Nippon Life Insurance Co. Chairman Yoshinobu Tsutsui will be the first Keidanren chairman from the financial industry as the group usually picks its leader from the manufacturing sector.
Tokyo, Dec. 17 (Jiji Press) — The Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, plans to appoint Nippon Life Insurance Co. Chairman Yoshinobu Tsutsui as the next head of the biggest business lobby in the country, people familiar with the matter said Monday.
Tsutsui will be the first Keidanren chairman from the financial industry as the group usually picks its leader from the manufacturing sector.
The 70-year-old Keidanren vice chair will assume the top post at a general meeting on May 29 next year to succeed Masakazu Tokura, 74, whose term expires in late May.
After becoming president of Nippon Life in 2011, Tsutsui led efforts to expand the insurer, including an acquisition of Mitsui Life Insurance Co. He was appointed Nippon Life chairman in 2018.
He also heads the GX Acceleration Agency, which was established in July this year to promote green transformation investments by companies.
Tsutsui was named Keidanren vice chair in May last year.
Tokura, chairman of Sumitomo Chemical Co., became the 15th chief of the business lobby in 2021 to replace the late former Hitachi Ltd. Chairman Hiroaki Nakanishi, who stepped down as Keidanren head due to health problems.
Thirteen of the 15 people who have so far led Keidanren were from the manufacturing sector. The other two included Gaishi Hiraiwa, former chairman of a predecessor of Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc.