Toyota Motor President Koji Sato (L) and newly appointed Daihatsu Motor President Masahiro Inoue (R) answer questions at press briefing in Tokyo on Monday after the auto-giant announced the departure of Daihatsu President Soichiro Okudaira, Chairman Sunao Matsubayashi and three other directors over a vehicle safety tests scandal. Photo by Franck Robichon/EPA-EFE
Feb. 13 (UPI) — The two top executives of Toyota subsidiary Daihatsu are to leave the company following a side-collision safety test rigging scandal that rocked the world’s largest automaking group, the company said.
Effective March 1, Soichiro Okudaira will be replaced as president of Daihatsu by Masahiro Inoue who is being drafted in from Toyota’s Latin American and Caribbean operation with the task of restructuring Daihatsu to turbocharge governance at the small car manufacturing division.
Chairman Sunao Matsubayashi is also vacating his post, which will subsequently cease to exist, along with three other directors.
Lexus electric vehicle lead Masanori Kuwata will move over to Daihatsu as its new executive vice president along with Keiko Yanagi who transferring from his position as deputy chief officer at Toyota Customer First Promotion Group to become a director at Daihatsu.
Toyota President Koji Sato said at a press briefing in Tokyo on Monday that the leadership was being changed to prevent future misconduct and restore the original strengths of the 117-year-old company.
Sato said Inoue had been selected to take over at Daihatsu due to his extensive experience in reviving businesses in Latin America, including in Brazil and Argentina.
Inoue pledged a thorough overhaul to prevent any recurrence, drawing on the resources and expertise of parent Toyota “where Daihatsu alone is not enough.”
The announcement came a day after Daihatsu began a phased return to production at a commercial vehicle plant in Kyoto, after a two-month stoppage across all four of its assembly plants stemming from the safety test debacle.
The company plans to gradually re-start production of models as and when they receive safety certification approval from Japan’s Transport Ministry.
In April, an independent investigation found Daihatsu had manipulated collision safety tests on 88,000 small cars, many of them badged as Toyotas.
The misconduct dated as far back as 1989, picking up pace after 2014.
The fraud, involving Daihatsu brand vehicles as well as models supplied as OEM models to Toyota, Mazda and Subaru, forced Daihatsu in December to suspend shipments of all Daihatsu-developed models, both in Japan and internationally, and issue a public apology.
The falsification of vehicle safety test data threw a spotlight on problematic quality assurance at the world’s biggest auto-making group. There is, however, no suggestion any of the affected vehicles are unsafe.
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