The first non-family president, Tsumuro Takao — ending 45 years of Obayashi rule (1989)

The reality of “non-family”: give up the presidency, keep the chair

Tsumuro Takao’s appointment was the decision to hand the president’s chair, held by the Obayashi family for forty-five years, to someone with no blood tie for the first time. That it was carried out in the middle of the bubble-era construction boom suggests it was not a generational change forced by crisis but a succession made while there was room to make one — a refreshing of the corporate image with the centenary in view. That it came with the symbolic staging of a corporate-identity programme likewise shows the decision was not merely a personnel move but carried the intention of changing how the company itself was seen.

What followed, however, shows that while non-family appointment to the presidency took hold, Obayashi Takeo remained continuously at the centre of management as executive vice-president, deputy chairman and chairman. Takeo became vice-president in 1989 when Tsumuro took office, deputy chairman at the next handover in 1997, and chairman in 2003 — a double structure, the presidency outside the bloodline and the pivot of management inside it, that persisted for a long time afterwards. Obayashi’s “break with family management” is closer to the truth when read as the opening of a single office.