Hitachi Ltd. said Wednesday it will promote Vice President Keiji Kojima to president on June 23, replacing Toshiaki Higashihara, who will become chairman and CEO, in the company's first change of presidency since 2014.

Chairman Hiroaki Nakanishi, who has been hospitalized due to an ongoing battle with lymphoma, left the post on Wednesday, according to the Japanese industrial conglomerate. The 75-year-old will also step down on June 1 as chairman of the powerful Japan Business Federation, also known as Keidanren.

Since joining Hitachi in 1982, Kojima, 64, who will also serve as chief operating officer from next month, has worked in the research field, becoming director of the company's Central Research Laboratory in 2008 and head of Hitachi Research Laboratory in 2011. He was appointed as vice president in 2018.

Higashihara, 66, has led the sale of listed subsidiaries and large-scale merger and acquisition projects since assuming Hitachi's presidency in 2014.

==Kyodo

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