Kiyohara’s son, Katsuaki Kiyohara, will continue in his role as president and representative director of the company.
FOR-A has announced the passing of its founder and representative director, Keizo Kiyohara, on March 7 at the age of 88.
Kiyohara established FOR-A Co. Ltd. in 1971, three years later, he started FOR-A Corporation of America in California. The name, FOR-A, means ‘A Partnership that Grows Together’. Kiyohara chose the name because he believed that the solutions developed by the company had a real value.
Throughout his leadership of FOR-A, Kiyohara prioritized, above all else, listening to the needs of the firm’s global customers. In response to this commitment, he opened the company’s first R&D Center in Sakura City, Chiba (Japan) in 1985 for new product development and to expand FOR-A’s manufacturing facilities. FOR-A exclusively produces over 400 different products from this state-of-the-art facility and from two R&D Centers in Sapporo and Fukuoka City, he opened in 1991 and 2020, the company said.
He was appointed chairman and representative director of FOR-A in 2011 and founder and representative director in 2022. Kiyohara’s son, Katsuaki Kiyohara, continues in his role as president and representative director of FOR-A Company Limited.
Katsuaki Kiyohara said: “Our founder was committed to maintaining FOR-A as a company that put the needs of its customers first, and one that does so with the utmost integrity. He will be greatly missed by all of us at FOR-A. He’s had a huge impact on how we at FOR-A conduct ourselves in the business environment. His legacy remains in how we treat each other with respect and dignity. I’m very thankful for the years I got to work alongside him.”
