REFILE-UPDATE 1-Rakuten to quit Keidanren over power industry deregulation-Nikkei
(Refiles to add attribution to Nikkei in headline)
June 24 (Reuters) - Virtual mall operator Rakuten Inc has decided to leave Nippon Keidanren to protest against the business lobby's reluctance to support a breakup of the electric utility industry, the Nikkei business daily reported. Rakuten president Hiroshi Mikitani is in favor of dividing the power industry into electricity generation and transmission operations in order to encourage new entrants, according to the report.
Keidanren has balked at such a deregulatory move, the paper said. On May 27, Mikitani sent a tweet implying that Rakuten, which joined in November 2004, would leave Keidanren, writing that he "cannot stand Keidanren's stance of protecting the electricity industry," the Nikkei reported.
(Reporting by Soham Chatterjee in Bangalore; Editing by Prem Udayabhanu)
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