Shinjiro Iwata and New Executive Team Target ContinuedMarket Share Expansion in 2002

SANTA CLARA, California, December 17, 2001- Hitachi Data Systems, a wholly-ownedsubsidiary of Hitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT), today announced thearrival of its new president and chief executive officer, Mr.Shinjiro Iwata. The company further announced two significant, newadditions to its executive management team: Marlene Woodworth, vicepresident and general manager, global marketing and operations; andChristine Wallis, vice president, global strategy and planning.

Iwata, a seasoned executive with a 29-year career at Hitachi,Ltd., will also serve as Hitachi Data Systems' managing directorand chairman of the executive committee. Mr. Iwata succeeds Dr. JunNaruse, who will return to Japan as executive officer of Hitachi,Ltd.'s Information Systems & Telecommunications Group.

"I am very pleased to return to Hitachi Data Systems as CEO,"said Shinjiro Iwata. "I am also extremely impressed with the growthand progress achieved by the company since my earlier tenure hereas executive vice president at Hitachi Data Systems just one yearago. Under my leadership, the new executive team will continue tofocus heavily on strategic direct sales, global alliances, andtechnology innovation to forge ahead with our goal of becoming thenumber one storage company by 2004."

As executive vice president and general manager, globalmarketing and operations, Marlene Woodworth will focus oncontinuing the expansion of Hitachi Data Systems' direct salesengagements and worldwide channel initiatives. Woodworth formerlyserved as vice president of product marketing and management atHitachi Data Systems and led marketing teams responsible for thesuccessful global launches of the Hitachi Freedom Storage ™ Lightning 9900 ™ Series andthe Thunder 9200 ™ Series storage arrays.

As vice president, global strategy and planning, ChristineWallis will collaborate closely with Hitachi, Ltd., to pursueinvestment and M&A opportunities for Hitachi's global storagebusiness, a business where Hitachi, Ltd., is considering investingup to 1.25B USD for M&A within the next year (with an exchangerate of 124 yen to the dollar). Wallis formerly served as vicepresident of global storage marketing for Hitachi Data Systems from1998-1999, and was promoted to vice president of the OEM businessunit, where she successfully managed the growth of Hitachi DataSystems' OEM sales to Hewlett-Packard until March 2000. Wallis mostrecently served as vice president of the Corporate Venture Capital(CVC) unit of Hitachi America, Ltd., where she was a core member ofthe 80M USD fund, which created new business opportunities throughinvestments in emerging technology companies.

"It truly is an exciting time to welcome Mr. Iwata as the newleader of Hitachi Data Systems, especially now as the company gearsup to take full advantage of its unique position in the storagemarketplace," said Dave Roberson, COO, Hitachi Data Systems. "Ournew senior executive team is comprised of the best talent and themost comprehensive experience, and will enable us to achieve ourstrategic goals in 2002, and continue to gain share in key marketsegments."

Highlights of Hitachi, Ltd.'s global storage business for thefirst half of fiscal year 2001:

