Ochanomizu University and Bridgestone Corporation Sign Comprehensive Agreement to Promote Female Leadership Training, Hold Kickoff Panel Discussion

11.01.2017 Update

Ochanomizu University and Bridgestone Corporation concluded a comprehensive agreement on January 9 designed to promote the training of female leaders. The signing ceremony was held in the university’s conference room, and Ochanomizu University President Kimiko Murofushi and Bridgestone CEO Masaaki Tsuya spoke about the agreement’s significance and their hopes for it. Both parties share a philosophy of respecting diversity and providing support for increasing roles for women. Through the agreement, they will encourage women to serve as future global leaders.

University President Kimiko Murofushi and Bridgestone CEO Masaaki Tsuya shake hands after signing the agreement

The venue shifted to the Inter-Faculty Building following the signing ceremony, where a panel discussion to mark the conclusion of the agreement—“Female Leaders Create the Future—Toward a Diverse Society”—took place. Along with President Murofushi and CEO Tsuya, the panelists included Mina Aoyama, Ochanomizu graduate and Bridgestone General Manager of the Material and Products Evaluation Quality Assurance Department; Masako Konishi, General Manager of the Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd. Residential Sales and Services Division’s Sales Marketing II Department; and Shukutoku University Professor Hiroko Nomura as the facilitator. These participants had demonstrated leadership on various stages, and engaged in a discussion about leaders based on their experiences. The lively panel discussion drew more than one hundred and fifty people, including representatives from the university and Bridgestone as well as the general public.

The panelists
View of the panel discussion

Profiles of Participants (honorifics omitted)

Kimiko Murofushi

Ochanomizu University president

Graduate of Ochanomizu University Faculty of Science’s Department of Biology. After obtaining her PhD in 1976 from the University of Tokyo’s Graduate School of Medicine, she became a research associate at New York City’s Public Health Research Institute. Doctor of medicine. Ochanomizu University assistant professor since 1983. After serving as Faculty of Science dean and vice president, assumed her current post in April 2015. Has served as an outside director for Bridgestone Corporation and various official government posts.

Masaaki Tsuya

Member of the board of Bridgestone Corporation, CEO and representative executive officer, concurrently chairman of the board

Graduate of Hitotsubashi University’s Faculty of Economics. MBA from the University of Chicago.

Masako Konishi

General Manager, Sales Marketing II Department, Residential Sales and Services Division, Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd.

Graduate of Ochanomizu University’s Faculty of Domestic Science (now the Faculty of Human Life and Environmental Sciences).

Mina Aoyama

General Manager, Material and Products Evaluation Quality Assurance Department, Bridgestone Corporation

Graduate of Ochanomizu University’s Faculty of Science, Department of Chemistry; Ochanomizu University Graduate School of Sciences Division of Chemistry (master’s program).

Facilitator

Hiroko Nomura

Journalist and Shukutoku University professor

1984 graduate of Ochanomizu University’s Faculty of Letters and Education