The 66-year-old announced Friday he would shoulder responsibility for the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant as the company booked one of the largest yearly losses in Japanese corporate history.

His decision to quit followed weeks of criticism over his handling of the world's worst nuclear emergency since Chernobyl, with detractors accusing him of lacking leadership and the ability to reassure the public over the crisis.

Shimizu joined TEPCO just a month after obtaining his Bachelor of Economics degree from Keio University in March 1968.

A diligent worker whose steel-rimmed spectacles and neat side parting made him look every bit the corporate salaryman, Shimizu quickly rose through the ranks in a tough, competitive environment to become president in 2008.

Natural disasters and financial crisis straddled his tenure; he took the top job just two months after TEPCO posted its first loss in 28 years following an earthquake the previous year that forced it to shut Kashiwazaki Kariwa, the world's biggest nuclear plant.

Shimizu oversaw the successful reopening of the plant and can also count among his achievements TEPCO's position as the fourth largest electric utility in the world despite a trend towards deregulation in Japan's electric industry.

But his leadership style often undermined his unquestionable business acumen, with his public comments following a pattern that frustrated observers since the start of the crisis.

In April he shuffled his way excruciatingly through a gruelling press conference in which he repeatedly apologised -- to shareholders, customers and the public -- for the disaster.

But time and again he refused to go into details on when the runaway reactors would be tamed, on what compensation would be available, or on how he might ensure the disaster is not repeated.

Even veteran Japanese journalists used to surviving on scraps of information from venerated company bosses found it too much to cope with.

"I don't quite see why you held this press conference. I don't see what you want to say to whom," one reporter blasted. "You keep saying 'as soon as possible', but that's what a noodle delivery driver would say."

Shimizu has appeared in public only a handful of times since the March 11 tsunami swamped the plant on Japan's northeast coast.

After a brief apology in front of the cameras on March 13, Shimizu took to his sickbed and was not heard of again until he resurfaced for repeat performances on April 11 and May 4 in Fukushima prefecture.

On the second visit he was greeted by angry residents keen to vent their frustrations as he was about to leave a government office.

"Apologise from the bottom of your heart!" a woman demanded. "There are many people who lost jobs due to TEPCO. Did you see dead cows and pigs?"

But his underwhelming performance at the head of one of Japan's biggest companies annoyed not just journalists and members of the public.

"It is the nature of a utility firm that the president does not usually have to make major managerial decisions or changes," said a senior government official, who declined to be named.

"So in the normal course of events, Shimizu probably is a capable man.

"But we are in the middle of an emergency now and it seems to have been difficult for him to take control."

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