Japanese minister says he never asked adviser to contact Toshiba shareholders

TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s commerce minister said on Friday he never instructed an adviser to contact Toshiba Corp. shareholders after a report accused his ministry of working with company leaders to pressure shareholders to adhere to management plans.

The Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry (METI) is awaiting a response from Toshiba to the report from independent researchers, Hiroshi Kajiyama said at a regular news conference.

The report says Toshibas management asked METI to help fight activist foreign shareholders at its annual general meeting last July.

The report released Thursday on behalf of the shareholder also alleges that Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, when he was chief of staff last year, verbally encouraged that pressure during a meeting with a senior Toshiba director.

Suga, who left Japan yesterday for a meeting of G7 leaders in Britain, has denied the accusation

As part of the METIs response, special counsel Hiromichi Mizuno approached Harvard University’s endowment fund and warned it his vote could be subject to a regulatory probe, sources told Reuters last year. The American university then abstained.

Mizuno, who describes himself as a friend of tech entrepreneur Elon Musk and serves on the board of Tesla Incs, oversaw Japan’s $1.4 trillion Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) before becoming a METI advisor. In December, he was appointed United Nations Special Envoy for Innovative Finance and Sustainable Investment.

Mizuno did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Toshibas shares fell 1.7% in early trading, while the Nikkei 225 index was largely flat.