We will now begin the presentation of the Financial Results of Marui Group for the Fiscal Year ended March 31st, 2022. Today's documents are available for download from our corporate website. Please see overview of performance in the fiscal year ended March 31st, 2022, and future outlook. Today, we would like to explain the financial results for about 30 minutes, and then take questions from you. Questions for the Q&A session will be taken via the conference call system. Please note that the video of this briefing will be available on our website at a later date. Now let me introduce today's presenters. Mr. Aoi, President and Representative Director. Mr. Kato, Managing Executive Officer and CFO, will present the financial results for the fiscal year ended March 31st, 2022. In addition to the two speakers, we have three speakers, including Mr.
Saito, Managing Executive Officer and President of Epos Card, Mr. Aono, Senior Executive Officer and President of MARUI, and Ms. Kutsukake, General Manager of IR Department. These five speakers will answer questions from the audience. The contents of today's briefing are as shown. First, Mr. Kato, Managing Executive Officer and CFO, will give an overview of the financial results for the fiscal year ended March 31st, 2022, and the outlook for the fiscal year.
My name is Kato. I will now give an overview of financial results for the fiscal year March 2022, and explain the status of each business segment in light of the progress of the medium-term management plan. Let me start with consolidated performance. There are four highlight points for the financial results.
The 3 main KPIs all significantly improved year-over-year in reaction to last year's COVID and increase in provision for loss on interest repayment. They recovered to the levels ranging from 70%-90% compared to pre-COVID levels. Total transactions reached the JPY 3 trillion level for the first time due to growth in Fintech segment transactions. Consolidated profit also achieved a plan with a significant increase compared to the previous year. By segment, Fintech recovered to a level higher than before COVID-19 and achieved a record operating income, while retailing increased its profit compared to the previous year, but the impact of the COVID still remains significant compared to Fintech. Key KPIs. As I explained earlier in the summary, the past 3 years have not yet seen a recovery to the pre-COVID level, although there have been significant increases compared to the previous years.
ROE and ROIC for the year were below the cost of shareholders' equity and WACC, respectively. Therefore, we are aware that we must exceed them in the fiscal year ending March 2023. Main financial indicators. Transactions, while slightly below plan, reached the JPY 3 trillion level for the first time, well above the pre-COVID level due to the increase in Fintech transactions. Both operating income and net income achieved the plan, although they did not reach the pre-COVID levels. This is revenue and operating income by segment. Retailing continues to struggle in terms of revenue, profit, and ROIC due to the still significant impact of the spread of COVID-19 and other factors. Fintech's revenue, operating income, and ROIC all exceeded the pre-COVID levels.
ROIC, in particular, reached a record high of 5% due to an increase in non-balance sheet revenues that we are increasingly focusing on, such as rent guarantee services. Breakdown of changes in operating income. Operating income increased by JPY 21.6 billion in the fiscal year March 2022, of which JPY 17.8 billion was due to extraordinary factors such as loss on interest repayment, which was a large expense in the previous year. Excluding these extraordinary factors, the actual increase in operating income was JPY 3.8 billion, with JPY 1.9 billion in retailing and JPY 1.8 billion in Fintech. Recurring revenue and contracted future recurring gross profit remained strong even during the pandemic.
As a result, contracted future recurring gross profit, which is most likely to be recorded as recurring revenue in the future, increased significantly from less than JPY 200 billion in the fiscal year March 2016 to JPY 337.6 billion this fiscal year, an amount equivalent to 1.8 years of total gross profit for the current fiscal year. We believe that this indicates that the earnings structure has changed significantly over this period, and that the certainty of future cash flow acquisition, which affects corporate valuation, has steadily increased. Next, I will explain the status of retailing segment. Here are the quarterly revenue and operating income trends.
They started to show increasing trend in the second half of the year as the impact of COVID-19 has weakened from the first half, but income level is still about 30% of the pre-COVID level. This is the status of the number of store visitors. Although the number of store visitors for the year was 1.1x that of the previous year, the impact of COVID still remains, especially for stores in big cities. Going forward, we aim to increase the number of store visitors by an average of about 10% per year by promoting the transformation of the department store format set forth in our medium-term management plan.
By the fiscal year March 2026, we aim to increase the number of store visitors to 210 million, surpassing the number before pandemic. The two main strategies for the transformation of the department store model in the medium-term management plan are shifting to stores that don't sell by expanding the composition of non-retail stores such as food and beverage, service, and experience-oriented stores, and event for stores by launching various events centering on anime and new businesses to make the stores more attractive and fun to visit. I would like to explain our progress in each of these two areas.
