While Masataka Ide, the former president of West Japan Railway Co., was seen as a man of action, Shojiro Nanya, 55, who took over the JR West helm on April 1, is seen as a man of quiet resolve.
Ide played central roles in transforming the debt-ridden Japanese National Railways into seven JR group firms and then in taming JR West into a company with annual revenues of 1 trillion yen. Nanya supported the carrier throughout the transition period as Ide's right-hand man.
"I learned from the former president to watch the trend of the times and act in advance before others start moving," Nanya said in a recent interview. JR West is one of the seven JR group firms born in 1987 with the dissolution of JNR. In October, the carrier managed to list its shares on the stock markets.