Asics chairman steps down, new president named

Japanese footwear giant Asics has announced a shift in its executive leadership in light of the revelation that its current chairman and director Motoi Oyama will be retiring from the position March 22, 2024.

Stepping into the role of chairman will now be the company’s current chief executive officer and representative director Yasuhito Hirota.

While Hirota will also continue to hold the aforementioned titles, he will be stepping down from his other current positions of president and chief operating officer.

Asics’ managing executive officer, chief data officer and chief information officer Mitsuyuki Tominaga will succeed Hirota for the president and COO roles.

Tominaga will also be elected as a director at the upcoming ordinary general meeting of shareholders, as well as representative director at the meeting of the board of directors.

He joined Asics back in 2018 initially as executive officer and the senior general manager of IT division, before adding CDO to his title in 2020 and later CIO in 2021.

Prior to Asics, Tominaga held a number of executive and leadership positions at the likes of SAP Japan, Works Applications America and IBM.

On Tominaga’s appointment, CEO Hirota said in a release that the exec had played a “key role particularly in promoting the digitalisation of Asics”.

Hirota added: “These appointments are aimed at establishing a new management team that can further develop Asics in the face of drastic changes in the business environment so that it can achieve its goal of ensuring a world in which each and every one of us can engage in exercise and sports throughout our lives and continue to live in good health, both mentally and physically.”