Nissan shareholders reject the reappointment of the director who previously led merger negotiations with Honda

Golden Ten Data reported on June 24, citing the Financial Times, that Nissan shareholders have rejected the reappointment of senior independent director Motoo Nagai, who played a key role in pushing for a Nissan-Honda merger. Nissan stated on Tuesday that Motoo Nagai did not receive the required majority of over 50% of votes for reappointment. According to sources, Renault, which holds 15% of Nissan’s voting rights, abstained from voting on both Motoo Nagai and another candidate, Junichi Shinbo, due to their connections to Nissan’s largest creditor, Mizuho Bank. Motoo Nagai was a major supporter of the brief merger talks between Nissan and Honda at the end of 2024. The two parties originally planned to create a Japanese carmaker of a scale comparable to Toyota, aiming to better compete in the market. The deal was initially presented as an “equal merger,” but collapsed in less than three months as Honda sought greater control and aimed to make Nissan its subsidiary. Afterwards, Honda itself fell into its biggest crisis in history. Due to strategic misjudgments in electric vehicles, the company posted its first annual loss since its listing in the 1950s. Proxy advisory firms Institutional Shareholder Services and Glass Lewis had previously recommended that shareholders oppose Motoo Nagai’s reappointment, citing concerns over his independence.