Conglomerates sack chief executives and sell assets to pre-empt shareholder demands at annual meetings
Seven & i Holdings, owner of the 7-Eleven convenience store chain, replaced its chief executive Ryuichi Isaka, left, with Stephen Dacus as part of a broader restructuring © Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg
“Vanilla” buybacks are no longer enough to placate shareholders of Japan’s biggest companies, with a string of conglomerates sacking chief executives and selling assets as the country’s corporate governance drive gains pace.
Toyota, Japan’s most valuable company, unveiled plans last month to trim its board from 16 members to 10 and make half of them independent, up from 40 per cent previously. It will also create a separate supervisory committee meant to enable stronger audits and monitoring of management.
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March 16, 2025 / Excerpted from Financial Times
