is a director of Fuji Oil Company, and was the president and chief executive officer of Japanese electric utility

Tokyo Electric Power Company is a Japanese electric utility holding company servicing Japan's Kantō region, Yamanashi Prefecture, and the eastern portion of Shizuoka Prefecture. This area includes Tokyo. Its headquarters are located in Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo, an ...

(Tepco) from 2008 to 2011. He was also a vice-chairman of

Keidanren The is an economic organization founded in May 2002 by amalgamation of Keidanren (, Japan Federation of Economic Organizations, established 1946; name sometimes used alone as abbreviation for whole organization) and Nikkeiren (, Japan Federatio ...

, the employers' federation of the companies of Japan, until he stepped down after the

Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster The Fukushima nuclear accident was a major nuclear accident at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant in Ōkuma, Fukushima, Japan, which began on 11 March 2011. The cause of the accident was the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, which r ...

. On July 25, 2012, he became an outside director of

Fuji Oil Fuji may refer to: Places China * Fuji, Xiangcheng City (付集镇), town in Xiangcheng City, Henan Japan * Mount Fuji, the tallest mountain in Japan * Fuji River * Fuji, Saga, town in Saga Prefecture * Fuji, Shizuoka, city in Shizuoka Prefectu ...

Biography

Shimizu was born on June 23, 1944, in

Kanagawa Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the List of Japanese prefectures by population, second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-dens ...

, and graduated from

Keio University , abbreviated as or , is a private university, private research university located in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. It was originally established as a school for Rangaku, Western studies in 1858 in Edo. It was granted university status in 1920, becomi ...

in 1968. He was placed in charge of general affairs for

Fukushima Daini Nuclear Power Plant The is a nuclear power plant located on a site in the town of Naraha and Tomioka in the Futaba District of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) runs the plant. After the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, ...

in 1983. He was appointed president of Tepco in June 2008.

President of Tepco

Before his presidency, an earthquake in Niigata in 2007 caused fire and radioactivity releases at the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa nuclear plant, forcing the plant to shut down. As a cost cutter, he was praised for improving profitability of the company. On January 18, 2011, Shimizu attended the annual meeting of

World Economic Forum The World Economic Forum (WEF) is an international non-governmental organization, international advocacy non-governmental organization and think tank, based in Cologny, Canton of Geneva, Switzerland. It was founded on 24 January 1971 by German ...

, stating said that his company sought to provide a “stable supply of electricity and environmental protection”.

Exposure of misconduct as a president of TEPCO

Based on the experience of the

2004 Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami On 26 December 2004, at 07:58:53 local time ( UTC+7), a major earthquake with a magnitude of 9.2–9.3 struck with an epicentre off the west coast of Aceh in northern Sumatra, Indonesia. The undersea megathrust earthquake, known in the sci ...

, MISA (Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency) of the Ministry of Economy, METI(Trade and Industry) officially issued a heads-up in 2006, insisting that there was a high risk of electric power loss if an unexpected tsunami hit the nuclear power plant. Nevertheless, the upper management, led by

TEPCO is a Japanese electric utility holding company servicing Japan's Kantō region, Yamanashi Prefecture, and the eastern portion of Shizuoka Prefecture. This area includes Tokyo. Its headquarters are located in Uchisaiwaicho, Chiyoda, Tokyo, and ...

President Masataka Shimizu, ignored this warning.
Therefore, Tsunehisa Katsumata, a current chair man of TEPCO, admitted that the

was also a kind of man-made disaster caused by the incompetence of Masataka Shimizu. In July 2022, a court in Tokyo found Masataka Shimizu and four other TEPCO executives liable for ¥13 trillion of damages in a lawsuit filed by 48 TEPCO shareholders. It is not expected that the executives will have the ability to pay this full amount, but will pay as much as their assets allow. A sixth executive was found to not be liable.

After the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster

Following the March 2011

, Shimizu remained inside the general headquarters for two weeks beginning on March 13, 2011, two days after the

2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami On 11 March 2011, at 14:46:24 Japan Standard Time, JST (05:46:24 UTC), a 9.0–9.1 Submarine earthquake, undersea megathrust earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean, east of the Oshika Peninsula of the Tōhoku region. It lasted approx ...

. Because of his disappearance, it was rumored that Shimizu had fled or committed suicide. An April 7, Shimizu resumed work after a sick leave due to

overwork Overwork, also known as excessive work or work overload, is an occupational condition characterized by working excessively, frequently at the expense of the worker's physical and mental health. It includes working beyond one's capacity, leading t ...

. On May 20, Shimizu resigned and was replaced by Toshio Nishizawa, general ex-director of the group Tepco. On March 7, 2012, before the anniversary of the disaster, Tepco announced that Chairman Katsumata Tsunehisa would attend the memorial ceremony. However, they refused to release the schedule of Shimizu. On June 25, 2012, Shimizu became an outside director of Fuji Oil Company, a subsidiary of

AOC Holdings () is a large Japanese oil and natural gas company based in Tokyo, Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of ...

. On October 1, 2013, AOC Holdings absorbed Fuji Oil and subsequently renamed Fuji Oil Company, Ltd. Since then Shimizu has been a director of the new Fuji Oil Company. Tepco is the largest shareholder of Fuji Oil Company (), owning 8.74% of the stock.Annual Reports Fiscal Year 2016(Apr.1, 2015 - Mar.31, 2016)
Fuji Oil Company, Ltd.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Shimizu, Masataka 1944 births Living people Japanese chief executives Japanese corporate directors Keio University alumni Tokyo Electric Power Company people People from Kanagawa Prefecture