Takeshi Niinami, a corporate maverick who seldom missed a chance to poke at Japan’s business establishment, has resigned as Suntory Holdings Inc.’s chief executive officer after his home was searched for illegal drugs.
“The entire company will work together to regain trust,” Suntory president Nobuhiro Torii said at a hastily arranged news conference to announce the resignation. Torii declined to comment on the legality of what he described as supplements found in the former CEO’s home, citing the ongoing investigation. Niinami didn’t attend the briefing.
Police were investigating Niinami, 66, on suspected violation of the country’s strict cannabis laws, the Tokyo Shimbun reported earlier Tuesday. Niinami denied the allegations, it said. He’s not yet made any public statements on the matter.
Niinami, who championed reforms and spoke for corporate leaders seeking a more international and competitive corporate sector in Japan, decided to resign after deciding that his lack of knowledge about the supplements disqualified him from leading the company, according to the statement.
Listed unit Suntory Beverage & Food Ltd.’s shares gave up gains following reports of Niinami’s resignation, and were up 2% close to the end of trading in Tokyo on Tuesday. The stock is down more than 6% this year.
“The determination of any legal violations should be left to the authorities,” Torii said. “We have determined that this conduct reflects a lack of suitability for the role of the representative director.”
As the chair of Japan’s second-biggest business lobby Japan Association of Corporate Executives, known as Keizai Doyukai, Niinami has been an outspoken and influential voice in business circles. For more than a decade, he had pushed to globalize Suntory as the Japanese beverage giant faces slower domestic consumption and heightened competition abroad.
Niinami’s frequent appearances in Japanese and international media made him a highly visible, and often controversial, presence in a business environment known for being slow to change and risk averse.
In July, Niinami called for Japan’s central bank to raise interest rates, warning that failure to do so was keeping the yen weak, and in turn was fueling soaring prices for food and other imports. “It will be the governor’s responsibility,” he said, an unusually blunt remark directed at Kazuo Ueda, the central bank governor who began to tighten rates last year after 17 years of ultra-loose monetary policy.
Cannabidiol, or CBD, products are legal in Japan as long as they are completely free of THC, the psychoactive chemical found in cannabis. Anything containing THC above an extremely low threshold are classified as narcotics, and possession or transfer of CBD products containing THC is punishable by as much as seven years in prison.
Japan’s drug laws have ensnared other corporate executives before.
Last October, Japanese medical devices maker Olympus Corp. pushed out former CEO Stefan Kaufmann after investigating an allegation he purchased illegal drugs. The exit of the German native stunned the market, and he was later found guilty of receiving illegal drugs.
In 2015, Julie Hamp, then a Toyota Motor Corp. media adviser, resigned after her arrest over import of pain medication into Japan without approval. However, she was let go after prosecutors didn’t bring any charges against her and Hamp rejoined the company in 2022.
In December, Suntory replaced Niinami by promoting Torii as president, in a move that saw the Japanese whiskey maker’s reins being handed back to the founding family. Niinami stayed as as CEO and chairman.
Suntory had hired Harvard-educated Niinami in 2014, making him the first executive outside the founding family. He helmed the company’s integration with Beam Inc., which it bought for $16 billion. Before joining Suntory, Niinami headed Japanese convenience store chain Lawson Inc. for 12 years.
“The supplements that were purchased were not products of the company,” Suntory said in the statement.
