TOKYO – Former Suntory Holdings Ltd. Chairman Takeshi Niinami has resigned as chief of a major business body, the group said Tuesday, after he came under police investigation over supplement purchases.
The board of directors at the Japan Association of Corporate Executives, known as Keizai Doyukai, accepted his resignation request made at their meeting earlier in the day, it said.
Senior Vice Chairman Mutsuo Iwai, who is chairman of Japan Tobacco Inc., will serve as acting chair until a new chief is selected, it said.
Niinami told a press conference that he offered to resign “to avoid splitting” the association since he said the board had been divided over whether he should stay on.
“I do have regrets because there were still things that I wanted to do (as chief),” he added.
Niinami declined to provide details regarding the controversial supplement purchases, saying only that he will cooperate with the investigative authorities.
Prominent business figure Niinami, who has denied any wrongdoing, quit as chairman of the beverage maker on Sept. 1 but remained the business group’s chief.
However, Niinami had stayed away from activities as head of the body, saying he would leave the decision over whether to dismiss him as chief to the association.
The graduate of the Harvard Business School led the Japan Association of Corporate Executives from April 2023 and has long served as a private-sector member of the government’s key council on economic and fiscal policy.
Niinami said Tuesday he will continue to sit on the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy, where important issues, including government spending and economic growth strategies, are discussed.
The membership of the Japan Association of Corporate Executives comprises around 1,700 top executives of some 1,200 corporations and formulate proposals on political, economic and social issues.
The members join the body’s activities as an individual, not as representatives of their company or a specific industry, unlike the Japan Business Federation, or Keidanren, the country’s most powerful business lobby where major companies are members.
