Masahiro Sakane
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
Sakane was an engineer who graduated from the Faculty of Engineering at Osaka City University. What he took charge of as president in 1991 was a U.S. joint venture, and at that chronically loss-making company he spent three years cutting both plants and personnel in half. Once it became clear how far measures had to go for survival, he carried them out all at once within a short period rather than piecemeal. This pattern of judgment was what his U.S. experience left him with.
Selection
The company posted a consolidated loss of ¥12.3 billion in the fiscal year ended March 1999, its first since it began consolidated reporting in 1964. Its mainstay construction equipment business had been declining since 1996 along with shrinking domestic public works. What most alarmed Masahiro Sakane, who became president in June 2001, was that the construction equipment division's earnings were hovering on the brink of a loss, and after taking office he started by digging thoroughly into the causes of its low profitability.
Initiatives
Fixed-cost cuts alone lifted operating income to a ¥33.0 billion profit the following year. Komatsu Electronic Metals withdrew from silicon wafer manufacturing in the U.S. and shifted to joint production with Formosa Plastics, and in October 2006 the company sold a majority of its shares to SUMCO and deconsolidated it, completing its exit from electronics, a business that had begun with the founding of that subsidiary in 1960. KOMTRAX became standard equipment on major domestic models from 2001 and was extended to Europe and North America from 2006. The share of sales from Greater Asia rose from 15% in fiscal 2000 to 27% in 2005.
Career
Career
Komatsu
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| Apr 1963 | Joined |
| Jun 1989 | General Manager, New Business Promotion Office |
| Jun 1989 | Director |
| 1990 | Komatsu Doressa Company, President |
| Jun 1994 | Managing Director |
| Jun 1997 | Senior Managing Director, General Manager, Corporate Planning Office |
| Jun 1999 | Representative Director, Executive Vice President |
| Jun 2001 | Representative Director, President |
| Jun 2003 | Representative Director, President and CEO |
| Jun 2007 | Representative Director, Chairman |
| Jun 2007 | Stepped down as President |
| 2010 | Chairman |
| 2013 | Director, Senior Advisor |
| Aug 2026 | Died |