Mr Soichiro Fukutake

Japan

Representative Director, Chairman and CEO of Benesse Corporation

Mr Soichiro Fukutake is representative director, chairman and CEO of Benesse Corporation, the leading company in the business fields of education, language, nursing care and publishing in Japan.

Born in 1945 in Okayama Prefecture,  Fukutake graduated from Waseda University with a Bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering. He joined the Fukutake Publishing Co Ltd (now Benesse Corporation) in 1973. In 1986, Fukutake was appointed president of the company upon the death of his father Tetsuhiko Fukutake, who founded the company in 1955.

In 1995, the company was renamed Benesse Corporation to aid global business expansion. Since then, Benesse has rapidly expanded to be a successful company involved in publishing, education services, and the provision of welfare services for the young and elderly.  In 2001, Berlitz International Inc of the United States, the world's largest language services company, became an affiliate.

Fukutake is director of the Chichu Art Museum on the island of Naoshima, in the Seto Inland Sea of Japan. He is chairman of the Fukutake Art Museum Foundation, the Fukutake Science and Culture Foundation, the Fukutake Education and Culture Foundation and the Fukutake Foundation for the Promotion of Regional Culture. He is also a councillor for the Japan UNICEF Association.

Fukutake has received numerous prizes and awards, including the Mecenat International Prize (1998), 13th Iwakiri Shotaro Prize (2000), Mecenat Grand Prize (2006), Kagawa Prefecture Award for Distinguished Services to Culture (2006), Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award for Art (2008).