President of Kuraray Noritake Dental explains what matters most to the dental company and its goals for improving oral care around the globe.
Written by: Stan Goff, Senior Managing Editor
President of Kuraray Noritake Dental, Satoshi “Sammy” Yamaguchi
As Kuraray celebrates its 100th anniversary, Dentistry Today is honored to feature President of Kuraray Noritake Dental Satoshi “Sammy” Yamaguchi’s perspective on this milestone and the future of innovation, particularly within dentistry.
The Kuraray Group develops and provides a wide range of high-performance materials—including resins, films, fibers, and artificial leather—leveraging its proprietary material technologies and application expertise to create value across industries such as automotive, electronics, packaging, and healthcare.
As a member of the Kuraray Group, Kuraray Noritake Dental plays an important role in delivering value to clinical settings through dental materials.
Here Yamaguchi answers a few questions from Dentistry Today designed to capture his insights, while highlighting clear, forward-looking leadership perspectives that reflect both Kuraray’s legacy and Kuraray Noritake Dental’s vision for the future.
Q: Please share a brief overview of your background, current role, and what led you to your position at Kuraray.
A: I joined Kuraray with a strong desire to contribute to people’s health and began my career in the medical field within the R&D division.
After that, I was involved in dental business marketing in North America and served as the head of the dental business in Europe, where I worked to deliver the value of our products to clinical settings by addressing diverse regional needs and perspectives.
In my current role as President of Kuraray Noritake Dental, I leverage my experience and global insight to drive initiatives worldwide, aiming to provide new value in dental care and contribute to enhancing reliability in clinical settings.
Q: A 100-year milestone is rare, what has Kuraray done differently to sustain leadership over time?
A: We believe our sustained leadership stems from Kuraray’s consistent commitment not only to creating distinctive product value based on its long-cultivated technological expertise as a chemical manufacturer, but also to seeing that value through to clinical benefits and its delivery to dental professionals.
For example, our proprietary adhesive monomer, MDP, provides strong bonding performance even with materials such as metals and zirconia, which have traditionally been considered difficult to bond. Today, this technology is widely adopted by dental manufacturers around the world.
Building on such proprietary technologies, we have focused on developing products with long-term durability that maintain both strength and aesthetics over time. At the same time, we have continuously invested in ensuring stable quality and supply, as well as providing trusted scientific evidence and clear, accessible information.
In this way, we believe that our ability to consistently deliver technology as trusted value in clinical practice has been a key driver of our sustained leadership.
Q: If you had to point to one decision or philosophy that built Kuraray’s leadership, particularly in dental materials, what would it be, and why has it endured?
A: It would be Kuraray’s founding principle—which remains our mission today—“For people and the planet—to achieve what no one else can.” Even before the concept of corporate social responsibility (CSR) became widely recognized, Kuraray has been committed to addressing societal challenges through the power of technology and developing materials that enhance people’s quality of life.
This spirit continues to be deeply embedded in Kuraray’s business operations today.
In our dental business as well, we have not limited this philosophy to technological development alone. Rather, we have consistently worked to embody it in the form of products, and to deliver that value to clinical settings through reliable quality, a stable supply system, trusted scientific evidence, and clear, accessible information. We believe that this unwavering approach has enabled us to continuously create value over time.
Q: Dentistry is evolving rapidly—digital workflows, AI, and new materials. What shift do you believe the industry is still underestimating?
A: I believe that major changes such as digital workflows, AI, and the emergence of new materials are already well recognized across the industry. However, there remains significant untapped potential in how these advancements can be firmly established as long-term clinical value.
Particularly in dental materials, durability—the ability to maintain strength and aesthetics over time within the oral environment—is critically important.
In addition, to fully realize the value of new technologies, it is essential not only to provide practical guidance that supports their proper understanding and use in clinical settings, but also to ensure consistent quality and a stable supply system.
Looking ahead, beyond the advancement of technology itself, it will become increasingly important to determine how these innovations can be reliably delivered to clinical settings and sustainably integrated into daily practice.
In that sense, we believe there is still considerable room for development in viewing “developing technology” and “delivering it as trusted value in clinical settings” as a unified approach.
