I’ve been engaged in global corporate management in a wide range of business fields, principally involving human-resource management. I hope I can reflect the insights I’ve gained from dialogue with various stakeholders in my management work.
Today’s companies are grappling with a wide range of social issues. To face these issues squarely and grow sustainably, it’s essential that we understand deeply what our company’s purpose is in society. Taking that purpose as our springboard, we advance human resource strategy, management strategy and business strategy as a strategic trio, addressing them together, never separately. This approach is important for improving corporate value. For me, corporate value is the sum total of the personal value, the human value, of all employees. That’s why money spent on personnel is not merely a cost but rather an investment to enhance corporate value.
What I focus on above all is getting sincerely close to the customers who purchase TOMICA, PLARAIL, LICCA, and other TOMY products, so that we can offer, and keep offering, value found nowhere else. That objective requires all employees, from sales personnel handling customer contact through production, planning, development, and marketing, to grow to become the kind of personnel who can think from the customer’s point of view and use those insights to generate value-added. My job is to ensure that the organization supports and nurtures them fully in this effort.
To advance human-resource management based on this approach, I work closely with the executive side and offer them my views as an Outside Director, with genuine respect and sympathy (not pandering) for front-line workers. Currently I serve on the Remuneration Committee and the Risk/Compliance Committee. In both roles I make decisions and take action with focus on fairness at all times.

We Outside Directors and Audit & Supervisory Board members apply our respective areas of expertise as we engage in vigorous and candid discussions. In the Board’s deliberations, we all focus intently on determining what is best for the TOMY Group, never wavering from that orientation. We constantly examine proposals from the executive side to ensure that they align with management strategy, and participate in management with full awareness of our responsibilities, determined to achieve the ideals of the TOMY Group.
Akio Tomiyama, our President & CEO, listens to the opinions of Outside Directors with a wide variety of backgrounds in a balanced manner and reflects them in the decision-making processes of the Board of Directors. This practice is a vital element of the Company’s governance and functioning.
At the same time, I also feel that the TOMY Group has room to further strengthen its talent pool framework for key positions responsible for the next generation of management, and that this is an area requiring continued attention. As a Board of Directors, we are working together to build a system for strategically developing exceptional talent—people with a sharp sensitivity to customers’ values and expectations, as well as the balanced judgment needed to comprehensively assess human resource, management, and business strategies.

The other day I observed a fan appreciation event called the TOMICA OWNERS MEETING, celebrating the 55th anniversary of the debut of TOMICA. The venue was packed with TOMICA fans of all ages—I could feel the excitement in the air. It was a precious opportunity to confirm at the point of customer interaction that TOMICA fandom is continuously supported, not only by the products but by the brand and the brand experience. For a Company that deals in consumer products, examples of such high levels of vital brand loyalty are rare. Such passionate support from customers is a real treasure, a precious asset. The experience renewed my determination to leverage that asset to maximum advantage to return value to stakeholders.
Whether I’m at a fan meeting or a general meeting of shareholders, I am always impressed by the highly specialized questions asked by fans and shareholders and the clear and sincere explanations offered by TOMY Group employees and executives.
The personnel of the TOMY Group possess sophisticated knowledge and boundless curiosity about Asobi (play). It’s a major advantage that sets us apart from our competitors.

The TOMY Group has spelled out two Visions for the shape of its business by 2030. Business Vision 2030 calls for “Becoming a globally adored Asobi powerhouse, known for its top-notch quality and boundless creativity,” while Sustainability Vision 2030 envisions a future TOMY Group that is “A creator of quality Asobi that promotes the sustainable well-being of society.” To achieve both these Visions, TOMY Group is advancing along both the age axis and the geographical axis. TOMY Group is expanding Asobi for the enjoyment of all ages, adults as well as children, and is deploying its brand outside Japan with the right content for each region.
Forming the background to this strategy is rising interest overseas in Japanese culture, in content fields such as anime and music. Japanese content is highly competitive worldwide, and the TOMY Group boasts an extensive portfolio of content and intellectual property (IP) that it can deploy globally.
The TOMY Group enjoys the rare strength of possessing both hardware and software content, which it can deploy simultaneously. I’m confident that, by applying a “proactive IP strategy” of utilizing its IP strategically, the Group can significantly raise its brand profile globally.
While continuing to nurture our existing brands, I believe it is also important to keep taking on the challenge of creating new ones. If we can build multiple brands that resonate with diverse customers across age groups and regions and make them want to support and recommend those brands, that will also help diversify business risk. And the very source that underpins the creation of such new brands is diversity within the organization. New value and innovation are born out of the cross-fertilization of different opinions and perspectives; an organization that becomes too homogenous will struggle to grow long-term. The ability to deploy personnel with a wide range of backgrounds, including mid-career hires, is a major strength of the TOMY Group.
Sustainability Vision 2030 calls on the TOMY Group to improve well-being in a sustainable fashion. Well-being is an extremely important concept in human-resource management. When employees are in a good state both physically and mentally, the Group benefits in terms of the value passed on to customers. Employees cannot produce good products and services if they don’t have a supportive and forward-looking environment to work in. I believe the TOMY Group has room for further improvement of its employee engagement. But the point of improving employee engagement is not to raise our score on some index but to clarify the pathways through which we deliver value to customers. TOMY Group employees have a deep love for our products. I want the Group to formalize its approach to well-being and convey it clearly to employees, while drafting clear policies for spreading understanding and building processes for implementation.

The TOMY Group is a corporate Group that boasts absolute confidence in the Asobi it creates, enjoys that Asobi and wants everyone to benefit from well-being in body and soul. Bringing the joy that springs from positive content to employees, shareholders, investors, and all stakeholders is a powerful motivator for me, and I will pursue that goal with passion.