Kokudo Corp. Chairman Yoshiaki Tsutsumi resigned Wednesday from all the posts he held in the company and Seibu Railway Co.'s group firms to take responsibility for revising Seibu Railway's financial statements.
Tsutsumi, 70, said he also intends to resign from his position as team representative of the Seibu Lions professional baseball club after the end of the Japan Series in which the team will compete later this month.
Earlier in the day, Seibu Railway said it reported to the Kanto Local Finance Bureau that it has revised information on the revised financial statements, including the ratio of Seibu Railway shares held by leading shareholder Kokudo and Kokudo subsidiary Prince Hotels Co.
The ratio of Kokudo's shareholdings was revised upward to 64.83 percent from 43.16 percent and that of Prince Hotels to 4.20 percent from 0.98 percent for fiscal 2003.
The company revised the information because it found that Seibu Railway shares held under the name of some individuals were effectively owned by Kokudo or Prince Hotels after the company re-examined its operations, it said.
"As we have been conducting equities-related work by ourselves, the work failed to be checked by a third party," a Seibu Railway official said.
Following the report from the company, the Tokyo Stock Exchange said it will place shares of Seibu Railway on a monitoring post because the company could be delisted.
Seibu Railway listed its shares on the bourse in 1949. It is rare for a listed company to conduct stock-related work by itself.