April 27, 2004

Takeda Chemical Industries, Ltd.

Takeda Announced a Year-end Dividend of the Fiscal Year Ended March 31, 2004

Osaka, Japan, April 27 2004 - Takeda Chemical Industries, Ltd. ("Takeda") today announced that its board of directors meeting had resolved an increase of a year-end dividend of the fiscal year ended March 31, 2004.

The year-end dividend announced this time is &Yen;41.00, and there would be an increase of &Yen;8.00 per share as compared to the previous year-end dividend of &Yen;33.00 per share.

This year-end dividend for fiscal year ended March 31, 2004 is subject to approval of the ordinary general shareholders' meeting at the end of June 2004.

Dividends per share

	Interim	Year-end	Annual total
Fiscal 2003	36.00yen	41.00yen	77.00yen
Fiscal 2002	32.00yen	33.00yen	65.00yen

Takeda's basic policy is to return profits to shareholders according to consolidated results for each fiscal year, and at the same time, to make a stable distribution on profits, taking into overall consideration the financial condition and medium- to long-term capital requirements for business investments to increase the company's value.

Takeda is a research-based global company with its main focus on pharmaceuticals. As the largest pharmaceutical company in Japan and one of the industry's leaders worldwide, Takeda is committed to strive toward better health for individuals and progress in medicine by developing superior pharmaceutical products.

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