U.S. Fund Urges Fuji Execs to Resign over Nakai Scandal

Tokyo, April 3 (Jiji Press)--U.S. investment firm Dalton Investments, a major shareholder in Fuji Media Holdings Inc., said Thursday that it has demanded the resignation of executives at the Japanese media group over a sex scandal involving former TV personality Masahiro Nakai.

In a letter submitted to Fuji Media on Tuesday, Dalton Investments said that Fuji Media President Osamu Kanemitsu and Executive Vice President Kenji Shimizu, who is also president of Fuji Television Network Inc., as well as three outside directors, bear heavy management responsibility for the scandal.

The move came after a third-party panel set up by Fuji Media released a report Monday confirming a sexual assault by Nakai against a then Fuji TV employee.

Dalton Investments, known as an activist investor, has a stake of more then 7 pct in Fuji Media. It said that the five Fuji Media executives had been appointed by group heavyweight Hisashi Hieda and criticized the group’s board as an old boys club.

The U.S. firm condemned the five for lacking the awareness to make corporate governance work, and argued that it could not understand why they could remain on the management team.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]