For stores that don't sell, the percentage of non-retail stores increased 7% year-over-year to 50% in the current fiscal year due to the active opening of stores of co-creative investees, and we are making steady progress toward the 70% target of the medium-term management plan. In terms of events for stores, the number of events held a year more than tripled from the previous year to 2,900, which is also on track to reach the medium-term goal of 5,600 events. The status of EC transactions peaked at JPY 24.2 billion in the fiscal year March 2019, and has declined for three consecutive years, a situation that requires drastic improvement in order to achieve the medium-term management plan target of JPY 30 billion.
At the financial results presentation held in November last year, we explained that the lack of sufficient know-how and human resources for online systems was a factor in the struggling EC business, and that we would expand our human resources for online systems and accumulate expertise in this area. As the first step in expanding human resources for online systems, we established a new UI team with 11 members during the second half of the last year within the EC business division, including 3 externally hired specialists. The effects of these efforts are gradually being felt, and the trend in the third and fourth quarters increased, with the fourth quarter showing an increase of transactions over the previous year.
In addition, we hired 2 more specialists from outside of the company this month to work on UI, and we will continue to actively expand the number of personnel for online systems to improve the UI/UX. Next, let me turn to the status of Fintech. Revenue and operating income of Fintech. In the fiscal year ended March 2022, despite a significant decrease in gains on liquidated accounts receivable compared to the previous fiscal year and the year before, other revenue such as affiliate commissions grew significantly, resulting in record revenue and operating income exceeding even the pre-COVID level. Breakdown of transactions. Rent, e-commerce, and regular payments, which are strategically expanded in the medium-term management plan to maximize share of household finances, continue to perform well. Travel and entertainment, commercial facilities, and food are recovering after they struggled in the previous fiscal year.
The level is well within reach of JPY 5.3 trillion planned for the fiscal year March 2026 if the current growth rate is maintained. The status of installment and revolving transactions. By making it easier to use installment payments as there was a potential need, installment transactions increased approximately seven-fold compared to the fiscal year March 2016 and exceeded revolving transactions for the first time on an annual basis. During this period, revolving transaction did not decline. As a result, the total transactions of installment and revolving transactions doubled from the fiscal year March 2016, demonstrating that offering options that accurately meet customer needs has had a significant effect on revenue. Status of new cardholders.
The number of new cardholders fell sharply last year, but it increased year-on-year in both online services and commercial facilities, and the number of new cardholders increased by 80,000 to 610,000. By further strengthening card applications from service use through online and rent guarantees, we intend to expand the composition of card applications from non-commercial facilities aiming for 1 million new cardholders in the fiscal year March 2026. In the midterm plan, we plan to expand cards tailored to each individual's interest with large LTV as well as platinum and gold cards.
The number of new cardholders of cards tailored to each individual's interest increased by 50,000 to 140,000 in this fiscal year due to the extremely favorable reception of the Chiikawa EPOS Card issued since October last year and the continued expansion of the Sumikko Gurashi EPOS Card this year, which has been issued since 2019. The cards tailored to each individual's interests have been expanding steadily even during COVID-19 pandemic due to their high affinity with online card applications as recognition of the cards has been spreading through social media and others. We will continue to expand this to drive new card applications. The number of cardholders increased by 50,000 to 7.14 million this fiscal year from the previous year.
Of this total, 3.38 million cardholders or 47% are cardholders of platinum, gold, or cards tailored to each individual's interests, which have particularly high usage rates. We plan to increase this rate to approximately 60% in the fiscal year March 2026 to further increase transactions. Bad debt write-offs. The bad debt write-offs exceeded 2% in the previous year due to a decrease in the balance of loans receivable at the end of the period. Bad debt write-offs declined by 0.3% to 1.8% this year, again below 2%, due to a decrease in write-off amount and also a return to an increase in the balance of loans receivable.
In terms of interest repayment, though we are aware that we concerned many of you when we recognized a large amount of expenses last fiscal year, we have judged that there's no need to make a new provision for loss on interest repayments at this time, given the fact that the amount received, which is a leading indicator, has been declining every quarter during this fiscal year. We will continue to monitor the situation closely. Now, let us turn to status of co-creative investment. Co-creative investments have totaled JPY 22.3 billion since the fiscal year March 2017, but this fiscal year, the amount invested was JPY 2.9 billion, a significant decrease from the previous fiscal year and the year before, mainly due to a significant decrease in the number of interviews with start-up companies in the previous fiscal year because of COVID-19.
