TOKYO (Kyodo) – Mizuho Financial Group Inc. announced on Monday that it has appointed chief executive Masahiro Kihara as chairman, as the beleaguered financial institution seeks to restore public confidence under new leadership after repeated system failures severely affected the operations of its key banking unit.

The 56-year-old will replace Tatsufumi Sakai, 62, from February 1. Kihara is the older brother of Deputy Chief Cabinet Secretary Seiji Kihara.

Mizuho Financial has also named Vice Chairman Seiji Imai, 59, as its new chairman, effective April 1. He succeeds Yasuhiro Sato, 69.

The new management team will be formed as Mizuho seeks to overhaul its rigid corporate culture, a major factor that has reportedly led to the 10 system outages of varying degrees it has experienced in less than a year.

All eyes are now on the ability of Mizuho Bank, one of Japan’s megabanks, to make lasting improvements to its internal technology following six separate incidents that occurred even after it submitted evidence of measures to financial regulators in June. preventive measures it has implemented after four system failures encountered since February last year.

Mizuho Financial and Mizuho Bank again submitted business improvement plans to the Financial Services Agency on Monday in response to the latest errors.

The plans include steps to improve communication between management teams and IT staff on-site and within the wider Mizuho Group, as called for in a business improvement order issued last November by the regulator. .

Mizuho Financial said in November that Mizuho Bank Vice Chairman Masahiko Kato, 56, will replace Koji Fujiwara, 60, as the bank’s chairman, effective April 1.