Nihachiro Katayama
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
He graduated from the Faculty of Engineering at Kyushu Imperial University in 1940, joined Mitsubishi Electric and designed motors in the design section of the Nagasaki Works. For the 25,000-horsepower wind tunnel facility ordered by the Naval Technical Research Institute in 1941, he handled the motor portion. He became manager of the Nagasaki Works in August 1969 and moved to manager of the Kobe Works in March 1972, becoming a Director in January 1974, Managing Director in June 1977 and Executive Vice President in June 1979. It took five years and seven months from joining the board to becoming president.
Selection
In June 1980 he succeeded Sadakazu Shindo as president. During his tenure Shindo had set an internal rule making 70 the retirement age for presidents, and he cited reaching that age and the company's net sales exceeding ¥1 trillion in the fiscal year ended March 1980 as his reasons for the change. In FY ended March 1980, just before, non-consolidated net sales were ¥1,075.4 billion and ordinary income ¥48.7 billion, about eight times the ¥6.1 billion to which ordinary income had fallen in FY ended March 1976.
Initiatives
In 1981 the company opened the Fukuoka semiconductor plant of the Kita-Itami Works. In October 1983 it reorganized its four business groups into six: heavy machinery, consumer products, electronic systems, computers, electronic devices and overseas. In semiconductors it set up a plant in the U.S. in 1983 to ease Japan-U.S. friction, and partially completed the Saijo Plant in Ehime Prefecture in 1984. In April 1984 Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Public Corporation formally adopted its products after six years of effort, and this led the company to join the public corporation's joint development of optical and image communications.
Career
Career
Mitsubishi Electric
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| Jun 1980 | President |
| Jun 1985 | Stepped down as President |