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Kadokawa Appoints Takeshi Natsuno as New President With Chief Anime Officer Shinichiro Inoue Retiring
posted on by Alex Mateo
Media company Kadokawa announced on Thursday that it will appoint Dwango president and CEO (and current Kadokawa board director and chief digital officer) Takeshi Natsuno as its new president on June 22. Kadokawa's current president and CEO Masaki Matsubara will retire on the same day, and he will be appointed to vice chairman of the board without representation rights. Representative director and chief anime officer Shinichiro Inoue will also retire and become a newly appointed advisor.
Chief human resources officer and chief literature & movie officer Naohisa Yamashita will be promoted to representative director. Executive officer Tsuyoshi Kikuchi will become the new chief anime officer.
Outside director Takeo Takasu will retire, and former NTT representative director and advisor Hirо̄ Unо̄ra will be appointed as new outside director. Cindy Chou, managing director of J-GUIDE Marketing for the Chinese market, will become a new director.
The company is implementing these changes "to strengthen the management structure and to speed up business execution."
In February, Kadokawa formed a capital alliance with CyberAgent, Inc. and Sony to strengthen its game and animation businesses.
Kadokawa reorganized its corporate structure in October. The company replaced its previous six departments with 13 different groups, each of which has a "chief officer" executive bearing the title of their respective group. Kadokawa noted that the restructuring would allow the company to achieve a more flat and horizontal corporate structure.
Sources: Kadokawa, Animation Business Journal (Tadashi Sudo)
