From Bloomberg reporters Momoka Yokoyama, Kanoko Matsuyama, Hideyuki Sano, and Koh Yoshida:
Ishikawa is a remote, mountainous prefecture bordering the Sea of Japan, but the fate of a drug store chain whose local roots go back to 1869 has implications for Tokyo’s financial markets hundreds of kilometers away.
The company, Kusuri no Aoki Holdings Co., is run by two brothers who are the sixth generation of the founding family. They are fighting for control of the firm with their largest outside shareholders, Aeon Co. and the activist fund Oasis Management Co.
President Hironori Aoki and his younger sibling Takanori, who increased their personal stakes in the company through a controversial stock option issuance about a year and a half ago, have called for an emergency general meeting on Feb. 17. On the agenda is a so-called poison pill defense that threatens to dilute the holdings of Aeon and Oasis.
Nearly half of Japan’s listed companies are tied to a founding family, many of which no longer have enough equity to guarantee control. The Aoki brothers’ move runs counter to a broader trend in corporate Japan, where such defenses have been in decline since peaking in 2008. Both the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the government have discouraged such tactics in a bid to protect minority shareholders and make Japan a more attractive market for overseas investors. Read the full story [here](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-15/a-family-fights-to-keep-control-of-157-year-old-firm-in-japan).
Slow day Bloomberg?
Once you sell out it’s not just your company anymore, can’t have it both ways
3 comments
From Bloomberg reporters Momoka Yokoyama, Kanoko Matsuyama, Hideyuki Sano, and Koh Yoshida:
Ishikawa is a remote, mountainous prefecture bordering the Sea of Japan, but the fate of a drug store chain whose local roots go back to 1869 has implications for Tokyo’s financial markets hundreds of kilometers away.
The company, Kusuri no Aoki Holdings Co., is run by two brothers who are the sixth generation of the founding family. They are fighting for control of the firm with their largest outside shareholders, Aeon Co. and the activist fund Oasis Management Co.
President Hironori Aoki and his younger sibling Takanori, who increased their personal stakes in the company through a controversial stock option issuance about a year and a half ago, have called for an emergency general meeting on Feb. 17. On the agenda is a so-called poison pill defense that threatens to dilute the holdings of Aeon and Oasis.
Nearly half of Japan’s listed companies are tied to a founding family, many of which no longer have enough equity to guarantee control. The Aoki brothers’ move runs counter to a broader trend in corporate Japan, where such defenses have been in decline since peaking in 2008. Both the Tokyo Stock Exchange and the government have discouraged such tactics in a bid to protect minority shareholders and make Japan a more attractive market for overseas investors. Read the full story [here](https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-02-15/a-family-fights-to-keep-control-of-157-year-old-firm-in-japan).
Slow day Bloomberg?
Once you sell out it’s not just your company anymore, can’t have it both ways
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