New leadership at JT

Japan Tobacco has appointed Masamichi Terabatake as its new president and CEO, effective Jan. 1, 2018. He will take over from Mitsuomi Koizumi, who will remain as the company’s representative director until March 27.

Terabatake will also take over Koizumi’s representative director function on March 27, 2018.

Terabatake is currently JT’s Deputy CEO and executive vice president, business development and corporate strategy of Japan Tobacco International.

During his 36 years at the company, Koizumi has strived for the diversification and globalization of the JT Group. He executed aggressive investments to strengthen the foundations of a global-growth company.

“When assessing the business foundation of the JT Group, I judged that the right preparations have been made to hand over the management to the next generation,” said Koizumi. “I decided to entrust JT Group’s future to Mr. Terabatake, who possesses strong global business sense and has demonstrated his ability as deputy CEO and executive vice president.”

“In what is an increasingly fast-changing business environment, I firmly believe, that by passing the baton to the next generation, further sustainable growth of the JT Group will be achieved.”