Masakazu Echigo
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
In April 1952 he returned to Osaka as General Manager of Cotton Yarn and Fabrics, a post he held for seven years. Just as he took it, a collapse in cotton yarn prices was so severe that the Osaka Sampin Exchange suspended trading, and in 1953 the crashes continued with the Stalin shock in March and the signing of the Korean armistice in July, setting off a wave of trading company bankruptcies. In May 1959 he became Senior Managing Director and served for a year as head of the Tokyo branch, during which he rose to Executive Vice President. Serving one term each as Senior Managing Director and Executive Vice President, he was a textile sales man who spent most of his fifties on cotton yarn and fabrics.
Selection
In May 1960 he succeeded Uichiro Kosuge as the fifth President, at the age of 59. After taking office he first introduced a system of senior advisers, appointing Chubei Itoh II and two other seniors. He then set organizational harmony and merit-based management as basic principles and made expanding the non-textile divisions the top priority. The weakness in non-textiles was something he, having made cotton yarn and fabrics his own business, saw most clearly of all.
Initiatives
By reassigning staff he expanded the heavy and chemical industry divisions, and in the fiscal year ended March 1962 non-textile transactions exceeded half of sales. In July 1961 the company doubled its capital to over ¥10 billion, raising it to ¥10,925 million with the merger of Morioka Kogyo in October of that year and to ¥16,417.5 million with the merger of Aoki Shoji in April 1964. In May 1963 it decided to enter the oil industry in earnest, and in autumn 1965 it agreed to take over Toa Oil shares from Taro Yamashita. From 1961 it stationed staff in Moscow, and in March 1972 he visited China accompanied by Executive Vice President Seiki Tozaki.
Career
Career
Itochu
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| 1925 | Joined |
| May 1959 | Senior Managing Director and General Manager, Tokyo Branch Office |
| May 1960 | President |
| May 1974 | Stepped down as President and Chairman |
| May 1974 | Stepped down as President |