OKI Launches Travel Planning Tool "Travel Compass"

Coordinates location and event dates for easy vacation planning

TOKYO, July 2008 -- Oki Electric Industry Co., Ltd. (TSE: 6703) today announced its launch of “Travel Compass,” a travel planning tool to be offered to local governments and travel agencies in Japan. Travel Compass is a tool to help individuals plan travel itineraries that meet their needs by utilizing information from existing tourism websites as well as information on locations and event dates.

“With Travel Compass on their websites, local governments will be able to bring in more tourists to their areas and understand tourist needs to a greater degree,” said Hisao Suzuki, President of System Solutions Company at OKI. “Because this tool makes navigation easy, anybody will be able to create a unique travel plan based on their preferences. We will provide this product to local governments and travel agents in Japan who are working to vitalize their region through tourism.”

Gathering tourist information and searching suitable transportation routes has become easy to do with the Internet, but when individuals decide to travel, they still need to look into many websites to gather tourist and local information. Utilizing location and time information, OKI succeeds in developing this new tool to help individuals plan a round trip itinerary that is in detail and viable. For example, based on the locations the users plan to visit, such as specific addresses, Travel Compass will provide them with a detailed travel plan that includes local event dates and times during their stay and with appropriate transportation time.

OKI also offers an optional function to access route search services to display detailed ways of transportation options, the “NAVITIME Connection Function,” provided by NAVITIME Japan Co., Ltd. In addition, by synchronizing the itinerary with mobile phones and PDAs, users can expand their service lineup even to include navigation service.

Starting today, a trial site at Jichitai.com, a Japanese regional portal site operated by Cross Culture Ltd., will be adopting Travel Compass.