Q: Where is Kuraray Noritake Dental placing its biggest bets for the next decade and what makes those bets meaningful?
A: Over the next decade, Kuraray Noritake Dental will focus not only on advancing material technologies, but also on strengthening the systems that ensure these innovations are reliably delivered to clinical settings.
This is because we believe it is essential that products can be used with confidence in daily practice and that their value is reliably and consistently delivered in clinical settings.
To achieve this, we are committed to providing an integrated value proposition that includes scientific expertise, consistent quality, evidence-based information, support rooted in clinical insights, and a stable global supply system. The establishment of our new expansion in Japan this year is part of this effort and has significantly strengthened our global supply capabilities.
Furthermore, we are enhancing collaboration between our manufacturing sites and R&D teams to build a system that enables rapid incorporation of feedback from clinical settings into product improvements. This will allow us not only to further enhance our development capabilities, but also to deliver products that closely align with market needs in a timely manner.
Through these initiatives, we believe that sustaining trust and reliability in clinical settings is our most important responsibility.
Q: How do you continue to innovate while maintaining the trust dentists place in your products?
A: For us, innovation is not only about creating new technologies, but also about taking full responsibility for ensuring that they can be used with confidence in clinical settings.
To achieve this, it is essential to build a solid body of scientific evidence and communicate it clearly and effectively.
At the same time, we place great importance on engaging in dialogue with dental professionals—including dentists and dental technicians—to gain a deep understanding of the challenges and needs they face in daily practice, and to reflect those insights in our products.
Furthermore, no matter how innovative a product is, trust cannot be established without consistent quality and a stable supply.
That is why, through technology, quality, supply, and information, we continuously build and reinforce the trust that supports everyday clinical practice.
Q: Looking ahead, what do you want Kuraray Noritake Dental to be known for 10 years from now that it isn’t today?
A: Looking ahead 10 years, Kuraray Noritake Dental aspires to be recognized not merely as a materials manufacturer, but as a company that consistently supports clinical value throughout every stage of treatment.
As part of the Kuraray Group, we have long been guided by our founding philosophy: “For people and the planet—to achieve what no one else can.” Under this principle, we have addressed societal challenges through the power of technology and developed materials that contribute to improving people’s quality of life. This spirit continues to be deeply embedded in our dental business today.
At the same time, we believe that even the most advanced technologies can only realize their full potential when they are used with confidence and firmly established in clinical settings. That is why we have placed great importance on reliably delivering their value through scientifically grounded, evidence-based information.
Looking ahead, we aim to further deepen these efforts and evolve beyond being simply a materials manufacturer, to become a partner that comprehensively supports value in clinical settings.
Ultimately, we strive to be a trusted partner of choice for dental professionals around the world.
Q: In one statement: what does 100 years of Kuraray stand for?
A: A century of Kuraray stands for a continuous commitment to creating proprietary technologies and delivering them as trusted products that generate new value for people’s lives and society.
CONCLUSION
As Kuraray celebrates its 100th anniversary, the company continues to build on a legacy of innovation driven by proprietary technologies, scientific research, and a commitment to improving patient care. Yamaguchi’s perspective underscores that lasting success comes not only from developing new materials, but also from ensuring they deliver consistent, reliable value in clinical practice.
Looking ahead, Kuraray Noritake Dental aims to strengthen its role as a trusted partner for dental professionals worldwide by continuing to invest in innovation, quality, education, and global collaboration. If the company’s first century has been defined by technological leadership, its next chapter will focus on helping clinicians provide better care through solutions designed to meet the evolving needs of modern dentistry.
About Kuraray
The Kuraray Group is committed to developing new fields of business using pioneering technology that improves the environment and enhances the quality of life throughout the world.
Kuraray was founded in 1926 for the purpose of commercializing synthetic rayon, which was a cutting-edge technology at the time. Following the Second World War, in 1950 we were first in the world to commercialize polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) fiber, under the brand name KURALON™. It was the first synthetic fiber invented in Japan, and led the early phase of Japan’s synthetic fiber industry.
For more information, visit kuraray.com.
