17/07/2026
📰 [Media Coverage]
Yumiko Fukui, Representative Director of Musashi Paint, was recently interviewed by DX Magazine — talking about her journey stepping into the role, how our team approaches manufacturing, and the coating technologies behind the colors, textures, and functionality we're known for.
Curious what's next for Musashi Paint? Take a look 👇
https://en.musashipaint.com/news/media-coverage-interview-with-representative-director-yumiko-fukui-published-in-dx-magazine/
Here's a taste of what she shared 👇
"Sensibility and Sustainability as Science — Musashi Paint's Yumiko Fukui on Designing the Premise for Coloring the World"
DX Magazine, Frontrunner Voice series, July 10, 2026
Interviewer: Yasuhiro Suzuki, Chairman of the Japan Omnichannel Association and Editor-in-Chief of DX Magazine, speaking with Yumiko Fukui, Representative Director/President of Musashi Paint Holdings — a company operating 14 factories across 10 countries, known for plastic and metal coatings used in automotive interior parts, PCs, cameras, and electronics.
Crossing the wall of tradition: resolve and sensibility
Fukui explains that after graduating university she joined CyberAgent, working on e-commerce site launches. Her father's illness brought her back into the family business, starting with training at a factory in Guangdong, China. There she witnessed young workers taking jobs out of necessity rather than choice — an experience that convinced her that, as a business leader, she had a responsibility to create employment and build a better society.
Her father passed away just before she turned 35, and she took over the company. Although it was debt-free and running smoothly, inheritance tax pressures led some around her to suggest selling the business. She also faced internal and external resistance to a female leader taking over, especially having just given birth. But she had promised her father she would protect employees and their families — and that promise became her guiding resolve, prioritizing people over the "rational" choice of a sale.
Musashi Paint's DNA
The core business is 100% custom-developed plastic and metal coatings for everyday industrial products — auto interior parts, PCs, home appliances, headphones, water bottles — balancing sensory qualities (color, texture) with advanced functional performance. She explains that the Japan headquarters acts as the central command, unifying all formulations and strategy, and that (aside from the North American base) nearly all overseas sites are majority- or wholly-owned, staffed with dispatched Japanese management and engineers to tightly control governance and quality. This global network combined with custom-response capability is, she says, the company's core strength.
Sustainability and challenging industry assumptions
Replicating color consistently is a major technical challenge — the same recipe can look different under different regional light conditions, yet parts made in different countries must match perfectly once assembled. Aligning this with local technicians is extremely difficult.
To unify roughly 1,000 staff across culturally different sites, she says technical training comes second to instilling a shared sense of "the right way to think as a person" first. The founder's philosophy has been translated into local languages as a "Philosophy Handbook," read and discussed regularly. She recalls early overseas expansion problems — including unauthorized removal of company equipment and products — that underscored why sharing values and a sense of pride in the work was essential.
Updating decision-making through science and data
Fukui describes taking environmental and human-rights considerations seriously when entering lower-income regions — avoiding child labor, minimizing pollution, and redesigning formulations to meet each country's regulations. Biomass-based coatings are one example of balancing environmental responsibility with functionality and design, which she says requires constantly questioning industry assumptions.
She also describes pivoting toward new client development when a major legacy customer ran into difficulty, rather than clinging to old loyalties — protecting employees by finding new work rather than shrinking the business. Suzuki draws a parallel to how leadership mindset shapes outcomes with AI/digital tools, much as it does with data-driven decision-making generally.
Future outlook and a message to the next generation
The new mid-term management plan's vision is to become "a coating partner trusted even by the world's top brands." Fukui hopes employees can take pride in knowing their coatings are on globally recognizable products — a pride she sees as a driving force for future innovation — while contributing to a better society and environment through regulation-compliant, environmentally conscious chemistry.
Asked for a message to the next generation — particularly young women navigating career and life decisions — she encourages people to choose their own path based on what kind of life they want to model for their children and themselves, rather than filtering choices through others' "old assumptions." She specifically encourages young people to go abroad early, to experience unfamiliar cultures and raw reality firsthand, arguing that immersive, hands-on experience — not what's seen online — is what builds resilience and versatility.
Suzuki closes by noting the persuasive power behind Fukui's words, shaped by having weathered real hardship, and expresses confidence that this blend of sensibility and resolve holds lessons for Japanese manufacturing's global resurgence.
An interview with Yumiko Fukui, Representative Director of Musashi Paint, has been published in DX Magazine, a specialized online media platform covering digital transformation, business transformation, and insights from corporate leaders. The article focuses on Fukui’s journey at the time she too...
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