Hiroaki Nakanishi, chairman of the Keidanren business group (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Hiroaki Nakanishi, the head of Japan’s most powerful business lobby, Keidanren (Japan Business Federation), will step down on June 1 over suspicions that lymphoma has resurfaced in his body, sources said.
Nakanishi, 75, who is also chairman of Hitachi Ltd., will be the first chairman to resign from the post at Keidanren before his term expires since 2002, when the former Keidanren and Nikkeiren (Japan Federation of Employers’ Associations) merged.
Nakanishi has been hospitalized for lymphoma treatments for nearly a year. He told Keidanren that he will resign as chairman, sources said.