Announcing the succession plan and the generational handover from the founder (2023)

The choice to step back while riding high

The heart of this decision is that the founder set the timing of his own exit not when cornered but in the midst of strong performance. While many founders cannot let go of their magnetism and delay succession, Fujita, seeing an internal document that imagined his future self, chose to move it up: he cultivated 16 candidates under the condition of being in their forties or younger over several years, and put the tacit knowledge of management into words as a handover document. Given the chain in which the 2019 shareholder opposition produced governance reform, and the committee that reform created became the vessel for the succession plan, this declaration was not sudden but a move placed on top of institution and preparation.

That said, it is early to conclude that the escape from founder-dependence has been achieved. The handover, initially set for 2026, was moved up to 2025, and Fujita continues for the time being with CEO-level involvement as chairman, accompanying the new structure under a two-representative system. Succession will truly be complete only when the company keeps growing after Fujita has left. Preparing to step back while riding high is itself one answer to founder-run management, which tends to postpone succession — but whether that answer was right will be proven by the second-generation structure from here on.