Yuichi Kitao
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
He joined Kubota in April 1979 and served as General Manager of Tractor Engineering, President of Kubota Tractor in the U.S. and General Manager of the Farm and Industrial Machinery Division. He became Executive Officer in April 2009, Managing Executive Officer in April 2013 and Director and Managing Executive Officer in June 2014, then Director and Senior Managing Executive Officer in April 2015 and Representative Director and Executive Vice President in January 2019. He is a career insider who passed through both farm machinery design and the North American business.
Selection
In January 2020 he succeeded Masatoshi Kimata as Representative Director and President. He had become Representative Director and Executive Vice President the previous January, so he was promoted after one year in that post. In the fiscal year ended December 2019, the year before he took office, consolidated net sales were ¥1,920.0 billion and operating income ¥201.7 billion, both above the previous year's ¥1,850.3 billion and ¥189.3 billion. The change appears to have given him the task of continuing to expand the overseas farm machinery business.
Initiatives
In 2022 the company invested up to about ¥140.6 billion in Indian farm machinery major Escorts and made it a subsidiary, gaining a production base in an emerging market. Consolidated net sales grew from ¥1,853.2 billion in the fiscal year ended December 2020, his first year, to ¥3,020.7 billion in FY ended December 2023, and employees rose from 41,605 to 52,608. In FY ended December 2025, sales were ¥3,018.8 billion and operating income ¥265.5 billion, with operating income down from ¥328.8 billion in FY ended December 2023.
Career
Career
Kubota
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| Apr 1979 | Joined |
| Apr 2009 | Executive Officer |
| Apr 2013 | Managing Executive Officer |
| Jun 2014 | Director, Managing Executive Officer |
| Apr 2015 | Director, Senior Managing Executive Officer |
| Jan 2019 | Representative Director, Executive Vice President, Executive Officer |
| Jan 2020 | Representative Director, President |
| Jan 2026 | Representative Director, Chairman |
| Jan 2026 | Stepped down as President |
References 1
References (Japanese primary sources)
- クボタ 有価証券報告書【役員の状況】