[News Space=Reporter seungwon lee] Shin Yoo-yeol, executive director, is the grandson of Lotte Group founder Shin Kyuk-ho and the eldest son of the second chairman Shin Dong-bin. He is a third-generation Korean-Japanese from London, England. He was born in London, England in 1986, when his father, Chairman Shin Dong-bin, was working at the UK branch of Nomura Securities, and returned to Japan two years later in 1988. The Shin clan’s generation is ‘yeol.’ His Japanese name is Shigemitsu Satoshi, and he maintains Japanese citizenship. 

In Japan, he graduated from Aoyama Gakuin Elementary, Middle, and High School, an integrated school affiliated with Aoyama Gakuin University, just like his father and uncle. Aoyama is located near Shoto in Tokyo’s Shibuya Ward, where the Lotte Group residence is located. However, unlike his father and uncle, he went on to Keio University’s Faculty of Commerce instead of advancing internally to Aoyama Gakuin University.

After graduation, he worked at Nomura Securities like his father and received an MBA from Columbia University, an Ivy League school in the United States. Shin Dong-bin is also a Nomura Securities-Columbia MBA graduate. Chairman Shin entered Lotte in 1988 by joining Lotte Corporation in Japan as a director. In 1990, he appeared in Lotte Korea by taking office as an executive director at Honam Petrochemical (now Lotte Chemical). Shin Dong-joo, chairman of SDJ Corporation and the eldest son of Honorary Chairman Shin Kyuk-ho, also received an MBA from Columbia University in the United States and joined Mitsubishi Corporation in 1978. He later joined Lotte Group in 1987 by joining Lotte Corporation in Japan as a director.

As the eldest son of Chairman Shin Dong-bin, Executive Director Shin Yoo-yeol is the most likely candidate to become the third chairman of Lotte Group. In addition to his eldest son, Executive Director Shin Yoo-yeol, Chairman Shin Dong-bin has one son and two daughters, including his eldest daughter Shin Kyu-mi and his second daughter Shin Seung-eun. All three children were born in Japan and have Japanese citizenship. It is known that Kyu-mi and Seung-eun are currently working for Japanese companies unrelated to Lotte. Seung-eun married Tomohiro Ishii, a former tennis player and announcer for the Japanese private broadcaster TBS, in 2017.

Executive Director Shin joined Lotte Japan in 2020 as a manager and is currently receiving management training. He then served as the managing director of Lotte Chemical Japan, co-CEO of Lotte Strategic Investment, and CEO of Lotte Financial. Executive Director Shin was appointed as the head of Lotte Holdings’ Future Growth Office in charge of global and new businesses at the end of 2023. In March 2024, he was appointed as an inside director of Lotte Biologics, becoming his first registered executive. As of March 30, 2024 (Shin Yoo-yeol’s birthday), Executive Director Shin, who is 38 years old this year, has completed his mandatory military service in Korea.

On June 5, 2023, Lotte Holdings established a new 'Future Growth TF (Task Force)' organization for the Shin Yoo-yeol succession process and began full-scale operation. This organization consists of four people, including a senior team leader. It will be in charge of tasks such as the group's mid- to long-term vision, discovering future growth engines, and discovering new businesses. A TF of the same name was also organized at Lotte Holdings Japan, and they have been exchanging and collaborating with each other.

On June 5, 2024, Executive Director Shin Yoo-yeol purchased 7,541 shares of Lotte Holdings common stock for the first time, owning 0.01% of Lotte Holdings. The cost was approximately 195.04 million won. This is the first time that Executive Director Shin has purchased stocks in a Korean Lotte affiliate, and his name has been added to the list of special related persons of Chairman Shin.

The military service issue has been resolved, but the nationality issue remains. Of course, there is no problem with employment and residence in Korea under the Overseas Koreans Act of the Republic of Korea. Considering that his grandfather, Lotte founder Shin Kyuk-ho, never gave up his Korean nationality throughout his life, and that his father Shin Dong-bin also chose Korean nationality after studying Korean, it is possible that Shin Yoo-yeol will eventually regain his Korean nationality after leaving aside his life and career growth background in the UK, Japan, and the US in that order to focus on Lotte’s core business.

Chairman Shin Dong-bin renounced his Japanese citizenship in 1996 and became vice chairman of Lotte Group in 1997. Born in 1955, Chairman Shin seems to have settled his dual citizenship issue at the age of 41, considering military service issues. The Military Service Act stipulates that military service is mandatory until the age of 40.

The issue of Lotte’s family’s military service has also been controversial in past state audits. In the 2015 National Assembly State Affairs Committee state audit, Rep. Yoo Seung-hee of the Democratic Party of Korea said, “Chairman Shin Dong-bin mentioned that Lotte is a Korean company, but I don’t agree with that,” and pointed out, “Didn’t the family of Shin Dong-joo and Shin Dong-bin receive military exemption due to their personal reasons as Japanese citizens?”

This is the reason why Lotte Group continues to focus on its business in Korea despite suffering losses of more than 2 trillion won in China due to retaliation against the Lotte Group for the installation of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense (THAAD) missile defense system in Korea to defend South Korea from missiles from China, North Korea, and other countries.

Mr. Shin Yoo-yeol made his first official appearance in March 2016 when he attended the opening ceremony of Lotte's Japanese duty-free shop with his wife. 

Mr. Shin Yoo-yeol, like Chairman Shin Dong-bin, married a Japanese woman. Mr. Yoo got married in Hawaii, USA, with Shigemitsu Aya, who joined Nomura Securities in March 2015. Later, at the wedding reception held at the Toyo Imperial Hotel in Japan in November 2015, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong also attended. Honorary Chairman Shin Kyuk-ho and SDJ Corporation Chairman Shin Dong-joo did not attend. At that time, the management rights battle between the two brothers, Shin Dong-bin and Shin Dong-joo, was at its peak.

Mr. Shin Yoo-yeol had a son in 2018. At the time, Chairman Shin was imprisoned on charges of management corruption and was unable to witness the birth of his first grandson.

Although Lotte Group does not officially use Japanese, it is said that there are many cases of Japanese experts being promoted quickly.

Meanwhile, brands such as Uniqlo, Muji, and Asahi, which are joint ventures between Lotte Group and Japanese companies and are doing business in Korea, have Japanese people serving as co-CEOs.

FRL Korea, which operates Uniqlo, has Takao Kuwahara and Hyunseok Jeong as co-CEOs; Muji Korea, which operates Muji, has Shoichi Saito as co-CEOs; Lotte Asahi Liquor, has Kiyoshi Miyama and Jaehak Jeong as co-CEOs; Canon Korea, has Yoshiyuki Koshimizu and Jeongwoo Park as co-CEOs; and Lotte Mitsui Chemicals, has Yoshitaka Kato and Seho Park as co-CEOs. Korea Seven, which operates 7-Eleven convenience stores, had Japanese executives until 2003.