Mayumi Kotani (1947 – ) worked alongside her late husband, Susumu, the founder of Yushin Precision Equipment, as one of four people who started the company in 1973. Once the only woman to be a top leader in the Japanese plastics industry (her daughter has since taken over as company president), she is also the fourth woman to be inducted into the Plastics Hall of Fame.

In 1978, Yushin made a full-scale entry into manufacturing take-out robots for injection molding machines. In 1989, the company launched the world’s first servomotor-driven takeout robot, which has since become the world standard. Developing more and more technologies after that, by the year 2000, Yushin had reached the top of the market share in Japan.

As for the success of Yushin products, their robots hold the world record for the takeout time of 0.069 seconds, which has been in place since 2002.

2002 was also the year Mrs. Kotani took over as president of Yushin, guiding the company through continued growth and taking pride in the fact that the company has always operated in the black. As for being a woman in the industry, having grown up in the culture of Japan’s Kochi prefecture, one in which men and women have long been treated equally, has served her well. “That culture made me have no hesitation to walk among many men in the industry,” Mrs. Kotani said.