The Grand Prize for “Nikkei Crosstech’s CIO/CDO of the Year 2025” goes to Mitsubishi Materials’ Itano, and the Grand Prize for “Nikkei Crosstech’s CTO of the Year 2025” goes to CyberAgent’s Nagase.
Nikkei BP Inc. Press Release: September 8, 2025 The winner of the “Nikkei Crosstech CIO/CDO of the Year 2025” award went to Mitsubishi Materials’ Itano, and the winner of the “Nikkei Crosstech CTO of the Year 2025” award went to CyberAgent’s Nagase. Nikkei Crosstech, the technology media of Nikkei BP
(Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Tetsuya Iguchi), has announced the winners of the “Nikkei Crosstech CIO/CDO of the Year 2025” and “Nikkei Crosstech CTO of the Year 2025.” There will be one Grand Prize winner and two Special Prize winners.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/41279/220/41279-220-413d7947dec54a7a4beb8b952a664a53-2082×972.jpg
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/41279/220/41279-220-64598613f62520d8cff56f3c30ffe81d-2082×972.jpg The CIO/CDO of the Year Award went to Norihiro Itano of Mitsubishi Materials, who promoted digital transformation (DX) using both a top-down approach, such as establishing an IT subsidiary, and a bottom-up approach, supporting frontline personnel eager to embrace DX. The Special Award went to Satoshi Takura of the Japan Exchange Group, who led the development and launch of the stock trading system “arrowhead 4.0,” which emphasizes resilience after learning from a major outage, and Masaaki Miyamoto of Minna no Bank, who has established a digital bank within a traditional bank and is working to further transform the bank by selling its accounting system to external parties. The CTO of the Year Grand Prize went to Yoshishige Nagase of CyberAgent, who has grown his business by quickly
recognizing the potential of generative AI (artificial intelligence) and is promoting human resource reforms with an eye toward the AI era. The special awards went to Junya Kiyota of ULVAC, who is challenging himself to create new businesses by applying his strengths in vacuum technology not only to semiconductor manufacturing equipment but also to fields such as medicine and quantum computers, and Yukio Narikawa of Nichia Corporation, who continues to lead the industry in optical devices such as LEDs and semiconductor lasers by focusing on long-term research and development and in-house production. Image
URL: https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/41279/220/41279-220-9f812199c264b290028fe5a4205b319f-600×600.jpg Mitsubishi Materials’ Norihiro Itano, winner of the Nikkei Crosstech CIO/CDO of the Year 2025 Grand Prize
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/41279/220/41279-220-f815d398ac1aa30e64f276396e86820c-600×600.jpg CyberAgent’s Yoshishige Nagase, winner of the Nikkei Crosstech CTO of the Year 2025 Grand Prize
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/41279/220/41279-220-f85c70b250e7df48a7d7edbd83365ed7-600×600.jpg Satoshi Takura of Japan Exchange Group, recipient of the Special Award in the “Nikkei Crosstech CIO/CDO of the Year 2025” Awards Image
URL: https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/41279/220/41279-220-432d10a6e97840e57ddb4fd6108c7b29-600×600.jpg Mr. Miyamoto Masaaki of Minna no Bank, recipient of the Special Award in the “Nikkei Crosstech CIO/CDO of the Year 2025” Awards Image
URL: https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/41279/220/41279-220-b537d268d140d6b7c60e149606851b1c-600×600.jpg ULVAC’s Junya Kiyota received the Special Award in the “Nikkei Crosstech CTO of the Year 2025” Awards.
https://prcdn.freetls.fastly.net/release_image/41279/220/41279-220-0375424f4aa3d04d4fdd098ea8e27f35-600×600.jpg Nichia Corporation’s Yukio Narikawa received the Special Award in the “Nikkei Crosstech CTO of the Year 2025” Awards. The “Nikkei Crosstech CIO/CDO of the Year” and “Nikkei Crosstech CTO of the Year” awards were launched in 2023 by Nikkei Crosstech as a system to recognize CIOs (Chief Information Officers)/CDOs (Chief Digital Officers) and CTOs (Chief Technology Officers) who have made outstanding
achievements in their respective fields. Selection committees for the “Nikkei Crosstech CIO/CDO of the Year” and “Nikkei Crosstech CTO of the Year” were held from the end of June to July 2013. The Nikkei Crosstech editorial team and a panel of experts evaluated the winners based on five criteria: (1) vision and strategy, (2) business creation, (3) organizational culture reform, (4) implementation structure and human resource development, and (5) career. Those being reviewed are CIO/CDO (including those with equivalent positions) and CTO (including those with equivalent positions) who have been active in the past year or so. [Award winner] “Nikkei Crosstech CIO/CDO of the Year 2025” Grand Prize: Norihiro Itano (CIO and General Manager of Systems Strategy Department, Mitsubishi Materials Corporation) Special Award: Satoshi Takura (Senior Executive Officer and CIO, Japan Exchange Group, Inc.) Special Award: Masaaki Miyamoto (Director, Senior Executive Officer and CIO, Minna no Bank Co., Ltd.) “Nikkei Crosstech’s CTO of the Year 2025” Grand Prize: Yoshishige Nagase (CyberAgent, Inc., Senior Managing Executive Officer, Technology) Special Award: Junya Kiyota (Ulvac, Inc., Executive Vice President, General Manager of Development Division, and General Manager of Component Business Division) Special Award: Yukio Narukawa (Nichia Corporation, Director, CTO, and Director of Nichia Research Institute) [Judging Committee] CIO/CDO of the Year Judge Chair: Kei Ogasawara (Editor-in-Chief, Nikkei Crosstech IT) Judge: Shoji Okada (CEO, ISENSE Inc.) Judge: Jiro Kokuryo (Professor Emeritus, Keio University) Judge: Yuriko Sawaya (Professor, Nagoya University of Commerce and Business School) Judge: Takayoshi Yajima (Chairman, NPO CIO Lounge) CTO of the Year Judge Chair: Atsushi Takano (Editor-in-Chief, Nikkei Crosstech Advanced Technology) Judge: Katsumi Emura (Director and President, Fukushima International Research and Education Organization) Director of the AIP Network Laboratory, Japan Science and Technology Agency) Judge: Yoshihiro Kawahara (Professor, Graduate School of Engineering, The University of Tokyo) Judge: Misato Sakai (CEO, SmartWorks Inc.) Judge: Maki Mr. Kanemitsu (Associate Professor, Waseda Business School) (Alphabetical order / Affiliation and position at the time of the review committee) For more details, please visit Nikkei Crosstech. https://xtech.nikkei.com/atcl/nxt/column/18/03291/082500001/index.html [What is Nikkei Crosstech] Nikkei CrossTech
(https://xtech.nikkei.com/) is a technology-related digital media outlet aimed at engineers and business leaders in a variety of industrial fields, including IT, automotive, electronics/machinery, and architecture/civil engineering. We deliver information for the “next generation” of business to those supporting the industrial world, including the essence of social and management issues, the hidden stories behind accidents and troubles, details and trends of technologies that can solve problems, specific solutions, and use cases. More [Contact Information] For inquiries regarding the “Nikkei Crosstech CIO/CDO of the Year” awards, please contact
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