TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s third-largest telco SoftBank Corp said on Tuesday that Chief Technology Officer Junichi Miyakawa would become its chief executive effective April 1.
The son of a buddhist priest, Miyakawa is a technical whizz driving projects including the wireless carrier’s 5G build-out. He replaces Ken Miyauchi, a key lieutenant of SoftBank Group Corp CEO Masayoshi Son who took up the post in 2015.
Son, whose investment juggernaut is the telco’s largest shareholder, will continue as chairman of the board of directors, SoftBank Corp said in a statement.
(Reporting by Sam Nussey; Editing by Tom Hogue & Shri Navaratnam)


