Tadashi Nakauchi, the owner of the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks, will give up the rights to represent the professional baseball club in late October, sources close to the team said Saturday.
But Nakauchi, the second son of Isao Nakauchi, founder and former chairman of team owner supermarket chain Daiei Inc., will remain a Hawks board member and attend meetings of owners of Japan's 12 professional baseball teams, the sources said.
The move comes as the troubled retailer was granted a fresh 60 billion yen rescue package by the state-run Development Bank of Japan and Daiei's three major creditor banks.
Daiei officials have been calling on Nakauchi to give his 40 percent stake in the Hawks to Daiei for free to take responsibility on the part of his family for causing slumps in the retailer's businesses.