TOKYO (BLOOMBERG, REUTERS) - Japan's SoftBank Group Corp said Tadashi Yanai, founder and chief executive of Uniqlo parent Fast Retailing, will resign as independent board member after 18 years on the job.
Mr Yanai, Japan's richest man, will step down on Dec. 31, according to a SoftBank statement on Friday (Dec 27).
He is leaving the post to focus on running his own business, SoftBank spokeswoman Hiroe Kotera said. The founder of retail chain Uniqlo has served as a SoftBank board member since June 2001.
A longtime ally and sometime critic of SoftBank founder and CEO Masayoshi Son, the billionaire is one of only three external members of a board filled with SoftBank executives and heads of its portfolio companies.
The resignation comes at a time when SoftBank is battling with the fallout from the failed IPO of WeWork - which SoftBank is a major investor in - with Mr Son saying he misjudged co-founder Adam Neumann's character and pledging to strengthen corporate governance at the group's investments.
However, experts are critical of SoftBank's governance, saying it has few truly independent voices that can question Mr Son's judgement.
"They have low governance standards," said Nicholas Benes of The Board Director Training Institute of Japan, a non-profit focused on corporate governance training. "If they don't require higher standards of themselves, it might be hard to require them of investee companies," he said in an interview last month.
The 70-year-old Mr Yanai has been reported as a rare voice of dissent when it came to Mr Son's ambitious and risky acquisitions. The two men, whose respective companies both went public in the same month of 1994, have often engaged in jocular sparring at SoftBank annual shareholder meetings.
At the June meeting this year, Mr Son shared some predictions that were eye-popping even by the standards of the outspoken Japanese billionaire. The value of SoftBank's investment portfolio could grow 33-fold to 200 trillion yen (S$2.5 trillion) in 20 years, he said. The remarks drew laughs from directors while Mr Yanai feigned outrage, urging shareholders to look out for Mr Son "or he will go out of control."
"I always oppose Son in everything he does," Mr Yanai said at the gathering. "Dreams are all good, but nothing beats realistic management. Let's keep our feet firmly on the ground."
His successor has not been decided, a SoftBank spokeswoman said.
The move leaves SoftBank's board with only a handful of truly independent outside directors: Mitsui & Co.'s Chairman Masami Iijima and University of Tokyo professor Yutaka Matsuo, who joined in June. Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma is an external director, however Alibaba Group Holding counts SoftBank as its biggest shareholder. Mr Yasir Othman Al-Rumayyan, another board member, heads Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund, which is the biggest contributor to Son's $100 billion Vision Fund.
