Hitachi Announces New Management Structure President Higashihara to Become Chairman, Vice President Kojima the New President

On May 12, 2021, Hitachi, Ltd. announced its new management structure. Starting from this date, President Toshiaki Higashihara will assume the concurrent position of chairman. Following the general meeting of shareholders on June 23, Vice President Keiji Kojima will become the new president. In addition, Mr. Hiroaki Nakanishi will step down as chairman and assume the position of chairman emeritus.

At the press conference held on this day, Higashihara said of Nakanishi that he "respects his determination to concentrate on his medical treatment," while also stating: "It is unfortunate that Mr. Nakanishi is stepping down for health reasons in the middle of his term, and I pray for his quick recovery."

Chairman Higashihara attending the press conference

Vice President Kojima, who will concurrently assume the positions of president and COO following the general meeting of shareholders, also said that "Mr. Nakanishi's retirement is unfortunate. I pray for his recovery." Speaking on his own aspirations, he said that "I want to work hard on the challenge of finding solutions to a variety of social issues and Hitachi to become recognized as a global leader in the Social Innovation Business."

When asked at the press conference about the strengths of Kojima,Higashihara said that "He is recognized for his executive ability. He has solidly executed extremely challenging operations, such making Hitachi High-Tech Corporation a wholly owned subsidiary and transferring the diagnostic imaging business. He deserves tremendous credit for this."

Vice President Kojima on his philosophy of work: "If you say will do it, do it."

Kojima was a leading figure in the starting up of Lumada, Hitachi's proprietary digital solutions platform that is central to Hitachi's growth strategy. He said that "Even after assuming both positions of president and COO, I want to adopt a coherent approach toward pursuing the creation of new value from data and providing it to customers and society."

Citing research and development (R&D) as a field of focus, Kojima also asserted that "We must pioneer core technologies using our own resources," adding "It is my intention to once more devote our efforts to R&D. Chairman Higashihara said that he is going to increase investment in R&D, so this is something that I'd like to do together with him."

Kojima defines Hitachi's mission as "supporting the happy lives of people by making full use of data and technology to steadily innovate social infrastructure" and called on "human capital with the same mindset to gather together and make a reality of their dreams and what they want to do."

Additionally, when asked by a reporter about leadership, he indicated his idea for communication-based leadership, saying that "Our global human capital is our greatest asset. I want to create the next-Hitachi through all-encompassing discussions with these people."