• For the first half of fiscal year 2001, Hitachi, Ltd.'s globalSAN/NAS solutionsbusiness, of which HDS represents 75% on a fiscal basis,successfully managed to increase storage revenues by 20% over thefirst half of fiscal year 2000 to 1B USD* (120B yen). During thesame timeframe, high-end RAID storage petabyte shipments increased100% to 6.6 petabytes, and mid-range storage petabyte shipmentsrose 160% to 1.3 petabytes. In a recent conference call toinvestors, A.G. Edwards enterprise storage analyst Shebly Seyrafinoted that "HDS is the fastest growing company in high-end RAID,and continues to gain material market share versus its keycompetitors."
• Additionally, a recent A.G. Edwards report by Shebly Seyrafi("HDS-Menacing EMC's Business Model," December 3, 2001) indicatesthat Hitachi has doubled its market share in the high-end RAIDmarketplace, to 32.3%, up from 16.1% in Jan., 2000. "Hitachi globalstorage hardware revenues grew to nearly 80% of EMC's hardwarerevenues in the Sept. quarter, up from 38% in the June quarter,implying strong sequential share gains vs. EMC. Meanwhile,Hitachi's terabyte growth more than doubled during the six-monthperiod ended Sept., and we find this to be more impressive than theresults of Hitachi's closest competitors."
• For the entire fiscal year 2001, Hitachi, Ltd., carries aforecast of 4% growth for its global SAN/NAS solutions business."This growth rate is excellent at a time when HDS' competitors areposting 40-50% year-on-year declines," said Seyrafi in his recentreport.
• Hitachi Data Systems' recently announced HiCommand ™ storage management framework is gainingconsiderable attention in the storage industry, with nearly 40independent software vendors (ISVs) writing to its ApplicationProgramming Interfaces (APIs), including Sun Microsystems, VERITAS,Microsoft, BMC, CA, and InterSAN. HiCommand is designed to increasethe level of automation for optimizing the performance of storagesystems, enabling administrators to be able to replace manualactivity with an automatic means of monitoring, analyzing, andbalancing data volumes.

Shinjiro Iwata initially joined Hitachi Data Systems in 1997 asan executive vice president in the storage line of business, duringwhich time he helped forge the successful OEM relationship withHewlett-Packard. The original agreement, signed in May 1999,allowed HP to combine Hitachi's core array technology with HP'sopen system software and solutions to create the HP SureStore XPstorage array family, which exceeded sales of 1B USD earlier thisyear. Iwata served in this capacity until August, 2000, when hereturned to Hitachi, Ltd., to serve as deputy general manager ofthe International Business Planning & Development Division; andsubsequently, as the general manager (Global Business Planning) ofHitachi's Global Business Development Division.

Prior to his first tenure at Hitachi Data Systems, Iwata servedas department manager of the Planning Department for Hitachi'sInformation Systems & Telecommunications Group, its largest andmost strategic business segment. Iwata's team promoted Hitachi's PCbusiness in the U.S., culminating in the establishment of theHitachi PC Corp. in San Jose, CA. Iwata began his career atHitachi, Ltd. in 1972, in the International Sales Division. Heprogressed steadily through a variety of roles, from assistantmanager of Hitachi's Singapore office to section manager of thePlug Compatible Mainframe (PCM) computer department, to departmentmanager of the computer department of the International TradeDivision.

Iwata is a native of Kagawa, Japan, and holds a B.S. inEngineering from Waseda University.

Hitachi Data Systems is a leading supplier of storage hardware,software, solutions and services. As a wholly owned subsidiary ofHitachi, Ltd. (NYSE: HIT), Japan's largest electronics company, HDSis committed to providing the technological infrastructure for theworld's most information-intensive corporations. With 2,600employees, Hitachi Data Systems does business in the public andprivate sectors in 170 countries and regions on six continents,including the rapidly emerging economies in Southeast Asia andEastern Europe. Its customers include more than 50 percent ofFortune 100 companies, and all of the major Storage ServiceProviders (SSPs). For more information, please visit the HDS Website at www.hds.com.

Hitachi, Ltd., headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, is one of theworld's leading global electronics companies, with fiscal 2000(ended March 31, 2001) consolidated sales of 8,417 billion yen($67.9 billion**). The company manufactures and markets a widerange of products, including computers, semiconductors, consumerproducts and power and industrial equipment. For more informationon Hitachi, Ltd., please visit Hitachi's Web site at http://www.hitachi.com/.

Contacts: PR
Jodi Reinman, Hitachi Data Systems, (408) 970.1050, jodi.reinman@hds.com

*At an exchange rate of 120 yen to the dollar.

**At an exchange rate of 124 yen to the dollar.

Hitachi Data Systems is registered with theU.S. Patent and Trademark Office as a trademark and service mark ofHitachi, Ltd. Freedom Storage and Thunder 9200 are trademarks ofHitachi Data Systems.