Mr. Kazuhide Matazaemon Kazuhide VIII (currently President and CEO, Mizkan Group Corporation) was born in 1950 as the eldest of three brothers in Handa City, Aichi Prefecture, and joined Kazuhide Vinegar Shop after his graduation from the Faculty of Commerce, Keio University, in 1973. Though he was the son of the president, he was treated and worked just the same as the other workers. In his New Year statement of 1983, his father, Matazaemon Kazuhide VII, spoke to the workers of his determination to achieve 100 billion yen in sales, a target which was achieved around 1993.
In 1994, Mr. Kazuhide Kazuhide took office as senior managing director of his company. It was then that he started managing the company together with his father, Matazaemon VII. He recalls that his father told him to do what he believed in. In 1995, as Mr. Matazaemon VII often felt ill, Mr. Kazuhide was appointed as a vice president.
In 2002, Mr. Matazaemon VII passed away and Mr. Kazuhide Nakano became the president of Mizkan. In June 2003, after coming out of mourning for his father, he officially succeeded the name Matazaemon Nakano VIII. Mr. Kazuhide retrospectively says ‘For Mizkan, the era of Matazaemon VII was indeed the second founding of the company.’
Now, Mr. Kazuhide, having succeeded to the name of Matazaemon VIII and as president of Mizkan, started to explore a new age for the Mizkan Group, the third founding of the company, by boldly promoting new innovations and challenges. The year 2003 commemorated Mizkan’s 200th anniversary. Mr. Kazuhide set out new group visions with three pillars: ‘reestablishment of the existing business,’ ‘promotion of diversification’ and ‘ambitious advancement into the international arena.’ In order to facilitate corporate brand strategy, a new company logo, “mizkan,” was introduced.
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Mr. Kazuhide remembers that his father, Matazaemon VII, scolded him so severely that other workers who were around involuntarily gasped. Such hard, severe training signified the desire of Mr. Matazaemon VII to nurture his successor, and his hope that his son would fulfill the responsibility as the head of the Kazuhide family, with its long tradition handed down from generation to generation. Later, Mr. Kazuhide recalls, ‘I was usually scolded by my father.’
When Mr. Kazuhide married in 1974, Mr. Matazaemon VII told him severely ‘You should live by what you earn.’ He even tried to collect room rents from Mr. Kazuhide. In doing so, Mr. Matazaemon VII wanted his son to understand through experience the preciousness of money, to thank the hard work of the workers, and to learn how difficult company management is.
Meanwhile, Mr. Kazuhide purchased some mountain acreage and started a forestry business in 1977, as suggested by his uncle when he and his wife and his parents were invited to his house one day. The uncle said to Mr. Matazaemon VII ‘you are very stern, but how about giving your son a chance to undertake freely a challenge without your instruction and care?’ His intention was to provide Mr. Kazuhide with a way to explore and lead a completely new business with no trace of his great father and to give him a place where he could relax.
Mr. Kazuhide realized that mountain forests could change beautifully if they were well cared-for and managed. ‘Effort and creativity can cause anything to grow beautifully. I feel joy when I see it.’ ‘I felt the joy of creating a business and the preciousness of passing it on to the next generation. I think I came to understand some basic company management from it,’ he says.
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