Tokyo--Mr. Tadashi Okamura, President and CEO of Toshiba Corporation, today received a courtesy visit from Mr. Joseph S. Blatter, the President of FIFA, at Toshiba's headquarters in Tokyo. Toshiba is FIFA's "Official IT Partner" for the 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan^TM and 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany^TM.

Mr. Okamura and Mr. Blatter met for one hour, during which Mr. Okamura presented Mr. Blatter with a Toshiba notebook PC, a Pocket PC and a PC-Card mobile hard-disk drive. Mr. Okamura and Mr. Blatter, joined by Mr. Shunichiro Okano, the President of Football Association of Japan, also turned on the display of a countdown board in Toshiba's first floor lobby, which will count the days remaining to the opening of the FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan^TM on May 31, 2002.

Toshiba is an official sponsor of the 2002 FIFA World Cup Korea/Japan^TM and the 2006 FIFA World Cup Germany^TM and the "Official IT Partner" to FIFA in both competitions. Under its sponsorship agreement with FIFA, Toshiba will support the smooth operation of the FIFA World Cup^TM with IT-related products, including personal computers and PC servers, and by consulting on development of the official FIFA World Cup^TM web site.

Through support for FIFA, Toshiba seeks to reinforce understanding of the company and its IT capabilities in today's "Internet-Ready" era, building on the strong recognition it already enjoys for advanced technological capabilities and high product reliability. Toshiba is convinced that support for the world's most popular and widely watched sporting event will achieve global projection of the company as a proactive IT company offering advanced know-how and capabilities.