Warner Music Japan has appointed Dr. Kenji Kitatani to the resurrected function of chairman of the label division, efficient instantly. Dr. Kitatani will work intently with WMJ’s longtime president and CEO, Kazuyuki “Kaz” Kobayashi, to spice up the corporate’s presence within the globe’s No. 2 music market.
Dr. Kitatani at the moment holds the title of chairman of DAZN Japan, a sports activities streaming platform, and he frequently writes for Forbes Japan and is a professor and director on the Institute for Content material and Expertise Integration at Kanazawa Institute of Expertise. (His priors in academia additionally embody college roles at Washington State College and Indiana College.) Within the late Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s, he held senior govt roles at Sony Company and between 2011 and 2017 acted as president of Avex Worldwide Holdings, the nation’s largest unbiased music leisure conglomerate.
Following his time at Avex Inc., Dr. Kitatani turned govt vp of Asia and govt director for Japan at AEG, leaving in late 2021 earlier than taking over a bevy of advisory roles at corporations together with Mitsubishi, NTTdocomo, InnoCan Pharma and FM Tokyo, amongst others.
“I’m delighted to welcome Dr Kenji Kitatani to Warner Music and am happy that such a distinguished govt has agreed to tackle this problem,” stated Kobayashi. “We’ve achieved loads within the final decade at Warner Music Japan, however our trade by no means stands nonetheless and we have to proceed to adapt if we’re to maintain being the primary selection for our nation’s most fun artists.”
Although technically not changing anybody as chairman of Warner Music Japan, Dr. Kitatani is not the primary govt to carry the vaunted title. The final particular person to occupy the place was trade veteran Kei Ishizaka, Kobayashi’s predecessor as CEO till Ishizaka’s departure in 2014.
“That is an thrilling time within the Japanese music trade,” stated Kitatani. “I’m delighted to take up this new function at Warner Music, working with Kaz on the persevering with evolution of the corporate as we construct essentially the most forward-thinking label within the Japanese market.”