Toyota says president, chairman of scandal-hit Daihatsu unit to step down (updated)

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13/02/2024 07:03

(Adds details, Okudaira's background throughout)
       TOKYO, Feb 13 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp  7203.T 
said on Tuesday both the president and chairman of small-car
unit Daihatsu Motor will step down following revelations of
misconduct related to rigged collision safety-tests.
    Toyota's chief executive officer for the Latin America and
Caribbean region Masahiro Inoue will replace Soichiro Okudaira
as Daihatsu's president effective March 1, the world's
top-selling automaker said in a statement.
    Okudaira had a long-running career at Toyota spanning nearly
four decades from 1979 before he became president of Daihatsu in
2017, a year after the compact car maker became a wholly owned
Toyota subsidiary in 2016.
    Daihatsu's chairman, Sunao Matsubayashi, will also step down
and not be replaced, Toyota said.
    Given the misconduct over the safety test certification
applications, Daihatsu also will be removed from a commercial
vehicle partnership known as the Commercial Japan Partnership
Technologies (CJPT), the automaker said in a separate statement.
    Daihatsu's 10% equity stake in the partnership will be
transferred to Toyota, the statement said.
        

 (Reporting by Daniel Leussink and Satoshi Sugiyama; Editing by
Kim Coghill & Shri Navaratnam)
 ((Satoshi.Sugiyama@thomsonreuters.com;))