Bridgestone is changing its CEO
On January 1, 2026, Yasuhiro Morita will take over as the CEO of Bridgestone, replacing Shuichi Ishibashi, who has headed the Japanese tire manufacturer since 2020.
In a special press conference, Ishibashi noted that over the past five years, the management had to make a number of difficult decisions and invest significant resources in restructuring the business, and "although there are still unresolved issues, we have made progress".
Between 2019 and 2024, Bridgestone's sales grew from 3.53 to 4.43 trillion yen (from $23 to $29 billion), and the company also improved its operating profitability, however, Ishibashi acknowledged that "we have not achieved our goals, and problems remain".
"In the premium tire market, which is key for us, we continue to work on creating increasingly high-tech products," said the head of Bridgestone. "We have introduced the first generation of Enliten technology [which allows improving the operational characteristics of tires while making them more environmentally friendly] and are preparing to launch the second generation. We are also discussing and considering the possibility of creating the third generation of this technology as part of the preparation for Bridgestone's 100th anniversary in 2031. In addition, we will expand the use of our key BCMA (Bridgestone Commonality Modularity Architecture) modular production technology worldwide".
Morita is among the first group of participants in the Bridgestone NEXT100 program, launched in 2020 to train a new generation of top managers. "He will become an extremely young leader at the age of 53 when he takes office as CEO," Ishibashi noted. "By the way, he will be the youngest head of the company, except for the founder Shojiro Ishibashi and his son Kanichiro Ishibashi. He has almost 22 years of experience working abroad, in Asia, Europe, and other regions, and in this regard, he is the most experienced manager among all our previous top leaders".
Morita received his education at Sophia University in Tokyo and started his career at Bridgestone in 1996. After that, he participated in the management of departments in Thailand, China, and the Asia-Pacific region, and in 2025, he was appointed Executive Vice President.
"In the current unstable business environment, we are transitioning from defense to offense, and this is a very important moment, and I will make every effort to develop the successes that have been achieved," Morita said. "When the company was founded in 1931, its English name Bridgestone embodied the desire to develop globally, and after the acquisition of Firestone in 1988, by the mid-2000s, we became the world's leading tire manufacturer".
Currently, Bridgestone ranks second in the list of the largest tire companies in terms of sales, and Morita noted that "I want the company to celebrate its 100th anniversary as the number one in the world".
Photo: nikkei.com, tokyo-np.co.jp