Pursuing Planetary Health
For 150 years, we have conducted our business under our Corporate Philosophy of “Contributing to Society through Science and Technology.”
Today, we position the Pursuit of Planetary Health—the Well-Being of Mankind and the Earth—as our medium- to long-term mission, and aim to be a company that delivers social value across four domains: Healthcare, Green, Materials, and Industry.
In the new Medium-Term Management Plan launched in FY2026, we defined our 2035 vision: to become a technology-driven end-to-end solutions partner guided by a Customer-In approach by delivering optimal products and services tailored to each customer’s needs, building on the technological capabilities we have cultivated together with our customers. Across the four domains in which we operate, we strive to understand our customers deeply and to become a partner that helps solve latent challenges—some of which customers themselves may not yet recognize—using science, technology, and services in every situation. We believe that moving closer to becoming an end-to-end solutions partner guided by a Customer-In approach will also contribute to Pursuing Planetary Health.
Continuing to Take on Challenges Without Fear of Failure
I believe the Group’s strengths are: (1) employees who remain true to our Corporate Philosophy of Contributing to Society through Science and Technology; (2) a mindset inherited from our founding of providing what customers need and responding to every customer requirement; (3) the technological and development capabilities we have built over more than 150 years to meet those needs; and (4) the trust we have earned from customers across a wide range of fields as a result.
To make the most of these strengths, it is essential that we continue taking on challenges without fear of failure. Our brand statement, “Excellence in Science,” expresses our commitment to taking on challenges and pursuing No. 1 and one-of-a-kind distinction. The next challenge we must take on is transforming our business guided by a Customer-In approach.
Over our long history, we have focused primarily on instrument development and on advancing our technological and development capabilities. As a result, we may not always have paid sufficient attention to customers’ overall workflows, including consumables and software. What customers need is not the instrument itself, but the data it generates. To generate that data, we need to think across the entire workflow, and it is important that we build our business from that perspective. We will transform our business by shifting to a mindset that looks across the entire workflow and proposes what customers need from that perspective. That is why we established the Sales & Marketing Division, the Manufacturing Division, and the Recurring Business Department within the Analytical & Measuring Instruments Division.
As the business environment changes due to factors such as geopolitical risks and the rapid evolution and adoption of AI, we expect more situations that require faster and bolder decisionmaking, and we intend to strengthen our ability to respond. We will also combine agility in execution with flexibility in thinking, revising decisions without hesitation when circumstances change. Another important challenge will be determining how to incorporate AI into our businesses, products, and solutions, and how to transform the way we work.
Entering New Fields with a New Partner
In December 2025, we decided to acquire Tescan. This marks the start of a new challenge: expanding our Analytical & Measuring Instruments Business in the semiconductor market.
Tescan is a long-established company based in Brno, Czech Republic, with outstanding technological capabilities. I visited its headquarters myself, which further strengthened my confidence in its technology.
Following completion of the acquisition, our strategy will build on the strong customer relationships we have established through our vacuum pump business for semiconductor manufacturing equipment, supported by service bases located near major semiconductor foundries. We will leverage these relationships effectively.
Tescan and the Shimadzu Group are complementary in both geographic reach and customer base. We will first combine the applications of both companies’ products and then expand sales by offering Tescan’s electron microscopes (SEM and TEM) to our customers and Shimadzu’s semiconductor-related products, including surface analysis systems, to Tescan’s customers. We will also cooperate in production and consider initiatives such as knockdown production of Tescan products at our plants to strengthen supply capabilities and price competitiveness.
Over the longer term, we will combine Tescan’s technologies with our own to develop distinctive products and create new value. By leveraging Tescan’s electron microscopes as well, we will work to provide end-to-end solutions across the semiconductor workflow, including surface observation and analysis, manufacturing equipment, process development, failure analysis, and in-line inspection.
Improving Earning Power and Efficiency
At present, we recognize improving earning power as a major challenge, and the new Medium-Term Management Plan makes this a key management priority.
