Hiroo Mizushima, the longtime chairman of failed department store chain Sogo Co., on Thursday flatly denied that he sloppily managed the firm, although he said he is deeply aware of his responsibility as chief executive.

Mizushima was appearing before the Tokyo District Court for the first time to defend himself in an 11.2 billion yen damages suit filed against him and 18 other former Sogo executives by the company's new management.

Mizushima, 88, headed Sogo for 38 years after becoming president in April 1962.

In a prepared comment, Mizushima claimed Sogo never made any investment that deviated from proper business practices and added that the firm's management was never "chaotic," contrary to some allegations.

Under Mizushima, Sogo rapidly expanded its retail operations domestically and abroad through massive borrowing that eventually led to it filing for court protection on July 12 under seas of red ink.

"Although some investments made in an effort to expand stores at my initiative became liabilities attributable to the collapse of the bubble economy, there was nothing illegal about the management," Mizushima claimed.

Sogo's current management has so far filed three suits seeking a total of about 11.25 billion yen in damages against the 19 executives.

Unlike typical civil suits, Thursday's session was closed.

The hearing put Mizushima up against questioning from a Sogo trustee appointed by the court under the Civil Rehabilitation Law. It was also the first time that Mizushima has offered his own account of Sogo's operations.

Mizushima has made no public appearances since stepping down as president in April 1994 and becoming chairman the following month. He resigned as chairman in April.

On Sept. 26, Sogo filed a suit seeking about 2.69 billion yen in damages incurred from deals the former management made with affiliate Cho-ompa Co. until 1994.

Another suit followed on Oct. 5, seeking approximately 6.76 billion yen in damages from a failed 1990 attempt to set up a retail outlet in Turkey.

Five days later, Sogo filed again, seeking to collect roughly 1.8 billion yen in damages for the former management team's allegedly illegal authorization of dividend payments when the company had failed to record sufficient profits in fiscal 1993 and 1994.

Mizushima is named as a defendant in all of the suits. The sources say he has said he did not authorize individual deals with Cho-ompa because he did not attend board meetings held to approve them. He said the plan for Turkey was endorsed by the Industrial Bank of Japan, one of Sogo's main creditor banks.

The IBJ has been part of the Mizuho Financial Group since last month, along with Dai-Ichi Kangyo Bank and Fuji Bank.

Commenting on the payment of dividends, Mizushima has said the decision was not illegal as certified public accountants also approved them, the sources said.

The IBJ dispatched Mizushima to Sogo's executive board as vice president in April 1958 after the retailer failed to pay a dividend in the second half of fiscal 1957 because its flagship Osaka outlet, one of the three Sogo shops at the time, had suffered poor sales.

Mizushima directed an expansion drive that saw Sogo expand the number of domestic outlets to 10 by 1979, to 20 by 1987 and to 30 by 1991.

But the drive saddled Sogo with huge debts, and the implosion of the bubble economy -- which roughly coincided with the 1991 opening of the chain's 30th store in Kawaguchi, Saitama Prefecture -- left it with slumping sales.

On April 6, Sogo announced a restructuring plan, asking its creditors to waive claims on 639 billion yen in loans.

However, Sogo and its 21 group firms eventually withdrew the plea because it entailed asking taxpayers for almost 100 billion yen, this due to a complicated set of circumstances in which the nationalized Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan was sold back to the private sector.

Now dubbed Shinsei Bank, the government remains on the hook for any of the old LTCB's loans that go bad over the next three years.

The Liberal Democratic Party is reported to have persuaded Sogo to withdraw the request to calm public outrage over the government's intent to use taxpayer funds to bail out a private company.

After the withdrawal, Sogo and its group firms on July 12 filed with the Tokyo District Court for protection from creditors under the Civil Rehabilitation Law. It had 1.87 trillion yen in debts on a consolidated basis.

Under a restructuring plan it filed with the Tokyo District Court on Oct. 25, the firm plans to focus on 13 domestic outlets and will finish closing down nine stores by Dec. 25, cutting 3,100 jobs a workforce of 9,100.

Two Sogo executives have committed suicide this year. Vice President Yasuharu Abe hanged himself in April at his home in Kamakura, Kanagawa Prefecture, while Yukio Nakazawa, a former vice president, hanged himself at home in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, in October.