Takeda Pharmaceutical Co., the more than 230-year-old drugmaker, is starting to make a practice of breaking with tradition.
The firm last week named Christophe Weber, a French national who has never worked at Takeda, as chief operating officer and the planned successor to CEO Yasuchika Hasegawa.
Weber would be the first non-Japanese to lead the company and among the first outsiders brought in to helm a major Japanese company.