Toshiba apologised to shareholders Monday and said it would remove two directors after a probe found the Japanese conglomerate had sought government help to try and influence a boardroom vote.

Board chair Osamu Nagayama acknowledged a “lack of awareness on our part, including our dealings with METI,” referring to the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry.

But he did not address specific allegations in the independent probe published Thursday, which said Toshiba had sought METI’s help to prevent activist shareholders from exercising their proposal and voting rights at an annual general meeting in July 2020.

“We apologise to our shareholders and all the other stakeholders in view of their concerns and anxieties that they have expressed with respect to this,” Nagayama said.

Toshiba was once a symbol of Japan’s advanced technology and economic power but has lurched from scandals and losses before staging a recovery in recent years.

An off-schedule general meeting has been proposed to discuss the pair’s replacement, he added.

(AFP)