Fujifilm Holdings Corp.’s tough decision to accept the demise of its film and digital photography businesses and embrace the health care and semiconductor sectors was validated last year during the pandemic, the company’s new chief executive officer said.

"Health care and semiconductor materials will be our future earnings drivers,” Teiichi Goto, who took the top post at Fujifilm last month, said in an interview Wednesday.

Over the past decade, Fujifilm parlayed its expertise in film and chemicals to move into medical diagnostics, pharmaceutical manufacturing and supplying materials to chipmakers. While almost half of Fujifilm’s ¥2.2 trillion ($20 billion) in sales in the latest fiscal year through March came from those two segments, they generate about two-thirds of the Tokyo-based company’s operating income.