Hideaki Hatta

Hideaki Hatta was a Japanese animation executive who co-founded Kyoto Animation in 1981 with his wife Yoko Hatta and a number of former Mushi Production staff members. The present enterprise dates to July 12, 1985, became a limited company then and a corporation in 1999, and he served as its president from 1985 until his death. He also ran the affiliate company Animation Do, which was established in 2000 as the studio Osaka office to assist production, and the two companies were run jointly as one. Kyoto Animation announced his death in March 2026, saying that he had died in February, and Shinichiro Hatta succeeded him as president and chief executive. Under his leadership the studio grew into a producer of well known anime series and films and a publisher of light novels, based in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture.