Toshiba Delists From Tokyo Bourse After 74 Years

There was a time when more than one of your TVs, computers, speaker systems, or other essential electronic goods would have been made by Toshiba.

For seven years, Toshiba had overstated its profit by $1.59 billion (£1.25 billion). In 2020, Toshiba found further accounting irregularities. I Photo: Qurren Wikimedia Commons

Once a poster boy for Japan's dominance in electronics - known as Japan Inc - the company has delisted, ending a 74-year history with Tokyo's stock exchange, as reported by Suranjana Tewari for BBC News.

So why did one of Japan's most famous industrial names have such a spectacular fall from grace? It all started in 2015 when accounting malpractices across multiple divisions came to light, with many of them involving top management.

For seven years, Toshiba had overstated its profit by $1.59 billion (£1.25 billion). In 2020, Toshiba found further accounting irregularities. There were also allegations related to corporate governance and the way in which shareholder decisions were made.

An investigation in 2021 found that Toshiba had colluded with Japan's trade ministry to suppress the interests of foreign investors. This made foreign investors uncertain about investing in Japanese stocks.

In late 2016, Toshiba said it would take charge of several billion dollars related to the construction of a nuclear power plant that US unit Westinghouse Electric had bought a year earlier.

Westinghouse later filed for bankruptcy, leaving Toshiba facing a collapse of its nuclear business and more than $6 billion in liabilities. Toshiba employs around 106,000 people, and some of its operations are seen as critical to national security.

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