Group Chief Executive Officer, President & Representative Director, Panasonic Corporation
Yuki Kusumi, Panasonic Holdings Corporation CEO
Yuki Kusumi, Panasonic Holdings Corporation CEO, expressed his gratitude for everyone who worked to make the grand opening ...
About Yuki Kusumi
Yuki Kusumi, Group Chief Executive Officer of Panasonic Holdings Corporation, has overseen a period of significant corporate restructuring and expansion. In May 2025, Panasonic announced a workforce reduction of approximately 10,000 employees, primarily in sales and administrative divisions, as part of group management reforms. Kusumi stated he would forgo 40% of his remuneration for the fiscal year in response to the restructuring. The company also announced it was considering withdrawing from or discontinuing certain businesses, including its television operations. In July 2025, Kusumi spoke at the grand opening of Panasonic's electric vehicle battery facility in De Soto, Kansas, which he described as the largest private investment in Kansas history. He stated the facility has an initial annual production capacity target of approximately 32 gigawatt hours and said the company aims to work with U.S. partners to establish a more circular and domestic supply chain for battery materials. At CES 2025, Kusumi outlined Panasonic's strategic initiatives, including the "Panasonic Go" growth initiative, under which he said 30% of the company's revenue would be generated through software and AI-enabled solutions by 2035. He announced a global partnership with Anthropic to integrate its Claude large language model into Panasonic's consumer offerings and internal operations. Kusumi also discussed the company's sustainability goals, including a commitment to achieve net-zero CO2 emissions across all operations by 2030 and to reduce total emissions by more than 300 million tons by 2050. He highlighted the company's work on the Panasonic HX renewable energy solution and a partnership with the Greater Manchester Combined Authority in the UK to explore net-zero energy at public sites.
Transcript (5 segments)
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Host0:01
Now, it is my privilege to introduce Mr. Yuki Kusumi, representative director, president, and group chief executive officer of Panasonic Holding Corporation. His 36-year career at Panasonic spans research and development, strategy, management, and different roles across multiple business sectors, including serving as the director of the group's automotive energy business. He is known for his commitment to Panasonic's founding principles to enhance the well-being of people and society through our business operations. It is my pleasure to introduce Mr. Kusumi.
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Yuki Kusumi0:52
Thank you for the kind introduction and your leadership in this project. Good morning, Lieutenant Governor Toland, Senator Moran, Representative Davis, Mayor Walker, and Ambassador Yamadasan, as well as the many esteemed local officials from Desoto and the W region, valued partners and representatives from the entire Kansas community. First and foremost, I would like to express my most sincere gratitude to you for the strong support and guidance that you have extended to us over the past three years. And of course, I would like to extend my special appreciation to Governor Kerry, who could not be here today, but her support, we could not have made it to this point. Today we feel very honored to welcome you to the opening ceremony for landmark achievement. This world-class facility truly built in Kansas for the world. It signifies not only the successful completion of the first phase of our construction, but more importantly the beginning of an exciting new chapter. A chapter where Kansas will produce the advanced battery cells that power a cleaner, more sustainable future with the customers across the globe. This moment represents a modern contribution of everything Panasonic was founded to be in 1923. Panasonic's founder Konosuke Matsushita saw a need. Bicycles were common, but safe riding was not. So he went beyond inventing the lamp. He innovated creating the Excel drive battery. This new battery and its special assembly method provided us 30 hours of operations while others at the time managed only two or three hours. It was a small product with a big impact. It unlocked new possibilities in the personal mobility and safety. This is just one example of the founder's larger vision. He believed the purpose of an enterprise is to drive innovation that makes our society better and to contribute to the flourishing of our communities. This new facility embodies that enduring mission. Just as that battery innovation unlocked new possibilities and freedom through the personal mobility, this facility in Kansas will empower Americans and people around the world to choose safer, cleaner, and more advanced transportation options for their families. I firmly believe this investment represents a strong opportunity for Panasonic, for our society, and for the people of Kansas. For our business, it is critical to maintain our competitive edge in the growing EV industry sector. With an initial annual production capacity target of approximately 32 gigawatt hours, we are strategically scaling our operations to meet the surging global demand for the EV cells for our society. It also makes a significant and direct contribution to Panasonic Green Impact, our global commitment to reducing CO2 emissions and helping to realize a decarbonized society. As part of that effort, this facility represents a significant advancement in optimizing waste reduction and enhancing efficiency. It also contributes to establishing a more sustainable supply chain. We aim to work with our US partners to establish a more circular and domestic supply chain in which we recycle scrap manufacturing materials and discard batteries to produce brand new battery cells. It's my greatest pleasure that this billion-dollar investment is on track to
Sorry, scrolling is very fast. What is happening? I don't know. It is very difficult to memorize every piece of my speech. Still, this is the wrong portion position. This happened also in my CES keynote speech as well. At that time the script blacked out, but my friends... at that time, Captain America helped me. Can you recover? Sorry about this situation. Sometimes it happens.
I firmly believe that this investment represents a strong opportunity for Panasonic, for our society and for the people of Kansas. For our business, it is critical to maintain our competitive edge in the growing EV industry sector. With the initial annual production capacity target of approximately 32 gigawatt hours, we are strategically scaling our operations to meet the surging global demand for EV battery cells for our society. It also makes a significant and direct contribution to Panasonic Green Impact, our global commitment to reducing CO2 emissions and helping to realize a decarbonized society. As part of that effort, this facility represents a significant advancement in optimizing waste reduction and enhancing efficiency. It also contributes to establishing a more sustainable supply chain. Now it recovered. Thank you very much. Anyway, we aim to work with our US partners to establish a more circular and domestic supply chain in which we recycle scrap manufacturing materials and discarded batteries to produce brand new battery cells. It's my greatest pleasure that this billion-dollar investment is on track to create thousands of new high-quality jobs for people in Desoto and across the greater Kansas City area. Inside the battery cells are already in mass production and will be shipped to customers shortly. Around 2,000 members of this community have already joined Panasonic Energy and more than 3,800 people, most of them Kansans, helped to build this facility. I'm truly grateful for the dedication and hard work of everyone who has contributed to making this day a reality. We should all feel immense pride in this collective achievement, a state-of-the-art facility built in Kansas for the world. But I'm even prouder of this as a symbol of our contribution to the progress and development of society as well as the well-being of people both here in Kansas and across the globe. So once again, please accept my greatest appreciation to all of you, the distinguished members of the KJIS community and our invaluable partners for the support that you have provided us up until today. However, this is just the beginning. To make our business in this Kansas community sustainable, operations must continue to evolve. It is my hope that this factory will become unparalleled in the speed of continuous improvement. So today I would like to offer my gratitude to the entire Panasonic team for your dedication and your hard work. I'm truly proud of each of you. Let us further accelerate continuous improvement, or kaizen, as we steadily have done in our effort towards this final stage of production preparations. With this factory now operational, we are building a more sustainable future. We are building new opportunities and we are building them together. Thank you very much for joining us today to celebrate this wonderful moment with us. Thank you very much.
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Host11:52
Thank you, Mr. Kusumi. It's an inspiration to hear your vision for the moment. We are truly making more than battery cells.