If there’s a job no one wants right now, it’s the position of Nissan chief executive officer.

That much was made clear for Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa at the the recent Nissan shareholders meeting; an event where top executives and the board of directors present the results of the past year and outline plans for the future. The problem, however, is that Nissan’s top brass didn’t have much positive accomplishments to report, the outlook for the coming year will still be difficult, and the dividends that many shareholders typically got are not what they expected.

Espinosa stated that Nissan is focusing on revitalizing the business and was making steady progress amidst all the challenges. The Nissan CEO even projected that the company should return to profitability at the end of the 2026 fiscal year until next March, but shareholders were having none of it.

Nissan shareholders sharply rebuked the executives with the sharp drop in share prices that reflects the sales performance of the company. In the last 3 years alone, Nissan share prices have dropped 44%, and that has resulted in the company skipping dividend payments to shareholders. A significant portion of Nissan stock are owned by older Japanese shareholders, and quite a few depend on the dividends given by the company in their retirement.

Such was the anger from many of Nissan’s shareholders, that the vote to reconfirm 1 of the 12 directors didn’t happen, while some even called for Espinosa to step down as Nissan CEO.

Perhaps the most unexpected part of the meeting was the motion to bring back Carlos Ghosn into the board of directors of Nissan. As you may recall, Ghosn was ousted at Nissan following a series of allegations regarding financial misconduct, culminating in an arrest when he landed at Haneda airport, and a daring escape to Beirut after being smuggled onto an airplane using a crate for musical instruments.

The company has been on troubled roads for a while now with the corporate troubles in the latter part of the Ghosn era as well as the period that followed. They tried to unite with Honda, but the deal fell apart. Now their models are have difficulty competing against rivals in the market. Even amidst the shift towards electrified models (where Nissan was once a leader in) they found themselves behind the many Chinese brands offering more for less. Nissan, however, will start exporting models from the their Chinese joint-ventures for global consumption soon, and they will start with the Frontier Pro (Navara Pro) and the N7 (Primera).

Clearly the pressure on Nissan management is intense, and they have to hope that their plan to bring the company back to black works because the clock truly is ticking. 

At the start of the meeting, Espinosa said that the company has focused on implementing its business revitalization plan and has made steady progress despite ongoing uncertainties. He indicated that it will release a medium-term management plan in the second half of fiscal year 2026.

However, shareholders criticized the management for the significantly dropped stock price and questioned the president's management capabilities.