Fighting off a takeover by a Canadian rival, the Japanese parent company of 7-Eleven announced a major business shake-up on Thursday that included the appointment of its first foreign-born chief executive.

       Seven & i Holdings said that Stephen Dacus, 64, a member of the company’s board of directors and longtime retail executive from the United States, would take on the role in May. It also said it planned to hold an initial public offering of its U.S. convenience store business, which operates more than 13,000 7-Eleven branches in the country.

       The moves are the company’s latest attempt to prevent itself from being acquired by the retail group Alimentation Couche-Tard, the Canadian owner of the Circle K convenience store chain. That company has offered about $47 billion for control of Seven & i, the largest-ever foreign-led bid for a Japanese company.

       Japan’s corporate landscape, which in many ways resisted change for decades, is beginning to shift in the face of an influx of attention from foreign investors. The reshuffling at Seven & i, whose convenience stores are so ubiquitous in Japan that they are considered part of the national infrastructure, is the latest example of that transformation.

       Image

       Stephen Dacus, the incoming chief executive of Seven & i Holdings, has worked for years in Japan’s retail industry, including stints at Uniqlo’s parent company and as chief executive of Walmart Japan.Credit...Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg

       Activist investors have long pushed Seven & i to spin off its 7-Eleven convenience store business, arguing that doing so would improve the valuation of the sprawling retail group, whose businesses ranged from supermarkets to outlets that sold things like stationery and baby goods.

       Subscribe to The Times to read as many articles as you like.