Toshiba chairman rejects call to withdraw from governance scandal

The chairman of Toshiba’s board of directors rejected the call from shareholders to resign and emphasized that his duty is to resolve the turmoil of the Japanese company when the conglomerate is in a deeper governance crisis.

Osamu Nagayama refused to resign because the company plans to hold its second emergency shareholder meeting this year after issuing a statement. Independent report This exposed the company’s cooperation with the Japanese government to suppress radical investors.

The curse report includes that Toshiba executives have discussed allegations of “beating” certain shareholders with officials of the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, and concluded that Toshiba’s 2020 annual meeting was not conducted fairly.

The investigation also claimed that Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga knew directly about Toshiba’s anti-radical movement when he was the Chief Cabinet Secretary last year. Suga denied this claim.

Changshan held a 75-minute press conference on Monday to blame the Toshiba crisis on former CEO Nobuaki Kuraya, who was forced to resign in April. He said that the root cause of the company’s troubles was “a certain confrontational stance against shareholders” initiated by Chegugu.

Nagayama acknowledged calls for his resignation and acknowledged that the company’s governance was flawed. The company has suffered from accounting scandals, bankruptcies and humiliation since 2015 and was downgraded to the second section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange.

“The board needs to deal with this situation as soon as possible by normalizing operations,” he said, adding that his duty is to deal with turbulence.

“Responsible [by stepping down] As well as the responsibility of fulfilling my obligations, I want to focus on fulfilling my responsibilities,” he said.

Nagayama’s comments came when Institutional Shareholder Services, an agency advisory service, stated that it would recommend that shareholders vote against the appointment of him as chairman at the annual general meeting next week.

A large investor was “shocked” by Nagayama’s comments, lack of apology, and failure to hold himself accountable despite overseeing the board and nomination committee.

One of Toshiba’s largest shareholders stated that Yongshan “sounds like a tourist” and did not explain why he thinks he is suitable to lead the organization.

Changshan’s press conference followed Marathon emergency Toshiba board meeting On Sunday, a member of the company said that this involved several fierce conflicts as the company made its next course of action.

After the meeting, Toshiba stated that it would remove the two candidates who had been nominated as members of the board of directors. Both are members of the audit committee, which concluded that there was no wrongdoing in the annual general meeting of shareholders last year. The independent report directly refutes this finding.

ISS responded to Toshiba’s revised nomination of directors, stating that Changshan “has the greatest responsibility in nominating candidates and is ultimately responsible for the actions of the board of directors.”

“Shareholders’ concerns will intensify because he will continue to serve as chairman of the board after this [AGM],” it added.

Toshiba shares rose 2.7% on Monday.