Suntory Holdings former CEO Takeshi Niinami, who has resigned from the beverage group following a police investigation into his purchase of a supplement that may have breached the country's strict drug laws, attends a press conference in Tokyo, Japan, September 3, 2025. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
Suntory Holdings former CEO Takeshi Niinami, who has resigned from the beverage group following a police investigation into his purchase of a supplement that may have breached the country's strict drug laws, reacts during a press conference in Tokyo, Japan, September 3, 2025. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon
Suntory Holdings former CEO Takeshi Niinami, who has resigned from the beverage group following a police investigation into his purchase of a supplement that may have breached the country's strict drug laws, bows to apologise at a press conference in Tokyo, Japan, September 3, 2025. REUTERS/Kim Kyung-Hoon

By Daniel Leussink, Mariko Katsumura and Satoshi Sugiyama

TOKYO (Reuters) -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 that he believed that the products were legal.

He resigned this week from his roles as CEO and chairman at drinks group Suntory Holdings due to the probe.

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.

"I believe 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.

"I believe that once the truth is revealed, my actions will be understood and accepted," he said, as he apologised for "his carelessness" in purchasing the supplement.

Niinami, who has often been the face of corporate Japan at Davos and other international events, added that he would be stepping aside from his duties at Keizai Doyukai for the time being.

Under Japan's strict drug laws, possession of products with THC above the allowed legal limit - even if the individual is unaware of the THC content - can be punishable by up to seven years in prison. Importing those products without a license can result in up to 10 years of jail time or a fine of as much as 5 million yen ($34,000).

But CBD, a separate chemical compound from the cannabis plant, is legal in Japan.

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.

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 may have disposed of them, which is the norm for packages from unknown senders.

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.

Reuters was not able to reach Fukuoka police officials for comment.

Other executives that have fallen afoul of Japan's drug laws include Stefan Kaufmann, a German national and former CEO of endoscope maker Olympus. Late last year, he was sentenced by a Tokyo court to 10 months in prison, suspended for three years, for obtaining banned drugs.

In 2015, police arrested Toyota Motor executive Julie Hamp, an American, on suspicion of illegally importing the painkiller oxycodone. She was later released.

($1 = 147.3300 yen)

(Reporting by Daniel Leussink and Mariko Katsumura; Additional reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama; Editing by Edwina Gibbs)