As the number of interviews has increased this fiscal year, we will aim to expand our investment in the fiscal year March 2023. The earnings contributions to main business from co-creative investments was JPY 1 billion, with the retailing business contribution of JPY 0.7 billion through the opening of tenants of co-creative investees, and the fintech contribution of JPY 0.3 billion through the use of collaboration cards with co-creative investees. The IRR was 27%. It has remained above the hurdle rate of 10% as an investment discipline. Next, let's look at impact. We have defined impact themes and priority items in our medium-term management plan and are currently examining the impact targets and measurement methods for each of them. Today, I would like to explain about CO₂ reduction, social bonds, and HERALBONY card.
First, let me talk about the impact of CO₂ emission reductions toward realization of a decarbonized society. Since joining RE100 in 2018, we have been working to reduce our own CO₂ emissions by switching 60% of the electricity we use to renewable energy and have reduced our CO₂ emissions by 310,000 tons so far. In addition to our own emission reductions, we have started to reduce social emissions by recommending renewable energy to our customers working with Minna Denryoku, our co-creative investee. Going forward, we have a plan to step up our efforts to recommend renewable energy to our customers so that we can achieve emissions reduction impact of more than 1 million tons in the fiscal year March 2026. Next, I will explain the social bond and HERALBONY card issued to support each individual's self-realization.
The social bond through co-creation with co-creative investees, Gojo & Company and Crowd Credit, was very well-received as a supportive investment option that enables EPOS Card holders to both contribute to society and build assets. Within three hours of the start of the offering, applications for the social bond reached a planned amount of JPY 100 million and eventually JPY 2 billion, 20x the planned amount. HERALBONY Card is a card in which 0.1% of the amount spent on the card is used to support the creative activities of artists with intellectual disabilities and its promotion, as well as to donate to welfare organizations through HERALBONY, our co-creative investee. As this being popular as using this card leads to a social contribution, more than 3,000 customers have applied for the card since last autumn. Balance sheet and cash flow. First is the balance sheet.
Total assets increased by JPY 18.8 billion to JPY 920 billion, mainly due to the growth of fintech and JPY 27 billion increase in trade receivables compared to the end of the previous year. In addition, net assets decreased by JPY 28 billion, partly due to JPY 30 billion share buybacks for capital optimization. Regarding capital allocation, we allocated JPY 38.5 billion of basic operating cash flow. JPY 12.1 billion was allocated to investment for growth, JPY 11 billion to dividends, and JPY 30 billion to share buybacks. We partially used borrowings as we accelerated the share buybacks execution to optimize capital.
Next is the forecast for the fiscal year ending March 2023. Total transactions up 16%, operating income up 11%, and net income up 21%. We expect strong growth in profits. EPS, ROE, and ROIC are expected to grow significantly. An increase in EPS by 27% to JPY 109.1, ROE up 1.9 points to 8.4%, and ROIC up 0.2 points to 3.5%. By recommending renewable energy to our customers, we plan to reduce 340,000 tons of CO₂ emissions, which is 20,000 tons more than last fiscal year. Next is the operating income forecast by segment. An increase in retailing by 78% to JPY 3.5 billion is expected, even though the impact of COVID remains.
Fintech will return to the pre-COVID growth phase, up 7% to JPY 44 billion, which is a new record high. Now about the dividend. Our basic policy is a long-term continuous increase in dividends. The dividend per share for the fiscal year March 2022 is JPY 52, a rise of JPY 1 from the previous year. For the fiscal March 2023, we plan to raise by JPY 6 to JPY 58, 11 consecutive years of increase. That is all from me. Thank you very much. Next, Mr. Aoi, President and Representative Director will explain Marui Group's human capital management. I am Aoi. I'd like to explain the human capital management of Marui Group. Using the iceberg model, human capital is the invisible capital under the water which is the source of the visible corporate value represented by financial information.
Based on our corporate philosophy of human capital equals corporate growth, we aim to enhance our corporate value by changing the corporate culture and developing our people. While shareholders or investors are increasingly interested in human capital, we have not had an opportunity to explain it fully, so I'd like to share with you the overview today. Since I became president in 2005, we've been working to transform our corporate culture for 17 years. Transforming a corporate culture requires a long-term commitment, but through our tenacious effort, now people say that Marui is completely different from the past. Corporate culture is like an operating system for management. By upgrading our OS from the old one, we are shifting to new management that balances sustainability and well-being with profitability.
We are aiming to create a corporate culture to shift from forcing people to respecting their autonomy, from obligation to enjoyment, from top-down approach to supportive management, from core business and social contribution to serving social issues through core business, from enhancing our business performance to enhancing our value. Various measures were taken simultaneously to change our corporate culture. I'll explain each of the measures 1 through 8. First of all, we set our corporate philosophy shown on this slide, equate the development of our people with the development of our company. This is the basis of our human capital management. We had a thorough discussion with our people about our management philosophy. In the dialogue, employees had deep level discussions on essential topics such as why do we work? What did we want to do at this company?
