@Toyota: [Presentation] Joint Press Conference by Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd. and Toyota Motor Corporation

We would like to again offer our deepest apologies to our customers, suppliers, dealers, the communities in which our plants are located, and our many other stakeholders for the inconvenience and concern caused by the recent issue of certification irregularities. Although all plants of Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd. (Daihatsu) in Japan suspended operations following our announcements made on December 20, we were able to resume production and shipments of some vehicles as of yesterday. We would like to express our sincere gratitude to our customers, suppliers, and others for their warm words of support and to those who have worked hard toward the resumption of operations.

Daihatsu has decided to make the following appointments to its Board of Directors, effective March 1, 2024. From now on, under the new structure, we will thoroughly implement measures to prevent recurrence and work toward Daihatsu’s future revitalization. Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) will also continue to support the new Daihatsu.

1. Objective

To reform and revitalize Daihatsu, we believe that Daihatsu must return to its roots as a “mobility company centered on compact vehicles” that closely responds to the needs of its customers and enriches their lives, as well as being fully determined to be reborn as a new company.

Furthermore, we believe that the root of the certification irregularities was that Daihatsu placed a burden on its workplaces that exceeded their capacities. To rebuild Daihatsu, we believe that management must go to the front lines, carefully listen to the opinions of the people there, and create a system that enables management to restore sovereignty to the workplace. Based on this, we considered what to do and made decisions from the perspective of putting the right person in the right place.

Going forward under the new structure, while continuously holding dialogue both internally within Daihatsu and with its stakeholders, we will consider and determine the concrete form of Daihatsu’s future business and the structure starting from the post of chief officer downward that will promote it. After doing so, we would then like to set up an opportunity in the new fiscal year to explain Daihatsu’s new structure and management direction.

2. Director personnel changes (effective March 1, 2024)

1. Newly appointed directors

Name		Current post	New post
	Masahiro Inoue	Toyota Motor Corporation Latin America & Caribbean Region (Chief Executive Officer) Toyota Argentina S.A. Toyota do Brasil LTDA. Toyota de Venezuela Compania Anonima	President
	Masanori Kuwata	Toyota Motor Corporation Lexus International Co. In charge of Lexus electrification promotion project (Chief Project Leader) Toyota Motor Kyushu, Inc. (Executive Vice President)	Executive Vice President
	Keiko Yanagi	Toyota Motor Corporation Toyota Customer First Promotion Group (Deputy Chief Officer)	Director*

*	Non-resident

2. Resigning directors

Name		Current post	New post
	Sunao Matsubayashi	Chairman	―
	Soichiro Okudaira	President	―
	Yusuke Takeda	Director / Operating Officer Chief Officer, Sales & Customer Service Group	Operating Officer Chief Officer, Sales & Customer Service Group
	Toshinori Edamoto	Director / Operating Officer Chief Officer, Corporate Management Group	Operating Officer Chief Officer, Corporate Management Group
	Masahiro Yamamoto	Director*	―

*	Non-resident

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.

Speech by Masahiro Inoue

As introduced, I am Masahiro Inoue.
I am currently stationed in Brazil as chief executive officer of Toyota Motor Corporation’s Latin America & Caribbean Region.
I am humbled to be appointed president of Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd. as of March 1.
Together with Executive Vice Presidents Kuwata and Hoshika, and Yanagi, who will be an external board member, I would like to tackle issues as one team with one voice.

I have been hearing about the procedural irregularities constantly since the issue arose in April of last year, including the investigation by the Independent Third-Party Committee and the report of the results of the investigation that was released on December 20.

When I was appointed to become president of Daihatsu, the first things that came to my mind were:

1. Customers who use Daihatsu vehicles or are waiting for delivery;
2. All domestic and overseas dealers and sub-dealers responsible for sales and after-sales service;
3. Suppliers and those related to logistics who are negatively affected by the production and shipment suspension; and
4. National, municipal, and local governments.

I would like to sincerely apologize from the bottom of my heart for the inconvenience that this has caused.

Daihatsu has a history of more than 100 years. We are currently a large company with more than 40,000 consolidated company employees.

In particular, it is my understanding that the growth of Daihatsu within the Toyota Group over the past ten years has been achieved by demonstrating various strengths cultivated over the long term.
On the other hand, the quality and quantity of work that each site is responsible for should have increased in the process of this growth. I understand that these procedural irregularities occurred because we have not been able to take in the opinions and problems of each site and have instead continued to work while leaving issues unresolved.

The measures to prevent recurrence mentioned by Toyota’s President Sato must be implemented thoroughly with the help of Toyota, where Daihatsu alone is not enough.

In addition, I would like to work together with Daihatsu members to reform Daihatsu’s organization and culture, which are the cause of the procedural irregularities, and do my utmost to revitalize the company.

As for CJPT (Commercial Japan Partnership Technologies), in which we have been participating with Toyota, Hino, Isuzu, and Suzuki, we would like to inform that, considering the inconveniences our actions have caused and having at this moment placed the highest priority on preventing a recurrence of such an incident, we have offered our withdrawal and it has been approved by related companies.

Toyota is striving to transform itself into a mobility company by combining the strengths of the Toyota Group.
Since its foundation, Daihatsu has supported people’s lives with compact vehicles, which can be collectively called the national car, suited to Japan’s land and roads.

We would like to take this opportunity to return to our roots and make it our mission to “enrich people’s lives by closely responding to the needs of our customers” and contribute to the happiness of all our stakeholders as a “mobility company centered on compact vehicles.”

Since joining Toyota, I have spent around half of my 36 years at Toyota overseas, mainly in emerging countries.
During this time, I have learned that to listen to others you must first talk to them and gain their trust, otherwise, they will not tell you how they truly feel.

I would like to start by going to the sites myself, talking to our employees, gaining their trust, and hearing their true feelings.
Through dialogue with employees and stakeholders, we would like to determine the future direction of Daihatsu and explain the new organizational policy in April.
We, all Daihatsu members, will make a fresh start together as one.

We would appreciate your continued support.