April 22, 2003

Takeda Chemical Industries, Ltd.

Takeda announced the change of Chairman of the Board and President

Osaka, Japan, April 22, 2002 --- Takeda Chemical Industries, Ltd.("Takeda") announced today that its Board of Directors' meeting resolved the following change of the Chairman of the Board and the President, and this resolution is expected to become effective upon formal resolution at the BOD meeting on June 27, 2003 after the general shareholders' meeting on the same day.

• 1.Dr. Masahiko Fujino, current Chairman of the Board will retire.
• 2.Mr. Kunio Takeda, current President will assume the position of the Chairman of the Board.
• 3.Mr. Yasuchika Hasegawa, member of the Board and current General Manager of Corporate Strategy & Planning Dept. will assume the position of the President.

Upon assuming the new positions;

Mr. Kunio Takeda, as Chief Executive Officer, will preside the BOD meeting and will be responsible for strategic decisions on overall management issues of whole Takeda Group, while Mr. Yasuchika Hasegawa, as Chief Operating Officer, will be responsible for all the operational issues.

Takeda is now carrying out strategies of 2001-2005 Medium-Term Management Plan toward becoming a true world-class pharmaceutical company. Among those strategies, Takeda is dedicating all the best efforts at achieving the most important management tasks such as "enhancement of R&D pipeline as sources of growth" and "creation of the systems and frameworks necessary to be a world-class pharmaceutical company"

Under the new top management, Takeda will continuously accelerate its steps forward to realize the Management Mission of "striving toward better health for individuals and progress in medicine by developing superior pharmaceutical products", and will maximize shareholder value.

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For further inquiries, please contact:
Corporate Communications Dept., Takeda Chemical Industries, Ltd.
TEL: +81-6-6204-2038 (Osaka), +81-3-3278-2039 (Tokyo)