Yasuhiko Saitoh will become president of Shin-Etsu Chemical, the largest chemical company in Japan. He will succeed 78 year-old President Shunzo Mori in June. The 90 year-old Chihiro Kanagawa, who has steered the company for nearly three decades, will stay chairman.

Yasuhiko Saitoh, born December 5, 1955, graduated in Political Science and Economics from Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan, in 1978, and joined Shin-Etsu Chemicals in the same year. Saitoh has been with the company’s US subsidiary Shintech Inc. since 1983. In 2001, he was appointed Shin-Etsu’s youngest director. Since January he is Director and President of Shintech. At Shintech, he decided to build an ethylene plant in the US to take advantage of shale gas. The plant is scheduled to begin operations in 2018.

• Shin-Etsu Chemical Co., Ltd., Tokyo, Japan