Word: nonaka
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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When Tomoyo Nonaka in June 2005 took over Sanyo, the venerable but struggling Japanese electronics maker, she already had one strike against her. Nonaka was a female CEO in a business culture that is overwhelmingly male. A more timid executive would have charted a cautious course, focusing on slashing costs at a company that lost $1.6 billion in its 2005 fiscal year. But Nonaka, a former TV journalist with no executive experience, instead announced a bold plan to transform Sanyo into a leader in the production of environmentally friendly products like solar panels and energy-efficient refrigerators. "I think...
...Tomoyo Nonaka SANYO'S NEW ANCHOR...
...back on TV, but this time on the other side of the interview. Tomoyo Nonaka, 51, Sanyo's new CEO, is better known as a charismatic news anchor and financial reporter. She is now charged with cutting the electronics giant's work force by 14,000 and selling 20% of its factories to reduce debt. Some called the appointment of a business neophyte--announced two weeks after Sanyo forecast its worst loss ever--a p.r. stunt. "Numbers will show," Nonaka responds. "But in the meantime, if people show interest in me and Sanyo for the publicity value, that's great...
...doesn't bother other burakumin that Nonaka doesn't want to be a poster-boy for their cause. After all, they haven't been his staunchest supporters, either. Burakumin have traditionally backed socialist and communist parties, while the conservative Nonaka staked his early career on chipping away at the communists' grip on power in Kyoto. "If he becomes Prime Minister," says Kanto, "it won't really change much for us. It would be more difficult for him to do things for us, because at the top, he would have to deal with too many other issues...
...whatever their political leanings, many burakumin would be delighted to see one of their own rise to the top job in the land: it would certainly do more to blunt discrimination than any legislation. And that worker who insulted Nonaka all those years ago may now want to reverse his assessment of the former supervisor. In Sonobe he may be a burakumin; in Tokyo, Hiromu Nonaka is flying high...