KDDI (TSE: 9433) has announced an agreement with Toshiba Corporation (TSE: 6502) and Hitachi Limited (TSE: 6501) to cooperate on research into the next generation of batteries for mobile communication devices such as mobile telephone handsets. The objective of the research is to develop a compact fuel cell battery that can be used in mobile phones by the end of 2005.

There is a continuing trend for mobile telephones to consume more and more power, as LCD screen functionality increases, and applications become more powerful. With new features such as terrestrial digital broadcast receivers and online settlement systems reaching maturity, it is expected that this trend will continue as users use their mobile phones more and more often. Considering this, increasing battery life, along with reducing power consumption of mobile phones is becoming an urgent issue.

Presently, mobile phone manufacturers are concentrating on increasing the battery life of lithium ion batteries. However, current battery technology has limited capacity to keep up with the rapid increases in mobile phone functionality. Soon, a new battery technology with higher energy density will be needed, and with it, an improvement in power supply technology.

The fuel-cell battery technology being researched here is appropriate for mobile phones in that it has high energy density, is environmentally superior, and can be recharged simply by adding fuel. While already under consideration for automobiles, PCs, and certain household products, are now also thought to be an excellent choice for the next generation of mobile telephone battery technologies. Hence, KDDI has entered into contracts with both Toshiba and Hitachi to cooperate on the development of fuel cell batteries.

Research will cover areas such as miniaturization, ease of use and all technical considerations required for incorporating the batteries into mobile phones. Plans are to complete an external, battery-charger-type model within 2004, and complete a mobile phone built-in model by the end of the 2005 fiscal year. The three companies are already actively participating in national and international standardization and de-regulation efforts related to fuel-cell technology.

KDDI hopes that the incorporation of fuel cell technology into mobile phones will contribute significantly to ease-of-use, as longer usage times for high-performance handsets becomes possible, and recharge time becomes no longer necessary.

About Hitachi

Hitachi, Ltd. (TSE:6501/ NYSE:HIT), headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is a leading global electronics company, with approximately 326,000 employees worldwide. Fiscal 2003 (ended March 31, 2004) consolidated sales totaled 8,632.4 billion yen ($81.4 billion). The company offers a wide range of systems, products and services in market sectors, including information systems, electronicdevices, power and industrial systems, consumer products, materials and financial services.

About Toshiba Corporation

Toshiba Corporation (TSE: 6502) (US: TOSBF) (FTSE: TOS) is a leader in the development and manufacture of electronic devices and components, information and communication systems, consumer products and power systems. The company's ability to integrate wide-ranging capabilities, from hardware to software and innovative services, assure its position as an innovator in diverse fields and many businesses. In semiconductors, Toshiba continues to promote its leadership in the fast growing system-on-chip market and to build on its world-class position in NAND flash memories, analog devices and discrete devices. Toshiba has approximately 166,000 employees worldwide and annual sales of over US$47 billion.

About KDDI Corporation

KDDI is a diversified telecommunication operator formed by the merger of DDI, KDD and IDO in 2000, and is the only domestic company that provides both mobile communication service and broadband service. The number of subscribers to the mobile phone services under the au and TuKa brands is over 21 million, and fixed-line subscribers (MyLine) is approximately 9 million. The 73 KDDI group companies had approximately 13,000 staffs and sales in FY2004/3 was 2,846.1 billion yen. At KDDI, aggressive improvement of communication environment in preparation for the coming ubiquitous network society is underway and KDDI is aiming to become a "ubiquitous solution company" which provides high value-added solutions.KDDI Corporation