Speech by President Koji Sato
I am Koji Sato.
Thank you for joining this joint press conference by Daihatsu and Toyota.
First, we would like to apologize for any inconvenience or concern caused to our customers as a result of the procedural irregularities by Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd.
Yesterday, we resumed production and shipment of Toyota Probox and Mazda Familia vans at Daihatsu’s Kyoto Plant.
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to our customers who have warmly encouraged us, as well as to our suppliers and dealers and all related authorities who have supported us, as we prepared to resume operations.
Last Friday, Daihatsu President Okudaira reported to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism on measures to prevent recurrence and promised to demonstrate through actions the company’s determination to never allow irregularities to occur again.
Embracing the vision of the Toyota Group that Toyota Motor Corporation Chairman Toyoda explained the other day, Daihatsu, together with Toyota, is committed to manufacturing vehicles with safety and security as the top priority and to ensuring measures to prevent recurrence based on the three pledges of Culture Reform, Management Reform, and Monozukuri & Kotozukuri Reform.
Daihatsu’s starting point is to support the lives of its customers through compact cars such as minivehicles, which could collectively be called Japan’s “national car.”
Manufacturing high-quality, affordable vehicles, including the efforts in its DNGA initiative, is one of Daihatsu’s inherent strengths, and we aim to return to that starting point and restore Daihatsu’s uniqueness with the determination to rebuild the company.
Based on this thinking, we will once again define Daihatsu’s business domain as a company centered on minivehicles. As for its overseas businesses, we will consider in detail how to change Daihatsu’s planning, development, and production to being outsourced from Toyota.
Also, we will consider in what way Daihatsu can assume the role in the future as “a mobility company that focuses on compact cars with last-mile mobility solutions in mind.”
Based on this direction, Daihatsu will change its management structure to steadily implement measures to prevent recurrence and promote the building of a foundation for the future.
Effective March 1, Chairman Matsubayashi and President Okudaira will resign from their posts.
The post of chairman will be abolished, and the new president will be Masahiro Inoue, who is currently chief officer of Toyota’s Latin America & Caribbean Region, while Masanori Kuwata of Toyota Motor Kyushu will be newly appointed as executive vice president in addition to current Executive Vice President Hoshika.
President-to-be Inoue has for many years been working on structural reform of Toyota’s Latin American business, including a renewed regional management system involving Brazil and Argentina.
Despite the many difficult decisions he has had to make, he is a leader who has moved reforms forward by implementing thorough dialogue with frontline members.
Utilizing this experience, he will lead the revitalization of Daihatsu as the person responsible for “on-site management.”
Executive Vice President-to-be Kuwata will promote corporate cultural and organizational reform initiatives by leveraging his experience in human resources and on-site management.
Daihatsu Executive Vice President Hoshika will continue to be in charge of building a system for regulation-related and certification-related operations that do not cause certification irregularities as the chief officer of Daihatsu’s Quality Management Group.
Also, Keiko Yanagi of Toyota’s Customer First Promotion Group, who has extensive experience in certification operations, will be newly appointed as a director.
She will support the execution of reliable certification operations by leveraging her extensive knowledge of legal certification.
Going forward, Daihatsu and Toyota, under the new organization led by President-to-be Inoue, will work together to make every effort for Daihatsu to be reborn as a company worthy of the support of its customers.
We ask for your continued cooperation and support.
