Nidec shares sink to a decade low after a panel finds founder Nagamori and eight others liable over improper accounting

Nidec shares fell to their lowest level since 2016 on Monday after an outside committee concluded that founder Shigenobu Nagamori, the motor maker's four other former presidents and four more current and former executives are liable for damages over years of improper accounting. Nidec said it will consider suing them.

Who the committee named

Nidec set up the Executive Responsibility Investigation Committee in March to examine whether current and former directors, auditors and vice presidents bear legal liability for the improper accounting found across the group. The panel, chaired by lawyer Shin Kikuchi, looked at people who held those posts between fiscal 2020 and the end of June 2025. It delivered its report on Friday, Oct. 16, and Nidec disclosed the conclusions the same day.

Nine people were found liable. Nagamori, Hiroshi Kobe, Akira Sato, Hiroyuki Yoshimoto, Jun Seki and Mitsuya Kishida were found liable for damages under Article 423, paragraph 1 of Japan's Companies Act, as were Kazuya Murakami and Hiroyuki Ochiai. A former chief financial officer who held the post from May 2022 to March 2026 was found liable under the Civil Code or Nidec's rules for vice presidents. The committee said the damages each person owes should depend on how much each contributed.

Japanese press reports filled in the roles. Nagamori, Kobe, Yoshimoto, Seki and Kishida are the company's five former presidents, so every one of them, from the founder to Kishida, is on the list. Kobe was a founding member, and Kishida resigned as president and chief executive on Sept. 29. Sato and Ochiai were directors, and Murakami is currently the company's chief legal officer.

Nidec said the committee's work, the earlier third-party investigation and its own audit and supervisory committee's audit led it to recognize that several directors and others violated laws and regulations in carrying out their duties. It will consider legal action, including damages claims, "and respond swiftly." The finding is the committee's assessment; no court has ruled, and the company has not yet said whom it will sue or for how much.

The market's verdict

Monday was the first full trading day since the findings were disclosed, and the shares extended their losses. By 10:40 a.m. in Tokyo they had dropped 51 yen, or 2.83%, from Friday's close to 1,749 yen, their lowest level since 2016, Nikkei reported. Bloomberg also described the shares as at a decade low.

How Nidec got here

The accounting problems came to light in September 2025, when Nidec set up a third-party committee. Its reports, delivered on Feb. 27 and April 17 this year, described numerous cases of improper accounting at operating sites across the group carried out with the involvement or knowledge of management, including booking revenue early, understating provisions, overstating inventories, avoiding impairment charges and capitalizing expenses. They also found cases in which management or accounting staff gave the auditor misleading information, concealed documents or supplied altered records. That committee traced the misconduct to excessive pressure for results that started with Nagamori. It found no evidence that he ordered or led the improper accounting, but concluded that he was the person most to blame. Nagamori resigned as chairman emeritus earlier this year.

The cleanup has been costly. The ripple effects of correcting past results led Nidec to book 288 billion yen in impairment losses across the five years through March 2025. On Sept. 30 its auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers Japan, declined to give an opinion on the financial statements for the year ended March 31, 2026, saying it could not obtain sufficient audit evidence, and issued a disclaimer on the company's internal controls as well. A day earlier, Kishida stepped down after a company review found he had, on certain occasions, made statements or engaged in conduct related to financial reporting that "could not necessarily be regarded as appropriate," and chief technology officer Michio Kaida became president and chief executive.

Litigation is already under way. On Sept. 9 an individual shareholder filed a derivative suit in Kyoto District Court against Nagamori and Kobe, asking that they pay the company 28.73 billion yen over share buybacks in 2022 and 2023 and a December 2022 interim dividend that the shareholder says exceeded the amounts Nidec could legally distribute. Nidec said it would decide how to respond to that case based on the liability committee's findings. Nidec has also received demands from multiple shareholders that it sue Nagamori and others for damages.

Pressure from Oasis

The finding lands as activist investor Oasis Management pushes Nidec to consider going private. On Oct. 7 Oasis called on Nidec to consider taking itself private and to invite non-binding initial proposals from bidders such as private equity funds. A filing on Oct. 15 showed Oasis had raised its stake to 9% from 7.97%, about 107.36 million shares. Oasis says that makes it the largest shareholder. Nagamori held 8.3% directly as of the end of March, although his effective stake tops 10% once his asset-management company and other holdings are counted. Oasis founder Seth Fischer said the business and its cash flow remain strong and that Nidec should start seeking bids while it continues to repair its accounts.

What comes next

Nidec plans to publish a partially redacted version of the report around Tuesday, Oct. 20, after removing trade secrets and personal information. That document should show how the committee weighed each person's conduct. Kaida's team must also win back its auditor's approval and convince the Tokyo Stock Exchange that internal controls have been fixed, while restructuring loss-making businesses and responding to activist pressure.