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Toei Company Ltd. announced on Tuesday that the passing of Osamu Tezuka—the company’s president and CEO—he was 62.

Tezuka was born in March 1960. He joined Toei in April 1983, marking nearly 40 years at the company that oversees Toei Animation among other branches. Then he became a board member in June 2012. He became the company’s managing director in June 2016, and became president and CEO in June 2020. In addition to the announcement of his passing, Toei confirmed that current managing director and chairman Noriyuki Tada will take on the role of president in Tezuka’s place.

Toei was founded in 1951, and oversees the Toei Animation studio and the T-Joy cinema chain. The company has several film and TV production studios as well as post-production studios and the Zukun Laboratory that works on advanced digital visual content research.

Toei is responsible for some of the most beloved anime franchises of all time, including “Dragon Ball,” “Sailor Moon,” “One Piece” and “Digimon.” The company’s first feature-length animated film, “Hakujaden,” or “The Legend of the White Snake,” was released in 1958 and is reportedly the film that inspired legendary filmmaker and Studio Ghibli co-founder, Hayao Miyazaki, to choose a career in animation.  In television, Toei’s other hits include “Mazinger Z,” “Galaxy Express 99,” “Transformers“ and Akira Toriyama’s “Dr Slump,” which came out five years before the first “Dragon Ball” anime.

Tezuka’s funeral will be limited to close relatives, but a memorial ceremony will be held at a later date.