Nihon University Recommends President, Vice President Resign

Jiji Press

10:28 JST, November 23, 2023

Tokyo (Jiji Press)—The board of Nihon University Wednesday recommended that President Takeo Sakai and Vice President Yasuhiro Sawada step down over a drug scandal involving members of the Japanese university’s American football team, people familiar with the matter said.

The board gave Sakai and Sawada until Monday to respond to the nonbinding recommendation. Mariko Hayashi, chair of the university’s Board of Trustees, agreed to a 50 pct pay cut.

In the scandal, there was a 12-day gap between when Sawada found plant fragments and other suspicious items at the team dormitory and when the university contacted police.

A report issued last month by an independent investigation committee said the gap is the biggest cause of the loss of public trust in the university, blaming Sawada, Sakai and Hayashi for its poor governance.

The university set up a panel last week to discuss governance improvement measures and plans to report the outcome to the education ministry as early as this month.