Fujitsu Chair Resigns Over 'Woman-Related' Conduct
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- Hidenori Furuta stepped down as Fujitsu chair effective June 16 after the board became aware of 'woman-related inappropriate conduct,' with the company withdrawing his non-executive director candidacy ahead of its annual shareholders' meeting
- Fujitsu supplied the faulty Horizon software to the UK Post Office, leading to 900 wrongful convictions for theft and false accounting, and the company is now negotiating a settlement with the UK government over the £1.5bn compensation bill it has not yet contributed to
- Fujitsu admitted it knew since the 1990s that the Horizon system was faulty, and the system is being replaced by Accenture and OneView Commerce under new contracts for a new Post Office accounting system
- Furuta was elevated to chair in 2024 after serving as Fujitsu's COO, executive vice-president, and chief technology officer, and recently joined the Japan-EU Business Round Table in Brussels
- Furuta's departure follows a pattern of Japanese executives losing jobs over inappropriate conduct toward women, including Honda executive vice-president Shinji Aoyama (resigned mid-2024) and Eneos president Takeshi Saito (dismissed 2023)
Why it matters: Fujitsu is simultaneously fighting UK liability for the Post Office Horizon scandal, where it has not paid into the £1.5bn taxpayer-funded compensation bill, and is being positioned as a leading player in Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi's AI push to reduce Japan's reliance on the US — a leadership vacuum over personal-conduct issues lands at exactly the wrong moment for a company already under governance pressure.
