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Japanese company Toshiba Corp (6502.T) on Monday accused its former chief executive of fomenting a “confrontational approach” with shareholders, citing this as an underlying factor in its growing governance crisis.
The comment from Osamu Nagayama, chairman of Toshiba’s board of directors, comes after a shareholder-commissioned investigation found that the company had colluded with the Japanese government to “beat up” foreign shareholders.
One shareholder described the scandal as the biggest corporate scandal in a decade.
Nagayama, who apologized to shareholders, also told an online press conference that he would hold an emergency general meeting to appoint new board members and wanted to include two foreigners among the new directors.
“Some time ago there was a somewhat confrontational position towards shareholders,” said Nagayama, when asked about the responsibility of former CEO Nobuaki Kurumatani.
“It’s an underlying cause in a sense of the current state of affairs,” Nagayama said.
It was not immediately clear whether this admission would be enough to win over shareholders.
The Toshiba crisis has revived concerns about the governance of the world’s third largest economy and its openness to foreign investors.
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