Avex Group Holdings will cut the number of directors on its board from 13 to seven and transfer some units to subsidiaries to become a “pure” holding company effective April 1.

The Tokyo-based music company says the move is aimed at strengthening its business strategy planning and speeding up decision-making.

Directors Takashi Araki, Hiroshi Inagaki, Hisahiko Iida, Hajime Taniguchi, Katsuro Oshita and Hiroyuki Kishi resigned from the board on March 28, subject to shareholder approval in June.

Masato Matsuura will continue to serve as president of Avex Group Holdings and will assume the newly created post of chief executive officer. Chiba will serve as chief strategic officer and Shinji Hayashi as chief business administration officer.

In addition, Avex will launch a new subsidiary, Avex Music Publishing, on April 1. Taniguchi, whose background is in publishing, was named as president of the new subsidiary.

Avex had a group net loss of some 900 million yen ($9.7 million) in the year ending in March 2009, and racked up a stock-appraisal loss of roughly 3.3 billion yen ($35.6 million) on a parent company-only basis. It hopes to return to the black for the business year ending March 31 as it cuts interest-bearing debt.