Though our financial services business, we offer an array of financial services to our customers and dealers, with the goal of supporting sales of our products. These services are provided through financial subsidiaries in the United States, Japan, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, Brazil and Thailand. In fiscal 2004, net sales of our financial services, including inter-segment sales within Honda, rose 2.0%, to ¥245.8 billion, due mainly to strong sales of automobiles in North America. This was achieved despite the negative effect of the yen's appreciation against the U.S. dollar. Operating income climbed 0.6%, to ¥108.4 billion.

Based on expectations of further growth in our automobile business, we expect further expansion in fiscal 2005 of our financial services business, which will support sales in our automobile business in fiscal 2005.