The government on April 19 picked Mr. Kazuhiko Shimokobe, a bankruptcy lawyer with vast experience in corporate restructuring, as chairman of Tokyo Electric Power Co. He headed the decision-making body of the Nuclear Damage Liability Facilitation Fund, a public entity that injects funds into Tepco to help it pay compensation to victims of the accident at Tepco's Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
So far, Mr. Shimokobe has been in a position to make demands on Tepco concerning its management from outside. As chairman of Tepco, he may find himself in a more delicate position.
It is hoped that Mr. Shimokobe will break Tepco's bureaucratic mind-set and culture, often said to be more strongly embedded in this publicly-traded firm than the government bureaucracy itself, and make Tepco more sensitive to the sentiments of the general population and its customers.