MITSUBISHI ESTATE

July 27, 2000

Mitsubishi Estate and Marubeni Establish Joint Venture Launched to Develop Large-capacity, High-speed Communication Infrastructure in Marunouchi

Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd. and Marubeni Corporation announced the establishment of Marunouchi Direct Access Co., Ltd., a joint venture business that has already obtained licensing for Type-1 electronic telecommunications services from the Ministry of Posts & Telecommunications. The new company will develop a communications center and fiber-optic network that links the tenants of buildings in the Otemachi, Marunouchi and Yurakucho areas via underground heat-utility piping and the common cable box (C-C-Box) of the Ministry of Construction.

Marunouchi Direct Access Co., Ltd.

Head Office	:	Tokyo Building, 2-7-3 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Representative	:	Kazuo Odagawa (concurrently Director and Director of Building Business Division, Mitsubishi Estate)
Paid-in Capital	:	245 million yen (to be increased to 490 million yen early next year)
Shareholder Equity	:	Mitsubishi Estate 51%, Marubeni 49%
Date Established	:	June 30, 2000 (planned: operations to begin in early August 2000, services to be offered from spring 2001)

Large-capacity, high-speed telecommunications networks must be constructed to effectively promote e-commerce and the use of information technology (IT) by enterprises. However, the placement of such an infrastructure at the center of Tokyo requires immense time and money for digging up and resurfacing roads and wiring buildings with the communications networks. A syndrome generally know as the "Last (first) Mile Problem" has been a major obstacle for emerging communications service providers and tenants of buildings installing large-capacity communications services.

The communications infrastructure set in place by Marunouchi Direct Access will remove the aforementioned obstacles and …
- Enable communications service providers to offer services directly to all building tenants at low cost and without using the circuits of other companies.
- Enable tenants to choose the best from all of the services offered by various communication service providers, as well as benefit from lower prices and broadband services.

As e-commerce continues to expand, it is expected that the outsourcing of development and management of information systems will become common, the contents delivered over broadband channels will expand rapidly, and high-speed Internet connection services and data center services will come into wider use. Companies operating in the Marunouchi District will be able to have their offices connected with the data center through low-cost fiber-optic lines, through which they will be able to establish connections with dedicated lines and the Internet, and simultaneously benefit from an incredible reduction in costs.

Not only will the company provide local communications services, it will make its communications infrastructure available for use by many other communication service providers as well. In doing so, Marunouchi Direct Access hopes to make the Marunouchi District a focal point for IT business and create what will be the world's premiere business community in the highly developed information society of the 21st century.