Photo/Illutration Tokyo Metro Chairman Masaru Honda speaks with reporters on March 30. (Sotaro Hata)

A former top transport ministry official dropped the names of two major shareholders of Airport Facilities Co. in pushing his choice for the next president of the company.

According to several sources and company documents, when Masaru Honda met on Dec. 13 with Airport Facilities executives, he said he had already obtained the understanding of Japan Airlines Co. and ANA Holdings Inc. for his suggested new president.

Honda, 69, was once administrative vice minister in the transport ministry and is now chairman of Tokyo Metro Co., the subway operator.

Toshiaki Norita, Airport Facilities president, and Kenya Inada, company chairman, originally worked for Japan Airlines and ANA Holdings, respectively.

Honda pushed Katsuhiro Yamaguchi as the next Airport Facilities president when personnel decisions are made in June. Yamaguchi, 63, is now an executive vice president at Airport Facilities, but he also once worked at the transport ministry.

In his meeting with Norita and Inada, Honda said he had already met with Yuji Akasaka, Japan Airlines president, and Shinya Katanozaka, chairman of ANA Holdings.

According to sources, Honda told Norita and Inada, “I obtained understanding for having a former transport ministry official named as company president” of Airport Facilities.

But Akasaka and Katanozaka had different takes about meeting with Honda.

Akasaka only said that he had met Honda on a number of occasions in the past.

While Katanozaka said he had been visited by Honda, he added about personnel matters at Airport Facilities: “It is unthinkable that we would talk about it. I have no authority over such matters. It is discourteous to say an understanding was obtained.”

Japan Airlines and ANA Holdings each have a 21.02-percent stake in Airport Facilities, a listed company.

Norita met with reporters on March 30 and said he was incensed that Honda even suggested who should become the next company president.

“I believe he should not have done what he did within the current framework of corporate governance,” Norita said.

He added that he was surprised that Honda even brought up the matter since decisions about the next company president would normally have to go through a nominating committee at the company.

Wataru Tanaka, a professor of corporate law at the University of Tokyo, said having Honda bring up the top executives of the main shareholders could only be interpreted as “pressure and intervention to distort governance at a listed company.”

(This article was written by Sotaro Hata, Shuhei Shibata and Yoshitaka Ito, a senior staff writer.)

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