Daihatsu overhauls leadership following safety scandal, Chairman and President replaced by Toyota bosses

KUALA LUMPUR: Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) has announced a leadership overhaul at Daihatsu Motor Co. Ltd (DMC) in response to directives from Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism (MLIT) following a safety test misconduct scandal involving Daihatsu.

Sunao Matsubayashi, the former Chairman of DMC, and Soichiro Okudaira, the former President, have resigned from their positions.

Masahiro Inoue, previously CEO of Toyota Motor Corporation for the Latin America and Caribbean region, has been appointed as the new President of DMC. He will be supported by Masanori Kuwata as the new Executive Vice President, who was previously in charge of Lexus electrification projects at Lexus International Co. Keiko Yanagi will replace Masahiro Yamamoto as a non-resident director, having formerly been the deputy chief officer at Toyota Customer First Promotion.

Yusuke Takeda and Toshinori Edamoto, the respective heads of the customer sales and service group and the corporate administration group at DMC, will retain their roles. The new leadership team will officially start their roles on March 1, 2024.

In reaction to the scandal, Toyota has committed to implementing comprehensive preventive measures to avoid future occurrences and to the recovery of Daihatsu. Toyota emphasizes the importance of Daihatsu returning to its foundational principles as a company focused on compact vehicles and meeting customer needs.

There has been reports that new pledges have been made, to prevent future procedural errors, highlighting their commitment to implement safeguards in development and certification processes, and to address management and organisational issues at Daihatsu.

The Reform Promotion Division, will be formed with external experts like lawyers to oversee and support these preventive actions and to monitor their progress. They will update the MLIT every quarter on their progress and share these updates publicly.

Toyota acknowledged that the certification scandal occurred due to employee workloads exceeding their capacity. Daihatsu's management is expected to listen more to employees and create a system that allows for effective governance restoration at the workplace.

Daihatsu had to halt production at all of its factories from December 20th until the end of January, and recently, MLIT has permitted Daihatsu to resume production of 10 models on February 26th.

Several Daihatsu models have lost their vehicle type approval (VTA) certification, and a number of recalls have commenced after investigations revealed discrepancies in information during the safety certification process. Toyota has apologized to all affected parties and pledged to rectify the situation.

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