Tokyo, Japan, Dec 18, 2006 - (JCN Newswire) - ITOCHU Corporation (TSE: 8001; ADR: ITOCY) has announced that it will invest JPY 1 billion (4% of outstanding shares after investment) in solar energy company NorSun AS (Oslo, Norway, CEO: Jon Hindar), which is planning to produce monocrystalline silicon wafers for solar cells.

NorSun was established in December 2005 by Dr Alf Bjorseth, who is a founder and former CEO of the Renewable Energy Corporation ASA (REC), the world's largest manufacturer of solar-grade silicon and multi crystalline wafers, to develop a broadly-based business in the solar industry.

NorSun is planning to set up a plant in Ardal in the beginning of 2008 for the production of monocrystalline silicon wafers, with plans to expand to a production capacity of 430MW by 2010.

ITOCHU set up a dedicated solar business team in June to accelerate this business activity. With its investment in NorSun, ITOCHU is placing NorSun as a core business agenda in this field, and will work towards further strengthening of relations including personnel exchange. ITOCHU will also strengthen collaboration with other capital investors in NorSun, such as major resource companies, funds and investment banks, and NorSun's customers, such as solar cell manufacturers.

Further, ITOCHU will implement development and commercialization of new technology together with NorSun and move ahead in setting up active business from up-stream through down-stream in the solar industry. ITOCHU aims to contribute to a better society with expanding business in this field, which is promising as one of the clean energies.

About Itochu Corporation

Itochu Corporation is one of Japan's leading trading companies and is engaged in a wide variety of businesses, including textiles, machinery, aerospace, information technology, multimedia, metals, energy, chemicals, forest products, food, retail, financial services and so forth. Itochu maintains over 130 offices around the world and owns over 640 subsidiaries and affiliates. Itochu's sales last year reached 9.5 trillion yen (US$90 billion). Itochu aims to build new profit-making strategies and adding new functions in order to become more global, and to foster businesses in new fields.