Well, I think these dialogues were act of aligning the company's purpose with individual purpose. The dialogue session continued for more than 10 years, joined by almost all employees. After aligning the philosophy, people who are unable to share the common ideal left resulting in the temporary rise in the turnover rate. However, as we are able to enhance the circle of empathy for the philosophy, the turnover rate is now at a low level around 3%. For the new employees, we share our corporate philosophy before they join us through programs such as internships. That resulted into an improvement in turnover rate for new employees up to 3 years from 20% to 11%, which is one-third of the nation's average of about 30%. This is how we built the foundation for the company and the individual relationship where we mutually select each other.
In addition, a culture of dialogue has been fostered through these activities. In the past, one-way communication was the norm, so it was a challenge to understand what dialogue was. Through trial and error, we learned how to engage in dialogue, and we created rules for dialogue. All of them are obvious, but number one, the safe place declaration is similar to Google's psychological safety, and they are similar to David Bohm's theory of dialogue. Thanks to this, the habit of dialogue is now firmly established and meetings are always conducted with dialogue. Next, we work to reduce overtime as part of our work style reforms. As a result of initiatives, per capita overtime was reduced from 11 hours per month in the fiscal year March 2008 to about 4 hours in the fiscal year March 2022.
The purpose of this initiative is not only to create a comfortable workplace, but also to transform our perspective on work. What is important for the future is to create value and not to work long hours. In promoting diversity, we address three types of diversity, gender, age, and individual. I'd like to explain gender diversity. From the fiscal year March 2014, we started a project to promote women's contributions. By setting our own KPIs, women's empowerment indexes, eight years later in the fiscal year March 2022, 100% of male employees had taken childcare leave for five consecutive years. The percentage of women seeking higher positions which had been an issue, had also improved to 64%.
From the fiscal year March 2022, we set a new goal for male employees to take paternity leave and began addressing the gender roles, which is the cornerstone of gender equality. In recognition of these efforts, we have been selected as Nadeshiko Brand for 5 consecutive years. Next is the culture of hand-raising. What triggered this idea was the midterm management promotion meeting when I became president. As you can see, all the participants were men in dark suits. Some of them were sleeping. After thinking how to revitalize such meetings, I arrived at the raise hand method. We decided to ask people to raise their hands if they want to participate in such meetings and invited only them. Here's the current situation. The participation of women as well as men, young as well as experienced, has created a lively atmosphere and improved the meetings to a different degree.
The midterm management promotion meeting is held once a month, 12x a year. Nearly 1,000 people raise their hands each time, and about 300 who have passed the paper screening participated in the conference. To date, we did 78 meetings and 25,000 people attended. We started to adopt this raise hand system for other programs such as projects going to external business schools and next generation management development programs and new businesses. In addition, promotion exams and transfers are also conducted on a hand-raising basis. In the fiscal year March 2022, the percentage of employees who voluntarily participated reached 82%. Next is our unique intragroup job change and transfer. In addition to retail and fintech, Marui Group has a variety of other businesses like IT, logistics, and housing. Based on employees' wishes, we're offering intragroup job change and transfer across our group.
In the fiscal year March 2022, a cumulative total of 77% of employees were transferred to jobs different from their original ones. 86% of the employees experienced growth after their transfer. We aim to promote the growth of employees and to form a team consisted of individuals with diverse experience, thereby enhancing our ability to respond to change and become a company capable of creating innovation. To support these initiatives, we revised our personnel evaluation system. Two-axis evaluation of performance and value. By doing both performance evaluations and 360-degree evaluation from supervisors, colleagues, and subordinates about values, we aim to realize our philosophy of people development. The last is well-being. We've been working on well-being since 2016, aiming to create a vibrant organization where each employee is able to work with a sense of fulfillment and vitality. Led by Mr.
Kojima, our industrial physician and chief well-being officer. We have implemented a resilience program for executives as well as projects led by employees. Project members were selected from applicants 5x as many as the members who are passionately leading their workplace. In recognition of these efforts, the company has been selected as Health and Productivity Stock Selection for five consecutive years. Next is about investment. During the previous medium-term management plan, we invested about eleven billion yen in human resources and R&D combined. The total investment for the fiscal year March 2022 was JPY 4.2 billion. However, some of the investment that were categorized as R&D included things related to human capital. We have therefore decided to redefine human capital investment by extracting human capital related expenses.
