Suntory Faces Ripples in Food Business After Niinami’s Resignation; Incident Could Cause Confusion, Lost Consumer Trust

The Yomiuri Shimbun

14:05 JST, September 3, 2025

Suntory Holdings Ltd.’s announcement of the resignation of its chairman, Takeshi Niinami, has sent shockwaves through political, governmental and business circles.

Amid these ripples, the move is seen as an inevitable blow to the management of the company, whose primary business is food and beverages, including supplements.

“We expect to receive all sorts of criticisms from our consumers. I believe this will also impact our business performance,” Suntory President Nobuhiro Torii said, before bowing deeply, at an emergency press conference held in Tokyo on Tuesday.

Suntory’s sales in the health food and supplement sector reached ¥336.3 billion in the fiscal year ending in December 2024.

The company seems to be concerned that the top executive’s forced resignation over his alleged connection to illegal supplements could undermine consumer trust going forward.

Over the decade during which he served as president and chairman, Niinami led the company to significant growth. Its sales expanded by about ¥1 trillion, from ¥2.46 trillion in fiscal 2014 to ¥3.42 trillion in fiscal 2024 (based on International Financial Reporting Standards).

He was particularly focused on strengthening overseas operations, and he accelerated the integration of the U.S. company Beam Inc., which produces the Jim Beam and Maker’s Mark whiskey brands.

On Tuesday, Torii stressed that “there will be no changes to our management strategy.” Yet there is still the possibility of a certain amount of confusion.

For four consecutive generations since its foundation, Suntory’s top executives have come from its founding family. Niinami — who was chairman of Lawson Inc. when he became president in 2014 — was an exception to this rule.

Even after Torii, a member of the founding family, took over as president this March, Niinami continued to lead the company’s overseas operations as a chairman with representative authority. He also supported Torii, and the two of them worked in tandem to lead the company.

Nobutada Saji, the chairman who appointed Niinami as president, released a statement saying: “It is truly regrettable. That’s all there is to it.” The company plans to move from a two-person to a one-person chairmanship structure, under which Saji will retain his post but Niinami will not be replaced.

The ripple effects of the resignation have also spread to political, governmental and business circles, including the Japan Association of Corporate Executives (Keizai Doyukai).

Niinami has served as the representative director of the association since April 2023, with his term set to run until April 2027.

Japan Productivity Center Chairman Yoshimitsu Kobayashi, who served as the representative director of the association two terms before Niinami, told The Yomiuri Shimbun on Tuesday: “He carried a heavy responsibility. It’s hard to believe this all of a sudden.”

Niinami also serves as a private sector member of the Council on Economic and Fiscal Policy and the Council of New Form of Capitalism Realization, two government advisory councils both chaired by Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.

He has advocated for the importance of wage increases and capital investment as means to achieve economic growth and has also been an active voice for social security reform.

A Cabinet Office official, who serves as the secretariat for the economic and fiscal council, said, “[Niinami] had a strong presence and delivered powerful messages.”