Ghibli Founder Toshio Suzuki Replaces Koji Hoshino as Studio President

Studio Ghibli announced on Tuesday that co-founder Toshio Suzuki is returning to the position of the studio's president. Suzuki replaces Koji Hoshino, who resigned from the dual positions of president and chairperson at the end of March. Hoshino is assuming the role of representative director in April, but he will retire from the company entirely during the regular shareholders' meeting in June.

In a message on Ghibli's website, Hoshino cited the planned completion of Hayao Miyazaki's latest feature film, Kimi-tachi wa Dō Ikiru ka (tentatively titled How Do You Live? in English) for his decision.

Hoshino was formerly president of Walt Disney Japan. He became president of Studio Ghibli in 2008, and then became the company's chairperson in 2017. (Kiyofumi Nakajima replaced Hoshino as president in 2017, but then Hoshino returned as president in 2021.) Miyazaki and Nakajima remain as two of Ghibli's board directors, and Miyazaki's son Goro Miyazaki also remains as the managing board director.

The Shūkan Josei tabloid published an article in its April 11 issue and online Prime edition last Wednesday about Hoshino's resignation and retirement. Shūkan Josei's report (uncorroborated by the studio or Oricon) cited the studio's "internal turmoil" as a major contributing factor.

Source: Oricon