President Hayashi and Chairman Katsuno to resign over Chubu Electric Power's Hamaoka nuclear power plant data fraud issue

It has been revealed that President Kingo Hayashi and Chairman Satoshi Katsuno are planning to resign over the issue of Chubu Electric Power's improper manipulation of data during a review for the restart of Units 3 and 4 of the Hamaoka Nuclear Power Plant (Shizuoka Prefecture). He is expected to take responsibility for a series of problems. This was revealed by a person involved.

Regarding the data fraud issue, President Hayashi and others will hold a press conference on the 14th to explain the contents of the investigation committee's report by an outside lawyer and future policies. He is also expected to mention progress and retreat. Director Minoru Yasui has been named as Hayashi's successor.

The data fraud issue began in January when it was discovered that Chubu Electric Power had fraudulently manipulated data on the ``standard seismic ground motion'' of the largest earthquake, which is the basis for the seismic design of nuclear power plants. The issue was raised several times within the company, but nothing was changed, and the matter came to light when information was provided to the Nuclear Regulation Authority.

According to people familiar with the matter, the report to be released at the beginning of next week does not appear to mention any facts that would suggest direct involvement of management. However, it appears that the company has determined that top management cannot be exempted from responsibility as governance (corporate governance) failures have occurred, with fraud continuing for many years.

Chairman Katsuno mainly worked in the engineering field...