Japan Zoominar @ UC San Diego: "Japan's Business Reinvention: How to lead Corporate Change" with Takuya Shimamura, Eric R. Johnson, Ulrike Schaede
Wednesday, September 22, 2021, 8:30am-9:30am JST / Tuesday, September 21, 2021, 4:30pm-5:30pm Pacific | Register: https://bit.ly/3tQZfNv <https://bit.ly/3tQZfNv>

For ten years, Japan's leading companies have moved away from brand names and commoditized products to a stealth, deep-tech leadership in critical inputs into global supply chains. This reinvention requires new corporate culture and processes, ones that enable risk-taking and breakthrough innovation. This event will introduce the core message of Ulrike Schaede's award-winning book "The Business Reinvention of Japan", followed by a conversation with Takuya Shimamura (AGC) and Eric R. Johnson (JSR), the key executives who have led this corporate renewal and reinvention in their effort to turn formerly traditional, risk-averse, slow-and-steady companies into agile, tech-driven, global competitors.

AGC Inc., formerly Asahi Glass Co., Ltd., is a world-leading supplier of flat, automotive, display glass, chemicals, ceramics and other high-tech components.
JSR Corporation, formerly Japan Synthetic Rubber Co., Ltd., engages in the manufacture and sale of synthetic rubber and fine chemical materials.
This event is presented in partnership with the Japan Society of Northern California.

Takuya Shimamura is the Chairman, Member of the Board, AGC. Beginning his career in 1980 as a production planning manager at the Chemicals Company, one of AGC's in-house divisions, Takuya Shimamura's bold decisions and initiatives in the structural reform resulted in successful downsizing of AGC's chlor-alkali business in Japan. In 2003, he was appointed as the President Director of PT Asahimas Chemicals (AGC's subsidiary; largest Chlor-alkali producer in SEA). Under his strong leadership, PT Asahimas Chemicals marked record high profits. After three years as President, in 2013, Takuya Shimamura was appointed as a Senior Executive Officer and the President of the Electronics Company, one of AGC's in-house divisions. In 2015, He assumed the CEO position. He is the first CEO in AGC's history to have managed two different in-house companies.

Eric R. Johnson became Representative Director and CEO of JSR Corporation in 2019. He sets the company's global vision and strategy, with a special focus on growth, globalization, and sustainability. Previously, Eric was president of both JSR Micro, Inc. and JSR Life Sciences.He set and oversaw global strategy including spearheading the vision and establishment of JSR Life Sciences in 2014. He also shaped the division's manufacturing and merger and acquisition strategy, growing JSR Life Sciences to a global group of companies with nearly 2000 employees. From 2005 to 2019, Eric served as president of JSR Micro, Inc. where he was responsible for the day-to-day US operations and development and integration of global strategies. In 2011 he became the first non-Japanese corporate officer of JSR Corporation.

Ulrike Schaede is Professor of Japanese Business at GPS, UC San Diego, and the Director of JFIT. Her 2020 book "The Business Reinvention of Japan" analyzes how Japanese companies are responding to the rise of China and the changing global competition.


The Japan Zoominar will resume on a bi-weekly schedule, through the end of 2021.
10/6 (10/5 Pacific): The 1960 Anpo Protests and the Origins of Contemporary Japan, with Nick Kapur (Rutgers University-Camden)
10/20 (10/19 Pacific): Aging Allies? National Security Implications of Demographic Change in the Indo-Pacific, with Andrew L. Soros (Washington College), moderated by Ellis S. Krauss (GPS UC San Diego)

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