Kanadevia will be new name for Hitachi Zosen

Japan-based conglomerate Hitachi Zosen Corp. will change its name to Kanadevia Corp. effective Oct. 1, 2024. The name change will affect the Zurich-based Hitachi Zosen Inova (HZI) business unit, which offers waste conversion technology globally.

“Hitachi Zosen Inova shareholder Hitachi Zosen Corp., located in Osaka, Japan, announced today that its board of directors has resolved to change the trade name to Kanadevia Corp.,” a statement from HZI says.

The name change is subject to an approval process at the annual general meeting of shareholders scheduled for next June.

“Kanadevia is a coined word,” says Hitachi Zosen, saying the word is a neologism that combines “kanade," from the Japanese verb “kanaderu,” meaning “to play music in harmony," and “via,” the Latin word for “way” or “method.”

Since its founding in 1881 as Osaka Iron Works, Hitachi Zosen has expanded its business to include shipbuilding, steel structures, plants and industrial machinery. In 1943 it changed its trade name to Hitachi Zosen Corp., which it has continued to use ever since. Last year, the shipbuilding segment was spun off.

Hitachi Zosen says its current global businesses is expanding in the fields of decarbonization, resource recycling (including anaerobic digestion plants) and safe and prosperous urban development.

The change of trade name to Kanadevia will “enable the company to build a new history as a corporate group that applies the power of technology to create a world that lives in harmony with nature,” the firm says.