Mitsuya Kishida, NIDEC president and CEO 2024–2026

analysisNIDEC's annual securities report for the year ended 31 March 2025 records that Mitsuya Kishida joined Sony in 1983, was president of Sony Mobile Communications from April 2018 and joined NIDEC in January 2022 as senior vice president; it lists him as representative director from June 2024 and additionally chief strategy officer from April 2025. A NIDEC notice of 17 June 2022 announced that from 1 July 2022 he would be promoted to first senior vice president as deputy head of the automotive business unit in charge of its second automotive division, Europe CEO and head of the Europe and Americas business, while continuing as chief executive officer of Nidec Motors & Actuators (Germany) and of Nidec GPM and as president of the Spanish and Polish Nidec Motors & Actuators companies. ^{1 2 3}

analysisFrom September 2022 Kishida headed the automotive business unit, a NIDEC notice of 13 March 2023 shows, and from 1 April 2023 he was one of five executive vice presidents appointed by an extraordinary board meeting on 10 March 2023. That notice said the president from April 2024 would be chosen from the five and serve four years and then four years as chairman, with founder Shigenobu Nagamori to become director and group representative and Hiroshi Kobe representative director, chairman and CEO; the arrangement adopted from 1 April 2024 differed, with Kobe becoming director and chairman and Nagamori representative director and Global Group Representative. Kishida also became chairman of Nidec Powertrain Systems in September 2023, of Nidec Elesys (which the annual securities report describes as now Nidec Mobility) from September 2023 and of Nidec Mobility in October 2023, and NIDEC's notice of 14 February 2024 lists him as vice-chairman of Guangzhou Nidec Auto Drive System. ^{1 2 4}

analysisA voluntary Nomination Committee, set up in November 2022 on Nagamori's own initiative mainly to select his successor and chaired by an outside director, selected Kishida in 2024 from the five executive vice presidents, according to the Third-Party Committee's report; an outside director member said Nagamori appeared to deliberately avoid having a say, although the committee basically nominated candidates from lists presented by executives including Nagamori. The report also states that Nagamori sat on that committee and on the Remuneration Committee until May 2025; NIDEC's annual securities report for the year ended 31 March 2026 gives 20 June 2025 as the date he left the compensation committee. ^{1 2}

analysisUnder NIDEC's notice of 14 February 2024, Kishida moved on 1 April 2024 from executive vice president and head of the automotive business unit to president and chief executive officer, while Nagamori became representative director and Global Group Representative and Kobe director and chairman, a title distinct from chairing the board; the committee's report renders these titles as founder and executive chairman and chairman. From fiscal 2024 (year ended 31 March 2025), the committee's report states, Kishida formulated the performance targets as the person with ultimate responsibility, and measures were taken so that Nagamori did not issue instructions to raise them. ^{3 1}

analysisKishida's approval authority as president was limited, the committee's report states. Until August 2025 Nagamori remained the decision-maker for significant matters requiring approval, including executive appointments and disposals of fixed assets above set thresholds; his authority was transferred to Kishida in August 2025, with certain domestic group-company pay and personnel matters left with Nagamori until September 2025. From April 2024 Nagamori, Kobe and Kishida, the top three executives on the business side, met weekly on Mondays as the 'NKK Meeting', a deliberative body on business progress, management issues and risk responses. The committee found that Nagamori frequently pressed executives, including presidents Jun Seki and Kishida, while dangling his authority over executive appointments, and that executives were repeatedly demoted or forced to leave for failing to meet targets; it described this as management practice and found no facts that Nagamori instructed or directed the improper accounting. Nagamori wrote that he 'consistently developed people by reprimanding them', and in a May 2023 e-mail to executives acknowledged that his management style had created an atmosphere in which unfavourable reports were difficult to present. ¹

analysisThe outside committee on quality misconduct described business planning in these years. Business units' plans often fell below headquarters guidelines; the Performance Management Department pressed the units to add to their figures and submitted the raised plans to Nagamori, who often rejected them, at times forcing still higher plans, until he stopped giving such instructions for fiscal 2024 onward after Kishida became CEO on 1 April 2024. For fiscal 2024 and 2025 the units' combined operating-profit answers of 2,416 and 3,443 (in units of ¥100 million) faced group guidelines of 2,800 and 4,200, derived backward from investor consensus, debt repayment through fiscal 2025 and the announced margin target; the units' objections were not sufficiently reflected and the guidelines were not revised. The quality committee said this was consistent with the Third-Party Committee's accounting report, under which a 10% operating margin was long treated as mandatory. Its description concerns business-plan practice, not an instruction to commit misconduct. ⁴

analysisIn fiscal 2024 (year ended 31 March 2025), the committee's interim report of 27 February 2026 found, Kishida and the headquarters CFO repeatedly explained to Nagamori the need for structural reforms in the fourth quarter, but Nagamori insisted that operating profit of ¥240 billion was essential and refused to approve them, so they were not carried out. The committee found no facts indicating that Kishida instructed, directed or condoned the improper accounting. It was appointed by the company, worked with voluntary cooperation and without compulsory powers, and did not aim to establish the liability of individuals; its findings are not a court or regulatory decision. ¹

