CLAIMS TO FAME
- Controlling shareholder of group parent Okada Holdings Ltd
- Son of company founder Kazuo Okada
It may well be that the September appointment of Tomohiro Okada as Representative Director and President of Japan’s Universal Entertainment Corp brings full circle a family saga dating back years.
Okada, who owns a controlling 53.27% stake in the group’s ultimate parent Okada Holdings Ltd, was called in to take a more hands-on role after his predecessor, Jun Fujimoto, was found by the Tokyo High Court to have breached his fiducial duty by causing Universal to transfer US$43.5 million to an external source without reasonable necessity and without following internal decision-making procedures.
Ironically, Fujimoto had been appointed to head Universal in 2017 after the company’s founder and the father of Tomohiro, Kazuo Okada, was also removed amid allegations he had defrauded Universal on multiple occasions. The senior Okada’s ouster was supported by his estranged wife Takako – a minority shareholder in Okada Holdings – but most importantly by Tomohiro in a high-profile power move that highlighted the full extent of the family’s fallout.
Since being voted in as a director and then as Representative Director and President in September, Tomohiro has vowed to stamp out such misconduct by Universal’s executive team, starting with the establishment of a Governance Committee as his first act in charge.
Universal remains a leading supplier of pachinko and pachislot machines in Japan, with the segment recording sales of US$142 million and operating profit of US$25.6 million in the first half of 2024. It is also the parent company of Tiger Resort, Leisure and Entertainment Inc, operator of the Okada Manila integrated resort in the Philippines, which posted net sales of US$284 million and operating profit of US$22.4 million in 1H24.
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