In a rare move and a victory for activist investors, Toshiba Corp. shareholders voted down the reappointment of the board chairman at the annual shareholders meeting on Friday, after corporate governance issues at the industrial conglomerate were brought to the fore by a government collusion scandal.
Investors ousted Osamu Nagayama, who had expressed his intention to stay on to tackle Toshiba’s deep-rooted governance issues. A recent probe by lawyers showed that the conglomerate had sought help from the government to influence the voting behavior of foreign shareholders.
Of the 11 director candidates Toshiba proposed, shareholders rejected Nagayama and Nobuyuki Kobayashi, an audit committee member who was also up for reappointment.