The story behind MANAC Shanghai’s first woman president in a chemical industry noticeably devoid of key women players

MANAC (Shanghai) Co., Ltd., also known as MANAC Shanghai, is a MANAC subsidiary located in Shanghai, China. In October 2022, Miho Yamashita was appointed General Manager (the title given locally to those who oversee company management; the equivalent to the role of “President” in Japan). It is very uncommon to find women in the position of General Manager at Japanese chemical manufacturers.

Looking to expand MANAC globally, Ms. Yamashita aims to strengthen MANAC’s trading company business. Read further to find out just how Ms. Yamashita came to lead MANAC Shanghai.

Number of women currently in management positions: still only 3

Ms. Yamashita first moved to Tokyo when she received a new job offer. At the time, she worked in sales introducing temporary workers to companies. Each and every day entailed long overtime hours punctuated by a race to barely make the last train home.

It was then that MANAC, a business partner of Ms. Yamashita, invited her to join the company, after which she became a full-time MANAC employee in March 2002.

When she first joined MANAC, around ten employees worked at the Tokyo office (the current Head Office), among which two were women. The chemical industry was not as accessible to women as today, and so most women worked in administrative office positions. Looking back, Ms. Yamashita comments, “Back then, I had never seen even one woman working in sales in the chemical industry.”

However, Ms. Yamashita was driven to “Do what I can to inspire transformation in our work.” The salesperson at the time coordinated all internal and external matters, even while out on business trips. As Sales Assistant, Ms. Yamashita focused on “fostering a work environment that allowed the salesperson to devote efforts to sales activities” by taking on as much of the delivery duties and other internal/external matters as possible.

“There were times I ended up making mistakes to the detriment of the salesperson and factory staff, and was even on the verge of growing disheartened. But everyone followed up with their full support without ever getting upset. Coming from a generation of workers who learned by following the examples of strict senior team members and bosses, I felt an urgency to learn from my mistakes in an effort to recover everyone’s trust and confidence in me. Perhaps my gutsy resolve is a strength of mine.”

Diving into pharmaceutical marketing with zero experience

Ms. Yamashita had been taking on a growing range of duties as Sales Assistant when she reached a turning point in 2015. A new MANAC department was established to import and market generic pharmaceuticals.

Although MANAC had established itself in the industry as a pharmaceutical intermediary manufacturer, the position of a “trading company” that imports and markets generic pharmaceuticals was a wholly new frontier for MANAC. The import and marketing of pharmaceuticals entails a complex slew of procedures and regulations to navigate and handle.　

The new department was set to manage domestic matters related to the Drug Master File (DMF) as necessary to introduce overseas products to local customers while also submitting pharmaceutical applications to the Japanese authorities and guiding/coordinating suppliers to meet regulations, which continue becoming increasingly stringent by the year.

“Who should we put in charge of generic pharmaceuticals?”

As the new department was being established, the new manager made a suggestion. “Ms. Yamashita would be perfect!”

And it was Ms. Yamashita who was most taken aback by this.

“I majored in physics at university, so chemistry was completely out of my area of expertise. I was hesitant about my ability to handle the pharmaceuticals field with zero knowledge despite regulations in pharmaceuticals becoming stricter each year.”

However, Ms. Yamashita also thought about how she “can’t just give up before even trying.” Such was the start of Ms. Yamashita’s sales career: a dive into the generic pharmaceuticals area with zero knowledge but ample encouragement from everyone around.

Building a trading company business off of manufacturing company expertise

The core products that make fine chemicals possible are intermediates, which are used in the processes that turn raw materials (APIs: active pharmaceutical ingredients) into the final products. As MANAC handles many products contracted by pharmaceutical companies and API manufacturers, its rather small range of original MANAC products was an issue.

Ms. Yamashita had, in fact, already been experiencing the limitations presented by a business model that relied solely on handling contracted products. “My take on the duties of the new department was to leverage the knowledge gained on pharmaceutical applications toward expanding our business into a “trading company position” and taking on the challenge of a new field for MANAC.”

Thus began MANAC’s new business. However, with the target set by Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare to increase the market share of generic pharmaceuticals to 80% already about to be met, as well as there being a saturation of specialized trading companies, “We weren’t able to produce the expected results,” Ms. Yamashita explains.

Furthermore, as MANAC could not establish a strong presence as a company with a new generic pharmaceuticals business in Japan and abroad, the generics department was downsized in March 2021 and later absorbed into the Fine Chemical Division.

Despite such developments, Ms. Yamashita was not ready to give up on the potential of MANAC’s trading company business as an investment toward the company’s future growth.

“As a part of the life sciences, pharmaceuticals is an area that can contribute to society (SDGs) through chemistry. However, the barriers to entry are incredibly high. Compared to the turbulent fluctuations in supply and demand seen with the likes of electronic materials and semiconductor materials, materials in this area tend to be relatively stable once selected. I was quite determined to leverage MANAC’s advantages as a manufacturing company to grow its trading company business.”

A Shanghai assignment entirely out of the blue

Following the downsizing of the generics department, Ms. Yamashita was given a concurrent position in overseas sales.

“As a manufacturing company sales representative, I became the coordinator between the staff in charge of import projects centered on pharmaceutical applications and a joint venture company that manufactures iodine compounds. It’s quite a typical development for me to be taking on a new challenge with zero knowledge,” explains Ms. Yamashita, smiling as she describes yet another major turning point.

The president (then executive director) had called for Ms. Yamashita to tell her, “You’ve been named the next General Manager of MANAC Shanghai.”

At that time, since Ms. Yamashita had been going on business trips to China once or twice monthly, she knew the local staff. Regardless, she could not speak Chinese at all, had zero management experience, and had no actual subordinates while serving the role of “playing manager” in Japan.

“The news came completely out of the blue. It wasn’t without worry, but having heard how the chairman had also recommended me, it was really exciting to experience the level of confidence being placed in me. Taking on the challenge of becoming the General Manager of an overseas office would also allow me to contribute toward strengthening the company’s diversity and creating a work environment that ensures women can also fulfill active professional roles. So, I decided to go for it, thinking, “There’s nothing left to do but try.”

In October 2022, once the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns were lifted, Ms. Yamashita made her way to Shanghai.

“Honestly, I feel that the chemical industry is still, by far, very much male-dominated. This only further solidifies my resolve to stand at the forefront in an effort to help pave the way for women in the future to advance their careers forward more readily. I want more and more employees to be able to look at me and say, ‘If she can do it, then so can I.’ And so, I grew eager to take on this challenge at MANAC Shanghai.”

Certainly, Ms. Yamashita had much to take on for this challenge. Join us in the next article where we continue with Ms. Yamashita’s story at MANAC Shanghai.