Toyota provides full support to three people… Reorganization of business centered on light vehicles
Daihatsu Industries, an automobile manufacturer subsidiary of Japan’s Toyota Motor Company, which was embroiled in controversy over the issue of illegally obtaining national certification, eventually dismissed its executives.
According to the Yomiuri Shimbun and local public broadcaster NHK on the 14th, Daihatsu announced a reform of its management system the day before. President Soichiro Okudaira and Chairman Sunao Matsubayashi announced that they will retire on the 1st of next month.
Masahiro Inoue, head of Toyota’s Central and South American division, will be appointed as the new president. The position of chairman will remain vacant.
In addition to General Manager Inoue, Toyota sent Masanori Kuwata, Toyota’s Kyushu Vice President, to Daihatsu Vice President, and Deputy General Manager Keiko Yanagi of Toyota’s Customer First Promotion Headquarters to Daihatsu’s non-executive director, to carry out comprehensive reforms at Daihatsu. Support.
At a press conference on the 13th, Toyota President Koji Sato announced plans to reorganize Daihatsu’s business around light vehicles, saying, “We define Daihatsu’s business area as a company centered on light vehicles.” .
He said, “We will return to Daihatsu’s roots of supporting customers’ lives with small cars.”
It has been pointed out that excessive short-term development was behind the series of Daihatsu certification test frauds. Accordingly, it appears to be reducing its business to its main focus, light vehicles.
Daihatsu became a full subsidiary of Toyota in 2016. The following year, in 2017, he took charge of Toyota’s emerging market strategy. Daihatsu, which has strengths in manufacturing cars at low costs, has been developing compact cars for Southeast Asia.
There are criticisms within Toyota that “in order to meet Toyota’s expectations, development that was not in line with expectations and was promoted without considering risks has become a hotbed of corruption.”
In December of last year, Daihatsu announced that there had been irregularities in obtaining national certification for all models produced and developed in Japan and halted production at all car factories.
Last month, Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism canceled the ‘type designation’ required for mass production for three car models in which serious misconduct was confirmed.
Production of two vehicle models resumed at the Kyoto factory on the 12th following the lifting of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism’s order to suspend shipments. The Oita plant is also scheduled to resume production of 10 models on the 26th. However, the resumption of production at the remaining two factories is unclear.
Daihatsu submitted measures to prevent recurrence to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism on the 9th. They said they would extend the development period by 40% and increase the number of people involved in certification testing.
Source: Donga
Mark Jones is a world traveler and journalist for News Rebeat. With a curious mind and a love of adventure, Mark brings a unique perspective to the latest global events and provides in-depth and thought-provoking coverage of the world at large.