Yoshinori Hirai

President & CEO (Representative Director), Agc

Search every verified Yoshinori Hirai interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. Yoshinori Hirai, President and CEO of AGC, has been promoting the company’s participation in CES 2025, where AGC plans to showcase solutions in next-generation mobility, semiconductors, and energy. In a video message, Hirai stated that “material evolution is the foundation of innovation” and that “without high-quality materials, innovation slows down.” He highlighted AGC’s historical role in developing an alternative to CFCs in the 1980s and its current work in automotive glass, EUV mask blanks, and hydrogen-related technologies. In interviews, Hirai has discussed AGC’s “ambidextrous management” approach, which he described as having existing businesses support new ventures while keeping new projects “light asset” to avoid excessive costs. He attributed Japan’s “lost 30 years” to a post-bubble focus on cost-cutting rather than pursuing new growth, and said that viewing wages as a cost rather than an investment suppressed innovation. Hirai noted that AGC has raised wages by over 6% for two consecutive years and plans to continue, linking this to investment in talent. He also reflected on his own early career, saying that an initial business failure taught him that “good technology alone does not guarantee business success” and that a customer perspective is essential. Hirai added that he has made a personal rule to never assume something is impossible, stating, “the moment you think it’s impossible, you are 100% not going to succeed.”