Nova Corp President Nozomu Sahashi on Thursday refused to resign from the top post at the largest English-language school operator in Japan over a scandal involving exaggerated advertisements. His refusal came in response to a call for his resignation from Nova shareholders who asked him at their annual meeting to resign to take responsibility for the scandal, which has led to a government order partially suspending Nova’s business operations. “If I resign, the company will collapse,” Sahashi told the meeting in Osaka.
Sahashi apologized for causing the disciplinary action by the government and said Nova has created a management reform committee to investigate the scandal and consider how best to avoid scandals in the future. The committee, consisting of four experts on corporate compliance, will compile an interim report by the end of July and a final one by the end of August, he said.
