Nippon Steel Corp. said Thursday that Vice President Shoji Muneoka will become president April 1, replacing Akio Mimura, who will assume the post of chairman.
The reshuffle was decided at the firm's board meeting earlier in the day, it said.
The company was created from the merger between Fuji Iron & Steel Co. and Yawata Iron & Steel Co. in 1970.
Muneoka will become the first among Nippon Steel officials who joined the company after the merger to assume the presidency.
The 61-year-old Muneoka will replace Mimura, 67, in a move to rejuvenate the firm's top management in view of the tougher business environment, in which the company faces soaring raw materials costs, and active reconfiguration of the global steelmaking industry with aggressive merger and acquisition moves by the world's largest steelmaker, ArcelorMittal, based in Luxembourg.
Muneoka has long worked in marketing and is known to be skilled in price bargaining with automakers.
The post of chairman has remained vacant since the death of Chairman Akira Chihaya last January.