First, by leveraging customer-facing hubs such as our R&D Center in North America, we will identify true market and customer needs, rapidly translate those insights into products and services, and convert stronger customer recognition of our value into earnings growth. We will accelerate this cycle. In FY2025, we launched more than 10 new products, including LC, MS, GC, and Testing Machines in the Analytical & Measuring Instruments Business, and Mobile X-ray Systems in the Medical Systems Business. While I am pleased that we launched many new products, we have not yet reached our medium- to long-term KPI of having products launched within the past three years account for 30% of total product sales. We will continue working toward that 30% target by sustaining new product launches and selling them at appropriate prices.
Under the previous Medium-Term Management Plan, we globalized development to respond quickly to diverse customer requirements worldwide, adopted agile development processes, and also advanced development approaches that did not rely solely on inhouse resources, including partnerships and collaboration with other companies in parts of the development process. We will continue these efforts.
Improving earning power also requires selectivity and focus, including reviewing underperforming products and businesses. We operate across four business segments—Analytical & Measuring Instruments, Medical Systems, Industrial Machinery, and Aircraft Equipment—and have newly classified each business segment according to investment policy based on current market growth potential and our profitability.
Within the Analytical & Measuring Instruments segment, we have designated Key Models—LC, MS, and GC—and the recurring revenue business as core businesses and will invest actively for growth. Semiconductor-related analytical and measuring instruments are positioned as a growth investment business, while other product categories are positioned as foundation businesses where we will seek maximum efficiency from necessary investment. The Industrial Machinery segment is also positioned as a foundation business requiring disciplined investment.
The Aircraft Equipment segment is positioned as a structural enhancement business, and we will make the investments needed to maintain and enhance business value and improve profitability in line with its business characteristics.
The Medical Systems Business, by contrast, is positioned as a profitability improvement business, and we will implement measures such as exiting underperforming products and scaling back in underperforming regions to build a business capable of stably generating an operating profit margin of 10% or more.
In addition, members of the Board of Directors, both internal and external, share the view that improving capital efficiency is essential to achieving our long-term mission of realizing Planetary Health.
We regard ROE and ROIC as important indicators alongside KPIs such as net sales, operating profit, and operating profit margin, and we set targets for them under the previous Medium-Term Management Plan. Unfortunately, we were not able to translate sales growth sufficiently into profit growth or better asset efficiency, and we fell short of our targets for the period.
For ROIC, in addition to improving the metric at the Companywide level, we have established a framework that evaluates the relationship between profitability and invested capital by business using our own internal metric. We will shift to SROIC (Shimadzu ROIC)-based management by business and product category and make decisions based on business profitability and investment efficiency.
Positioning of FY2026
FY2026 is an important year as the starting point of the new Medium-Term Management Plan. It is the first year in which the growth investments we made for the future under the previous Medium-Term Management Plan—centered on R&D, human capital investment, and M&A—must begin to deliver results. At the same time, it is also a year in which we will continue making growth investments for the future. We will take on these challenges with ambition and passion, and turn them into results.
We have set a target of at least ¥1 trillion in net sales by 2035, and beyond that we will continue pursuing Planetary Health as we move into the next phase of growth.
We sincerely ask for your continued support and understanding.
Career History
| Apr. 1983 | Joined Shimadzu Corporation | |
| Oct. 2003 | Coordination Manager, Testing Machines Business Unit, Analytical & Measuring Instruments Division |
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| Jun. 2013 | President, Shimadzu Europa GmbH (Germany) | |
| Jun. 2014 | Corporate Officer | |
| Jun. 2017 | Managing Executive Officer | |
| Jun. 2017 | In charge of Manufacturing, Corporate Information & Communications Technology, and CS Management | |
| Jun. 2017 | Deputy Director in charge of Corporate Research and Development | |
| Apr. 2020 | In charge of Corporate Strategy Planning and Corporate Communications | |
| Jun. 2020 | Director, Member of the Board | |
| Apr. 2021 |
Senior Managing Executive Officer |
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| Apr. 2021 | CFO | |
| Apr. 2022 | President and Representative Director (current) | |
| Apr. 2022 | CEO (current) |
