Message from the Chief Technology Officer

Hirotsugu Takeuchi
Senior Executive Officer
Chief Technology Officer (CTO)

DENSO’s technology is the source of its competitiveness. As stated in the DENSO Creed, “Be pioneering, innovative, and creative,” it is my mission as CTO to develop and refine talent and an organization that relentlessly pursues knowledge to remain at the vanguard of technological development. By thoroughly assessing changes in the external operating environment, developing scenarios over a 10-year timeframe, and identifying pathways to technological leadership, I aim to enhance the effectiveness of Companywide strategies from a technology management perspective, including pursuing bold initiatives for a new era and nurturing talent that will lead the future.

As part of our medium- to long-term technology strategy, we have identified the following focus fields: “Electrification and Energy Management” and “Automation,” as well as the foundational technologies supporting these areas, “Semiconductors” and “Software.” These fields were identified based on the principles of green and peace of mind. Furthermore, we have determined medium- to long-term, cross-organizational research and development themes that span across various business, organizational, and technological domains. As CTO, I hold monthly meetings with members of each business group and the Technology Steering Committee through which we work to promptly identify issues and enhance the governance of our technology development.

To date, DENSO has allocated management resources to R&D equivalent to around 8% to 9% of its consolidated revenue, concentrating investment in these focus fields. While ascertaining the potential for business growth in each of these fields from a Groupwide perspective, we will allocate resources toward not only supporting development activities in the near term, but also realizing medium- to long-term business growth. In fiscal 2026, we plan to nearly double R&D investment in cross-organizational R&D themes compared with the previous fiscal year, thereby dramatically improving R&D efficiency and driving corporate growth from a medium- to long-term perspective.

We are entering the era of software-defined vehicles (SDVs), where software development is becoming more large scale and complex. To further enhance our return on investment (ROI) and bolster our competitiveness, we are utilizing automation in the development process to prevent information inconsistencies and defects within each step of the development process and across organizations. We are also working to increase development efficiency via the use of AI throughout the development process, including for design verification, and testing. In these ways, we are drawing on our digital knowledge across the organization to achieve differentiation from competitors. Our efforts have received external recognition, with DENSO being selected for the first time as a “Digital Transformation Stock (DX Stock)” for 2025 by the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI), the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE), and the Informationtechnology Promotion Agency (IPA). Through the integration of digital technologies with our long-cultivated advanced technologies, we will transform DENSO into a company that can provide society with even greater value.