Honorary Committee
Toshikazu Tanaka
President & CEO
Mitsui Chemicals, Inc.
Toshikazu Tanaka, President & CEO, is responsible for the overall management of Mitsui Chemicals, Inc. which has business interests in performance materials, advanced chemicals, and basic chemicals. He joined Mitsui Toatsu Chemicals, Inc. in 1968 after graduating from Kyushu University. In his early years with the company, he gained extensive marketing and sales experience in industrial chemicals.
After the amalgamation of Mitsui Toatsu Chemicals, Inc. and Mitsui Petrochemicals Industries, Ltd. in 1997, at the newly formed Mitsui Chemicals, Tanaka successfully launched the company's phenol business into the global arena.
In 2005, Toshikazu Tanaka became Executive Vice President and assisted the President & CEO in the company's overall management. His strong leadership in compiling emergency countermeasures to turn the company around during the global economic crisis led to his appointment as President & CEO in June 2009. Tanaka is originally from Fukuoka Prefecture in Kyushu.
Spotlight on Mitsui Chemicals, Inc.
Mitsui Chemicals, one of Japan's leading chemical companies and a member of the Mitsui Group, has continued to expand its business around the world by offering state-of-the-art technology and high value added specialty chemical products.
Established in 1997 through the merger of Mitsui Petrochemical Industries and Mitsui Toatsu Chemicals, the Company's innovative specialty polymers, engineering plastics, chemical solvents, specialty polymers, electronic materials, functional materials, and adhesive resins have a wide variety of applications in the automotive industry. The Mitsui Chemicals Group currently has approximately 100 subsidiaries and affiliates worldwide with over 12,000 employees.
"Growth and Continuity"
The Mitsui Chemicals Group's performance-driven, environmentally-friendly product lineups created with exceptional proprietary technologies enable the development of safer, lighter, and better performing automotive applications and components. The Group's high value added portfolio offers a variety of materials which enhance automobile performance and play key roles in supporting the industry's need to clear increasing stringent clean air regulations.
The Company will continue to dedicate efforts to meet the needs of this key market through the development of new and better adhesives and phenolic resins, polyolefins, copolymers, thermoplastic olefinic elastomers, and rubbers. Rapid advancements are being made in the development of environmentally-friendly, next generation products which include innovative materials and fuel cells for eco-cars, weight-saving materials and LED materials for gasoline-powered automobiles, and new materials for information technology.
Looking to the Future
Mitsui Chemicals has established a global network to stabilize supply of high quality polypropylene (PP) material to automotive component and automobile manufacturers around the world. In 2010, the Group started commercial production of polypropylene (PP) in India, where demand is increasing as a result of a rapidly growing automobile industry, and Brazil, a market with great future potential.
"Corporate Mission"
True to the Corporate Mission of "contributing broadly to society through the creation of innovative high-quality products and materials while keeping in harmony with the global environment", Mitsui Chemicals has found ways to create environmentally-friendly products from non-fossil, inedible raw materials which save natural resources.
Mitsui Chemicals also targets priority fields with projects integrating proprietary olefin polymerization catalysts, condensation polymerization, and material design technologies to develop performance-driven automotive materials possessing superior functionality and improved cost performance.
Energy concerns and sustenance of the natural environment are pressing global issues. As a solution provider, the Mitsui Chemicals Group will continue to use its exceptional proprietary catalyst technology and unique biotechnology to develop solutions that will improve energy efficiency and reduce global warming gases not only as a chemical company with a strong product portfolio which includes many global and Asian top share products, but also as a good global citizen which places importance on social accountability and protection of the natural environment.