Fujimoto dismissed suggestion in a press conference that the departure of Craig Naylor heralded the sort of corporate scandal sparked when Japan's Olympus Corp (7733.T) fired Briton Michael Woodford in October.

"Our firm has nothing whatsoever like the situation that happened at Olympus," Fujimoto told reporters.

He said Naylor was leaving after differences of opinions on priorities for product development and management organization.

The resignation of Naylor leaves Carlos Ghosn, the chief executive of Nissan Motor Co (7201.T), as the only remaining non-Japanese CEO of a major Japanese company. Howard Stringer stepped aside as CEO of Sony Corp (6758.T) this month.

"This is regrettable but we thank Craig for his efforts over the past two years and wish him well in the future," Fujimoto said. "Our priority now is to concentrate on the future development of the company."

Nippon Sheet Glass said company director Keiji Yoshikawa will replace Naylor.

Naylor, a 36-year veteran of U.S. chemicals giant DuPont (DD.N), became CEO of Nippon Sheet Glass in June 2010. He was the second non-Japanese executive to lead the 94-year-old company.

Briton Stuart Chambers resigned abruptly in 2009 as Nippon Sheet CEO after just 15 months, saying he wanted to spend more time with his family.

Naylor did not immediately respond to an emailed Reuters request for comment.

At the time of Naylor's appointment, Fujimoto was interim CEO and he said then that Naylor had the international experience the company needed.

Nippon Sheet Glass has spread its business globally in recent years. In 2006, it bought British glass maker Pilkington for about 2 billion pounds, and now gets a majority of its sales outside Japan.

INTERNATIONAL

Shares of Nippon Sheet Glass, valued at around $1.3 billion, have slumped 81 percent since the global financial crisis hit, and on Tuesday dropped to 113 yen, the lowest since at least 1984. The company announced Naylor's resignation after trading on the Tokyo stock exchange had closed on Wednesday.

Nippon Sheet Glass in February slashed its operating profit forecast for the business year to March 2012 to 4 billion yen from 25 billion yen and its net forecast to a loss of 2 billion yen from a profit of 15 billion yen. It employs about 29,300 worldwide.

Non-Japanese business leaders have long been rare in Japan, where companies typically promote from within their Japanese ranks.

Woodford was sacked by Olympus after he questioned dubious deals at the firm worth some $1.7 billion, sparking one of Japan biggest corporate scandals that prompted authorities in Japan, Britain and the United States to start investigations.

Electronics giant Sony named Kazuo Hirai to replace Stringer earlier this year following four years of losses and a widening competitive gap against rivals such as Apple Inc (AAPL.O). Stringer remains as chairman of the firm.

Nippon Sheet Glass said other management changes on Wednesday included appointing Clemens Miller as representative executive officer, executive vice president and chief operating office and chief financial office Mark Lyons as representative executive office.

(Additional reporting by Chang-Ran Kim, Yoko Kubota; Writing by Neil Fullick; Editing by Michael Urquhart)

• A Permanent Economic Emergency