Hiroshi Shirahama
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
He graduated from the ordnance engineering department of Tokyo Imperial University's Faculty of Engineering in March 1925 and joined Nippon Kogaku in April that year. Ordnance engineering was the weapons discipline connected to naval guns and rangefinders, a field tied directly to the company's core business at the time, centered on optical equipment for the navy. He became a Director in January 1947 and Managing Director in May 1953, handling on the executive side the move to mass-produce cameras after military demand was lost. He was born in Nagasaki Prefecture.
Selection
He became President from Managing Director in May 1959, succeeding Masao Nagaoka. Non-consolidated net sales for the fiscal year ended March 1959, before he took office, were ¥2.1 billion, at a time when camera and lens exports were beginning to grow. In May 1963 he became Chairman, but returned as President that September. Noboru Hamajima was President for those four months, an unusual sequence in which the predecessor returned after a brief change.
Initiatives
In his second term he expanded production bases and the sales network. In October 1963 the company took a management stake in Sakura Denshi Kogyo (now Tochigi Nikon), in June 1967 built the Ofuna plant of the Oi Works (now the Yokohama Plant), and in July 1968 established Nikon Europe N.V. in the Netherlands, bringing European sales in-house. Non-consolidated net sales grew from ¥2.1 billion in the fiscal year ended March 1959 to ¥18.4 billion in the FY ended March 1969, his final year.
Career
Career
Nippon Kogaku
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| 1925 | Joined |
| Jan 1947 | Director |
| May 1953 | Managing Director |
| May 1959 | President |
| May 1963 | Chairman |
| May 1963 | Stepped down as President |
| Sep 1963 | President |
| May 1969 | Stepped down as President |
| May 1969 | Stepped down as President |