TOKYO: Takeshi Niinami, one of Japan’s best-known business leaders who is the subject of a police investigation into his purchases of supplements, said on Wednesday (Sep 3) that he believed that the products were legal.
He resigned this week from his roles as CEO and chairman at drinks group Suntory Holdings following the police investigation.
“I didn’t breach the law and I am innocent,” he told a briefing for the influential Keizai Doyukai business lobby, which he chairs, adding that he had only quit Suntory because he didn’t want the issue to impact the company.
He added that he would be stepping aside from his duties at Keizai Doyukai for the time being.
Japanese media have reported that police in Fukuoka prefecture are investigating whether Niinami was going to receive supplements containing THC, the psychoactive component of cannabis.
Reuters was not able to reach Fukuoka police officials for comment.
Niinami told the briefing that he had purchased CBD supplements in the United States earlier this year after they were recommended by a New York-based health adviser. He believed them to be legal, given that a similar product was sold in Japan.
CBD, a separate chemical compound from the cannabis plant, is legal in Japan.
The person in New York offered to bring the supplements to Japan for him, as he was travelling home through countries with very strict laws about CBD. He said he did not receive them and that his family had likely disposed of them, which was the norm for packages from unknown senders.
But Niinami added that unbeknownst to him, that person had also asked their brother, who lives in Fukuoka, to send him a second shipment of supplements. The brother was later arrested while shipments to him and others were being prepared, he said.
He stressed that the supplements in question had never been in his possession.
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