In Japan's carefully choreographed corporate world, public power struggles are generally frowned upon. Shosuke Idemitsu, 89, apparently doesn't roll that way.
At an Idemitsu Kosan Co. shareholder meeting in June, investors were expected to vote in favor of reappointing directors who support the government-backed, $1.7 billion merger with rival Showa Shell Sekiyu K.K., which is scheduled to close by April of 2017.
Instead, a lawyer for Idemitsu, the scion of the company's founding family that controls 33.9 percent of the refiner, stunned onlookers by announcing the family's opposition to the deal. That came as a surprise to the company's management, led by President Takashi Tsukioka, which said the octogenarian had earlier consented to the merger. Showa Shell shares immediately plunged 10 percent after the news was reported, the most in more than five years.