Previously, we recorded only the education and training expenses under the human capital investments about JPY 1 billion for the fiscal year March 2022. We now add personnel costs for employees involved in new businesses and seconded staff, half of the co-creation team's cost, which was previously included in R&D. The amount is about JPY 2.2 billion. We also add cost for the first year of employees who have changed their jobs and the investment in the new business incubation company. These are about JPY 4.5 billion. The total amount is JPY 7.7 billion. Under the new medium-term plan, human capital investment based on the new standards will increase to JPY 12 billion in the fiscal year March 2026. Accordingly, the investment as a percentage of personnel cost will rise from 22% to 35%.
Through this expansion of human capital investment which contributes to the future earnings, we aim to sustainably increase corporate value. Future direction. We have transformed ourselves from a detail-oriented, labor-intensive business to a fintech-led business. Going forward, we'll evolve into knowledge and creation-oriented business through a three-pronged business model of retail, fintech, and future investment and by investing in intangible assets. What we need for further evolution is to bridge the gap between current human resources and the people we want for the future. Until now, we are seeking people who can efficiently carry out the given tasks. In the future, we want people who are capable of creating new businesses. Our key phrase for the human resource we want is produced by digital, a person capable of producing new business by utilizing the power of digital.
This capability requires like as a starting point with a combination of hypothetical thinking, goal-oriented, and digital. In order to develop such talents, we further provide growth opportunities such as new businesses, co-creation teams, and CMA, our next generation management development program. Through CMA, we plan to train about 200 next generation candidates by fiscal year March 2027. In addition, we also strengthen our digital training. In collaboration with Life is Tech!, our co-creative investee, we conducted digital training for executives last December. This fiscal year, we first conduct training for new employees, followed by existing employees. Furthermore, we hold an in-house event called IT Koshien in December to compete for the best results from the training and to discover digital talent. In April, we established a joint venture company, Muture, with Goodpatch, a leading UX design company.
This joint venture will serve as a window for recruiting digital and UX experts. We also enhance UX expertise through this second bench. Next is governance. In order to align management strategy and human resource strategy, the Human Resource Strategy Committee was newly established in April as an advisory to the board of directors. The committee will be chaired by CHRO Mr. Ishii, and Outside Director Ms. Okajima will serve as a member. The committee will propose HR strategies to the board of directors in cooperation with the Strategy Review Committee. Last is about resolution passed today by the board of directors regarding granting of shares to employees. We have a performance-linked stock compensation program for directors and managers, but this time, we also grant shares to general employees. By having employees become shareholders, we'll take our stakeholder management one step further.
We are considering granting each employee more than one unit totaling between 500,000 and 1,000,000 shares. Based on this, we consider holding a general meeting of shareholders for employees in addition to the annual general meeting under the Companies Act. That's all from me. Thank you very, very much for your attention.
We will now move on to the Q&A session. We are going to take questions via conference call. If you do not have a question, please continue to watch the live video of the Q&A session. This is Takahashi from Mizuho Securities. Thank you for your interesting and detailed presentation. I have two questions. First question is about human capital management that President Aoi talked about. You mentioned that Human Resource Strategy Committee meetings had been established. I think this was somewhat included in your explanation, but could you elaborate on what this committee is going to discuss and what leadership role it is going to play? I also would like to ask about Board 3.0 reform. Though it has been less than a year, I believe that you have been making various efforts towards stakeholder management.
Please tell us to the extent that it is not too much to ask what changes you have seen and what discussions have been held under the new board structure after a little less than one year. Also, although I don't think there have been any, but please tell us about any issues that have emerged as a result of the changes. Let me answer the question. First, regarding human capital management, we established the Human Resource Strategy Committee in April this year. Ideally, management strategy and human resource strategy should be exactly aligned, but for some time it was difficult for them to do so. The purpose of establishing this committee was to fundamentally resolve this challenge. The committee has not actually met yet. It will be held going forward, so there's no actual outcome at this point.
We will identify one by one the gaps between the current human resources and those we seek in the future, as mentioned earlier in my explanation. For example, we will discuss how to develop digital human resources, how to improve the objective-oriented and hypothesis thinking required of human resources who can produce businesses, and how to invest in human growth and how much money to spend. We would like to examine these items one by one in conjunction with our management strategy. Your second part of the question was about the new board structure. What has changed at the board of directors meetings, and what kind of discussions have been taking place? This may sound casual, but the board meetings are more enjoyable than ever. Each director is an excellent businessperson or investor with their own area of expertise. They're all very responsive, if you will.