analysisIn March 2025 Kishida, the CFO, the chief performance officer and others decided to dispose of 'legacy liabilities' by recognising about ¥49.2 billion of group-wide structural reform expenses, including about ¥25.8 billion of one-time loss risks in the AMEC Organic Business. When Kishida proposed this at the NKK meeting on 24 March 2025, Nagamori argued for 'self-funding' and did not approve; the minutes record him saying that operating profit 'must not fall below 240 billion yen even by 1 yen this fiscal year'. From the minutes and interviews the committee concluded that, although Kishida repeatedly explained the need, liabilities which should have been disposed of in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2024 (January–March 2025) were therefore not disposed of, without Kishida being aware of it; this is the committee's conclusion, not a court decision. ¹

analysisOne of the items concerned was a set of overdue receivables at Nidec Automotive Motor Americas (NAMA). In August 2024, at Kishida's instruction, the headquarters deputy CFO inspected NAMA's Mexico plant and reported to Kishida, Hiroshi Kobe and the headquarters CFO overdue receivables of US$32.1 million, of which US$16.3 million was uncollectible. After Nagamori rejected separate structural reform expenses, a report to the NKK meeting of 31 March 2025 cut fiscal 2024 legacy-liability disposals to ¥3.5 billion, covered by ¥3.7 billion of 'recovery measures' such as land sales, to reach full-year operating profit of ¥240 billion; NAMA's receivables were excluded and no allowance was recorded in fiscal 2024 or fiscal 2025. Being informed of the receivables is not a finding of involvement, and the committee found no facts that Kishida instructed, directed or condoned the improper accounting. The headquarters CFO told the committee that reaching ¥240 billion was the top priority, so the scope was narrowed and the receivables deferred; Kishida said he had been told they were difficult to collect but had not paid particular attention to them given other AMEC Organic issues such as quality, and did not expect liabilities that should be disposed of to be left undisposed. ^{1 2}

analysisOverall, the committee found no facts indicating that Kishida instructed, directed or condoned the improper accounting, and considered that in fiscal 2024 he made reasonable efforts to rehabilitate NIDEC's finances by repeatedly recommending structural reforms that excluded the cost of disposing of 'legacy liabilities' from unit evaluations; he should nonetheless, it said, have examined those liabilities personally and recommended disposing of any that required it, even against Nagamori's intentions. This was a view, not a finding of misconduct, in an investigation that did not seek to establish individual liability, and the committee found his concerns understandable to some extent because earlier successor candidates Hiroyuki Yoshimoto and Jun Seki had been forced to leave after being held responsible for deteriorating performance. Kishida told it that he left accounting decisions to experts such as the headquarters CFO while aware of the NAMA receivables risk, that he needed to gain Nagamori's trust in his first year as president, and that he should have scrutinised the legacy liabilities, including NAMA's receivables, himself and discussed them frankly and openly with Nagamori. He stayed on as president, according to a press report forgoing his monthly pay from March 2026, until NIDEC announced on 29 September 2026 that he had resigned after it confirmed statements or conduct of his in relation to financial reporting that could not necessarily be regarded as appropriate; on 1 October its representatives said the board had examined this separately from the committee's evaluation and that he could be held legally liable depending on the outcome of the Executive Responsibility Investigation Committee's investigation. ^{1 3 4 5 6}

analysisNIDEC announced on 3 March 2026 that from March 2026 its representative director and president would give up 100% of monthly base compensation until the company submitted its Written Confirmation of Internal Management System to the Tokyo Stock Exchange, scheduled by the end of October 2026; its annual securities report describes this as a voluntary return of compensation. According to the committee's report Kishida chaired the board from 19 December 2025, when the founder's chairmanship ended, and in June 2026 Soichiro Sakuma, a former representative director and executive vice president of Nippon Steel & Sumitomo Metal, became outside director and chair of the board under a move to select the chair from among independent outside directors. NIDEC's annual securities report for the year ended 31 March 2026 records that Kishida left the nomination committee on 26 March 2026 so that it would consist only of outside directors, and left the compensation committee on 18 June 2026. ^{1 2 3 4}

analysisKishida was named in shareholders' moves against officers while still president. A Japanese business magazine reported on 31 July 2026 that an Osaka-based shareholders' rights lawyers group, moving to pursue founder Nagamori's liability, had formally decided to ask NIDEC to bring a damages suit against nine former directors, naming Kishida among them although he was then still NIDEC's president, and put NIDEC's loss at no less than ¥5 billion. An online news report of 5 August 2026 said a shareholder had sent NIDEC a written demand to sue nine current and former officers, including Nagamori and Kishida, for damages totalling ¥5 billion, the losses claimed including damage to the company's reputation and the cost of the Third-Party Committee. These are allegations and pre-suit steps, not findings of liability: the demand letter itself is not in the record, NIDEC's own notices of shareholder demands name no directors and state no amounts, and the record does not show which, if any, of the demands NIDEC disclosed in August 2026 came from the lawyers group. ^{5 6}

