Japan's second largest manufacturer of heavy equipment, Kawasaki Heavy Industries Ltd. fired its president Satoshi Hasegawa. The company also said that it ended talks to merge with Mitsui Engineering & Shipbuilding Co. This was after two months of denying discussions between the two companies to undergo merger.

The Tokyo Stock Exchange announced today that it asked Kawasaki Heavy to explain the revision made on its April 22 filing after reports stating that the merger talks were not true. Yesterday, Kawasaki Heavy appointed Shigeru Murayama as new president of the heavy equipment maker.

The conflict and the end of said merger discussions hinders the Japanese government to reduce the number of Japanese shipbuilders to better compete with Chinese and South Korean lower-cost rivals.

According to Economy Minister Akira Amari, the probable cause for the breakdown of the merger discussions was for each company to conduct individual assessments. The official also added that the government will still continue to urge consolidation across industries to boost Japan's competitiveness globally.