There have been many spot on, honest, and straightforward questions and options on each agenda item. I enjoy our discussions, and we have very rich and active discussions aimed at the common goal of increasing corporate value. As one example, we held a two-day off-site directors meeting in April at a place away from Tokyo. There too, we had honest discussions about mid to long-term management in an atmosphere that differed from the usual conference room or online meeting. I feel that this was a very significant achievement and progress as we were able to talk about homework that we were unable to discuss fully at each board meeting, as well as about topics that remained without conclusions. I understood that very well. Thank you very much. Let me ask my second question. Since Managing Executive Officer Saito and Mr. Aono are here, I would like to ask you this question.
I'm sure that you will be giving us more detailed information during the upcoming medium-term management plan presentation, but I would like to know a little bit more about the perspective of this fiscal year's guidance. From what perspective did you formulate the plan for fintech and retailing? To put it simply, did you prepare the guidance conservatively or did you take a realistic viewpoint? What challenges and risks have you identified to accomplish the plan? Please give us a brief answer from Mr. Saito and Mr. Aono. Thank you for your question. This is Saito. One of the key points in the guidance for this year is how we look at COVID-19. This is an aspect that is very difficult to predict.
For fintech, we have calculated the growth rate for the current fiscal year by separately determining the areas where our recovery is very likely and the areas that will continue to be difficult, such as overseas travel, for example. Based on this, we calculated the expenses and came up with the forecast for segment profit. I personally feel that this is not an overly ambitious level, or in other words, not too conservative and very reasonable level. Now let me explain retail profit plan. As Mr. Saito just mentioned, COVID-19 is very difficult to predict, and since we found that the speed of recovery last year was slower than we initially expected, we have made a cautious profit plan for this fiscal year. Therefore, we believe that there is a good possibility of doing better than expected in terms of transactions and the number of store visitors.
In addition, based on last year's situation, we feel that we have a confidence in our strategy for the first year of our medium-term management plan. In a sense, I understand that the plan is not optimistic, but rather conservative. I understand well. Please let us know more on IR day. That is all. Thank you very much. We will let the next person through. My name is Kanamori from Okasan Securities. I have three questions. First of all, I would like to ask about the status of EC transactions. As I see on page 17 of the material, there have been various challenges regarding the status of EC for a long time. As explained previously, you have assigned specialized personnel, and in the fourth quarter, the transactions finally exceeded the previous year's level.
Are there any reasons for the recovery in EC transactions other than the personnel assignment? For example, did you change products or make changes in strategy to make a difference on transactions? Please tell us a little more about the background and behind the recovery in EC transactions in the fourth quarter. This is the first question. Thank you. You asked if there were any other reasons for the recovery of EC other than the specialized personnel. I believe there are two. With regard to EC, as you have pointed out, the situation remained challenging with a year-on-year decline for three consecutive years. We understand that this could not be overcome by ad hoc and short-term measures, so we began a full-fledged restructuring effort last fiscal year. We have been making changes to improve UI through speedy and agile development.
I would like to explain the specifics during IR day, but by implementing a number of measures, not limited to just assigning specialized personnel, the number of store visitors has risen considerably since November. The number of customers visiting stores in the fourth quarter was 120% compared to the same period last year. This trend has continued in the current period, and we are planning to increase the number of store visitors by 20% year-on-year this year. The other thing I mentioned earlier regarding progress in retailing was that we are expanding our store events. Revenue and transactions from EC events linked to our stores are growing. Our uniqueness lies in the fact that we have physical stores as well as online presence. We have already hit bottom and begun to recover thanks to activities linked to e-commerce and stores.
My second question is on page 29 of the material regarding the earnings contribution from co-creative investment. Your medium-term target for the earnings contribution for fiscal year March 2026 is JPY 5.5 billion. The contribution will increase over the medium term in 2023 and 2024, as it is difficult to imagine that the earnings contribution in the current fiscal year, 2023, will increase suddenly and significantly. How do you expect the earnings contribution to increase with alignment between fintech and retailing? This is Kato, and let me answer your question. As I explained earlier, for retailing, this includes the opening of new stores by tenants of co-creative investees, so we can expect immediate profit for this part.
On the other hand, for fintech, the profit will increase over time because this includes opportunity gains and losses for the year from the use of collaboration cards on co-creative investee side. Fintech's profit is larger, but it has grown in proportion to the number of cards accumulated in 2021 and 2022, and this fiscal year. That is why fintech is larger. I would like you to think that this will increase gradually over time, not all at once in the next fiscal year. What is the projected earnings contribution for the current fiscal year, March 2023? I don't have the documents at my fingertips now, so I will get back to you later. Understood. This is my last question. In relation to page 36 of the document, I would like to ask you about your approach to cash allocation.
