Shareholders of troubled supermarket chain Daiei Inc. approved the appointment of 17 new board members at an extraordinary meeting Tuesday, including Kunio Takagi, a former executive director of Recruit Co.
The appointments effectively remove Daiei group founder Isao Nakauchi from the board, ending over 40 years of direct leadership by the Nakauchi family.
At a board meeting held immediately after the shareholders' gathering, Takagi was formally elected president. Jiro Amagai, a former bureaucrat of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, was elected chairman. Takashi Hirayama, a former director at Niko Niko Do Co., was elected vice president.
Nakauchi himself stepped up to the podium toward the end of the session and apologized for Daiei's lackluster operations. "(From now on), I would like to watch over Daiei and voice my opinions as a shareholder and a consumer," he said.