More changes are afoot at Japan Inc.
Japan Tobacco Inc, the world’s third-largest tobacco company by sales volume, will for the first time install top management that aren’t former bureaucrats, the WSJ reports. The company, half-owned by the Japanese government, is hoping to become a more efficient company in order to compete with competitors including British American Tobacco PLC and Philip Morris International Inc. The government is also planning to cut its holding in the company, in part to raise funds for post-quake reconstruction.
Since 1985, at least one of the posts of president and chief executive has been held by a former finance ministry official. Japan Tobacco’s incoming chairman Hiroshi Kimura said, however, that there was no deliberate intention to not employ ex-bureaucrats in the post.
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