analysisOn 28 September 2026, responding to an online business-news report that it had decided to dismiss its representative director and president and to book impairment of around ¥1 trillion, NIDEC stated that it was considering changes of officers and large-scale impairment but had not decided anything. The next day it announced that Kishida had resigned as representative director, president and chief executive officer effective 29 September 2026, and that an extraordinary board meeting the same day had appointed Michio Kaida, previously first senior vice president and chief technology officer, as president and chief executive officer, and Masayuki Minai, director and senior vice president, as representative director. Kaida's appointment as representative director, president and CEO was to be approved at an extraordinary general meeting of shareholders and the board meeting held immediately after it. ^{1 2 3}

analysisNIDEC's notice of 29 September 2026 states that, while preparing the results for the year ended 31 March 2026 and correcting prior years' results, the company re-evaluated the conduct of officers and employees under its former management structure and confirmed that Kishida had, on certain occasions, made statements or engaged in conduct in relation to financial reporting that could not necessarily be regarded as appropriate. It credited him with devoting himself sincerely to the recovery since the Third-Party Committee was set up in 2025, but said that, with a higher standard of ethical conduct expected under the new governance structure, the board discussed the management structure, after which Kishida expressed his intention to resign and the board accepted; Kaida succeeded him. This is NIDEC's own assessment, not a finding of the committee, a court or a regulator; the notice does not describe the statements or conduct, and NIDEC said former officers' legal responsibility would be judged on the results of the Executive Responsibility Investigation Committee. On 1 October 2026 PwC Japan's representative executive officer, Masataka Kubota, said Kishida was not included among the officers referred to in the basis for the auditor's disclaimer of opinion, because the audit opinion was as of 30 September and Kishida had resigned on 29 September; Minai said NIDEC regarded the matter as unrelated to the reasons for the disclaimer. ^{4 5 2}

analysisPress reports give Kubota's answer as 'not included' to the question whether Kishida was among the officers whose false explanations to the auditor were cited as a reason for the disclaimer; the explanation that the opinion's date put Kishida outside its scope is recorded in a transcript of the conference published on a blogging platform, and the answer does not state whether Kishida gave false explanations to the auditor. Asked whether an audit opinion would be issued by the end-October 2026 deadline for NIDEC's written confirmation of its internal management system to the Tokyo Stock Exchange, Kubota said the auditor's responsibility was to obtain sufficient appropriate audit evidence and express an opinion, that NIDEC was preparing a structure allowing such evidence to be obtained and that PwC would strive to be in time; he added that a risk remained that persons with authority to make and enforce rules might bypass them. ^{4 6 5}

analysisBoard chair Soichiro Sakuma gave the board's account at the same press conference. In mid-September, he said, the board received a first, approximate report of impairment losses exceeding ¥600 billion for the fiscal year ended March 2026, and directors were informed of Kishida's inappropriate statements and conduct regarding financial reporting, which Sakuma described as communications with persons within the group about financial reporting on more than one occasion. The board discussed the matter on 25 September 2026, heard Kishida's views and, after he left the meeting as an interested party, agreed unanimously that the president should be changed; Kishida then expressed his intention to resign and submitted his resignation on 29 September. Sakuma said the board judged the conduct against NIDEC's raised ethical standards, not in terms of legal responsibility. Representative director Masayuki Minai declined to give specifics, saying the Executive Responsibility Investigation Committee was assessing the conduct, including legal responsibility. Sakuma's account was reported by the press and recorded in a transcript published by a third party. ^{5 4}

analysisAccording to a press report of 2 October 2026, Sakuma also said that Kishida was subject to the Executive Responsibility Investigation Committee's investigation and could, depending on the outcome, be held legally liable; a press report of 21 August 2026 had listed Kishida and Nagamori among those under investigation by that committee, which covers directors, auditors and executive officers who served between fiscal 2020 and the end of June 2025. Being within its scope is not a finding of liability or of participation in the irregularities, and the committee had not reported as of the record. ^{7 4}

analysisHis successor, Michio Kaida, joined Lead Electronics (later Nidec-Read, now Nidec Advance Technology) in April 1979, was its representative director and president from April 2003 and later its chairman, and became NIDEC's first senior vice president and chief technology officer in April 2024. NIDEC's notice of 29 September 2026 states that the board approved him after deliberation by the nomination committee, composed solely of independent outside directors, taking into account his contribution as vice chairperson of the Nidec Corporate Reform Committee, set up in October 2025; as part of succession planning the committee had candidates assessed by an independent third-party organisation and interviewed them. Sakuma said that, because Kishida was a subject of the Executive Responsibility Investigation Committee's inquiry, the board had on 5 August 2026 asked the nomination committee to consider succession planning and officer appointments, including an emergency response; that referral is described in his remarks as reported by the press and in a third-party transcript, not in the notice. ^{2 8 5 4 9}