You explained the cash allocation in terms of investment for growth, capital optimization, and shareholder returns in the previous fiscal year, March 2022. I believe that in fiscal year March 2023, performance will recover and cash will build up. I understand the amount of capital expenditure as stated in the supplemental materials, but what are your thoughts on the allocation for each of these areas? I would appreciate if you could respond as far as you are able to. The major concept of allocation is explained in the medium-term management plan. In the midterm plan, we have presented our major ideas for the next five years. Based on the midterm plan, we decide on the allocation for each year. It is presented that JPY 50 billion of share buybacks is planned over the five years.
The only irregularity is that we conduct JPY 50 billion of share buybacks during 2 years, last year and this year. We do so because there is a possibility that EPS will increase and the share price will rise in the future. Other than that, we do not think that there will be any extreme increase or decrease from year to year. I hope I have answered your question. Does JPY 3.6 billion of forward-looking investments include the human capital investment you mentioned earlier? How should we understand the difference between existing investments and forward-looking investments? Forward-looking investment is the sum of co-creative investment. That is investment in startups and investment in new businesses within the company, such as establishing a company okos. They are added to the balance sheet. The investments that Mr.
Aoi mentioned are considered as investments that are recorded as expenses and are not included here. Understood. That is all. Thank you very much.
Thank you very much. I'd like to invite our next person. Thank you. I have two questions. One is for President Mr. Aoi. It may overlap with Mr. Takahashi's question, but it's about human capital management. I want to ask about the background of presenting to us this topic today. If the gap between the goal and the reality is too big, employees will not be motivated enough. Since 2005, you've been leading various transformations, and you have been able to make the company bigger and deliver good results. Together with the new stock incentive program, do you intend to accelerate the momentum? Is that why you presented to us today about the human capital management? This is my first question. Thank you for the question. Well, I think there are two aspects.
While thinking about future growth, there is still a big gap in the medium to long-term goal of evolving from a retail and fintech-driven company to knowledge and creation-oriented company. There is still a big gap. Because the gap is still large against the goal, we really need to focus on filling the gap over the medium term. We need concentrated efforts to realize this goal. We need to focus on our initiatives. This is one point. On the other hand, there are some areas where we were able to deliver good outcomes.
With regard to change in corporate culture, as I described as updating the OS in my presentation, we have been reviewing the OS, and we are now aiming to achieve the goal of impact in a field that we've almost completed building a solid foundation for new management that enables the right balance between impact, profitability, and capital efficiency. We are seeing very good progress on this. Therefore, we'll use this new corporate culture as a base to simultaneously pursue the investment, training, and joint venture initiative that I explained today. If we continue these initiatives, we believe we can leap forward to the next stage. That means from a perspective of governance, you're trying to engage various stakeholders, including the management, external and internal people, next generation management candidates, and younger employees to achieve further transformation in an inclusive way. You're right.
Co-creation with six stakeholders, including future generations to enhance corporate value is our ideal end goal. In addition to the governance structure, we also grant shares to our employees, and through this, we'd like to overcome the conflict between stakeholders, such as shareholders and employees, and work together to enhance and co-create corporate value. My second question is about numbers. In your forecast for the fiscal year March 2023, it seems that net income is set at a lower level compared to operating income. Non-operating expenses in the ordinary income also seem high, and you recorded a sizable amount of impairment loss in the fiscal year March. Are you expecting to record impairment loss during this fiscal year, or did you include risk factors in the extraordinary loss forecast without any fixed item? I'm Kato. I'll answer your question.
For the fiscal year ending March 2023, the amount of extraordinary loss is expected to decline from the year earlier. The elimination of JPY 2 billion expenses related to infectious disease is the main reason. Compared to the previous year, the amount is expected to decline. However, since we have been investing actively in co-creative investment last year and the year before, there is a possibility of impairment loss, and that is factored into our guidance. Am I right to understand that you factored in the future possible risks and nothing has been decided? Yes, that is correct. Yes. Thank you. Thank you very much. Now I'd like to invite the next person. I am Kanamori from SMBC Nikko. I have two questions. First is about fintech. Is there any change before and after the semi-emergency measures?
I would like to know the situation regarding shopping transactions, the ratio of installment and revolving, acquisition of new card members, and cash advance business. I know that the monthly result is not available yet, but any information, including the qualitative one, will be useful. Thank you. The semi-emergency measures were lifted on first of April, and because there are no more disruptions, shopping transactions are trending favorably. Since people became more active in April and May, our travel and entertainment business has grown approximately 1.4x , almost returning to pre-COVID-19 levels. That is what we are seeing right now. Not only the transactions, but we are also seeing a positive trend for the new card members. Supported by a robust increase in store traffics, the number of new card members is also growing at around 1.4x year-on-year.
