, both firms began reevaluating their equity participation in V-Tech last year, which eventually led to the basic agreement reached today. Furthermore, marketing and other aspects of management at V-Tech will remain unchanged, and are expected to not be affected by this alteration of equity participation.

Since improvement of earnings from vinyl chloride operations is an urgent matter for both Mitsubishi Chemical and Toagosei, both firms will continue to support policies towards further enhancement of competitiveness to be deployed by V-Tech in the future in their capacity as shareholders.