GK interviewed Yoshio Komuro, CEO & President of Rikazai Co., Ltd., on what defines Japan’s manufacturing excellence and the company’s roadmap to become a leader in niche high-tech markets.
In terms of Japanese innovation and its concept of Monozukuri, what gives the country a competitive advantage against other regional competitors?
A large number of manufacturers in Japan have shifted towards niche fields, strongly influenced by competition from other nations in the APAC region. Although Japanese products cannot remain competitive regarding cost and production volume, they excel in areas where high quality is needed. This relates to the diligence of Japanese people during all stages of development; problems related to the function and design of the product are looked at continuously until a solution is found.
When it comes to expanding your company’s market presence, what are your main areas of focus?
Currently, we are basing our operations around work on three main materials; titanium-nickel alloy, niobium-titanium, and magnesium. Titanium is a hypoallergenic metal that exhibits exceptional tensile strength, making it suitable for use in medical and biotechnology applications. As such, we want to focus on increasing our market share in those areas. Also, niobium-titanium possesses superconductive properties, with a number of uses in the next generation of quantum computers. As well as improving our metal processing and rolling techniques, we want to continue to explore new uses for our products.
When dealing with so many diverse applications of your materials, how do you approach the complex task of research and development?
Our R&D process usually starts on the client’s side, they propose what specifications they require, and then we work to produce foils that can satisfy them. We are willing to work with difficult materials that other companies do not use, in such cases we employ a trial and error method to find ways of rolling the metal. Often, we try different rounds of heat treatment and metal processing until the desired foil can be produced. If a completely new alloy or metal is needed, we collaborate with other material manufacturers to help develop a suitable material for the project.
As a part of Rikazai’s plan to become a top niche leader by 2047, what is your company’s 3 to 5-year midterm strategy?
In the mid-term, we want to continue working on raising awareness of our company globally. Over the past five years, we have tried to promote our company overseas; continuing this will remain a key strategy moving forward. Currently, international sales make up a small percentage of the business, approximately 0.3% of total revenue. This is due in part to our lack of direct relationships with overseas businesses, instead of working through intermediates. Within three to five years, we hope to grow this share to 3% of our total sales, with our foils mainly being targeted toward the medical industry.