During this recent one and a half months, we are seeing good progress in terms of transactions and the number of cardholders. Thank you very much. What about installments and revolving payments? Are they coming back? Well, about the installment and revolving payments, last fiscal year, they recovered to a level similar to transactions. As you know, due to the nature of installment and revolving, there is a delay to see effects. We anticipate that the increase in transactions for April and May will positively impact revolving installment with a time lag of one month. Could you also share with us the status of cash advance business? Cash advance business is currently exceeding 100% versus the previous year in terms of transactions.
With the shift of cashless transactions and the weakness in so-called entertainment expenses at night, the need for ATM cash withdrawals is yet to recover to the pre-COVID-19 level. Thank you. In the fiscal year March 2023, you are planning to increase SG&A expenses by JPY 8.7 billion. The rate of increase seems bigger than usual. What are the reasons for the increase? This is Kato, and I'd like to answer. During the last fiscal year, the expense for infectious disease was recorded as an extraordinary loss in the fixed cost for store operations. In the fiscal year March 2023, it will be recorded as SG&A. The variable expense for fintech is expected to increase. Those are the reasons, and this is the way we formulated the numbers. Is the amount that will be returned from the extraordinary loss about JPY 2 billion?
Yes, in the fiscal year March 2022, we recorded about JPY 20.4 billion. This fiscal year, the amount will be returned. Okay, thank you very much. Thank you. Now I'd like to hand over to the next person. Hello. Can you hear me? Yes. Thank you very much. I'm aware with the time, but I'd like to ask three basic questions. My first question is about fintech. Regarding new card members, you said that the new enrollment has been brisk. What is the status of the acquisition cost? Is the trend flattish, or are you seeing any intensified competition? I think you mentioned about collaborating with settlement agencies instead of using costly affiliates. What about its progress? Thank you for the question. As I explained earlier, we are seeing good progress in the number of new card members.
Regarding the acquisition cost, there is a sharp increase in the cost of online advertising. Online enrollment grew in the last fiscal year, and we are seeing a structural change right now. Enrollment from online ads is decreasing. On the other hand, online enrollment from cards tailored to each individual's interests and from co-creative partners is significantly rising. So we were able to record higher results for online enrollment year- on- year. That means online enrollment is growing in the area where the acquisition cost is not so high, contributing to lower acquisition cost per card. Thank you for the answer. I understand that rent guarantees are growing steadily and making a good contribution to earnings. Do you see any future challenges or risks for this business?
I would also like to know about the potential of the business, not only for individuals, but also for tenants and companies that you've already started. Could you share with me the status of that? The rent guarantee business is performing well up to now, and we're making steady progress in building relationships with major real estate management companies as we accumulate a solid track record. Therefore, we believe that we can maintain our current growth for the time being. In addition, the tenant rent guarantee and office rent guarantee services, which were newly launched last year, have been very well received from the market. We have now more than 100 contracts signed for each business. Since this is a blue ocean, we intend to expand to a scale that will contribute to our revenue. That is what we want to do in the future. Thank you.
My next question is about retailing. In the last results briefing, you said that you would increase the number of web-based personnel by 250. How is the progress? You said that you wanted to strengthen not only the UI for e-commerce, but also the customer base settings for a wide range of business domains. Are you seeing any results? Also, the medium term operating income targets of JPY 9 billion for the fiscal year March 2024 and JPY 12 billion for the fiscal year March 2026 seem like high hurdles. Increasing the number of web-based personnel by 250 is not only for e-commerce, but for the transformation of the entire group and our human resources. While hiring from outside the company, the development of the capability of internal human resources is also included here.
Of the 11 people dedicated to the newly established e-commerce department we mentioned earlier, eight of them have been transferred from within the company for the purpose of developing digital talents. We still have a long way to go, but we are making good progress. Also, regarding the medium-term operating income targets of JPY 9 billion and JPY 12 billion, I think your concern is since there is a big gap between those goals and the current status. We must admit that the retail's operating income is small right now, and the speed of recovery from COVID-19 has been slow. However, we are convinced that we are making steady progress in strategies set for the first year of the medium-term management plan. The speed of recovery from COVID-19 may be a little slower, but we have a concrete plan to achieving JPY 12 billion operating income target for the final year.
I will explain more about this topic at the next IR day. Thank you. That was very clear. Thank you. It appears that there are no other questions. We'd like to close the Q&A session. This will conclude the financial results briefing. We'd like to ask you to fill out the questionnaire about the briefing. URL is sent to you via email. Thank you very much for taking time out of your busy schedule to join us today.