Big Japanese Newspaper Fires Chairman

In a move highly unusual for Japan, the Sankei Shimbun, one of Japan’s five largest newspapers, dismissed its chairman, Hiroaki Shikanai, Tuesday on grounds that he was “unqualified” for his job.

Shigeaki Hazama, president of the newspaper, told a news conference that he and 22 other Sankei executives took the action to protect the company from becoming Shikanai’s “private property.”

Hazama declined to elaborate.

Shikanai, 43, son-in-law of the late Nobutaka Shikanai, who was chairman of the giant media conglomerate Fuji Sankei Group, was not immediately available for comment.

“Chairman Shikanai has no comment to make, at least for today,” said a secretary contacted by telephone. Shikanai, formerly an Industrial Bank of Japan employee, assumed the Sankei post in 1989.

The Fuji Sankei group, Japan’s largest media organization, drew international attention in 1989 when it invited former President Ronald Reagan and his wife, Nancy, to Japan on a high-profile visit that cost $7 million.

Reagan and the company declined to comment on reports that he was paid $2 million for his appearances on television and at charitable events.

Hazama said the decision to dismiss Shikanai was not unanimous, as many group decisions are here, but he refused to give the breakdown of the votes.

Hazama said Shikanai’s immediate reaction was to reject the board’s decision.

Hazama, saying a chairman of a newspaper has to honor public interest, argued, without elaborating, that Shikanai lacked that qualification. Hazama also suggested that the other boards of directors of the Fuji Sankei Group follow suit and dismiss Shikanai, who also chairs the Fuji Television Network Inc., the Nippon Broadcasting Corp. and the Fuji Sankei Management Conference.