Toyota Chairman Reappointed as Director at General Meeting... Shareholder Proposal Rejected for the First Time in 18 Years

Japan's Toyota Motor Corporation appointed 10 directors, including Chairman Akio Toyoda and President Koji Sato, at the shareholders' meeting held at its headquarters in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, on the 14th.

Akio Toyoda, President of Toyota
Photo by Yonhap News

According to a report by Kyodo News on the day, this decision officially launched a new management system centered on Chairman Toyoda and President Sato.

Chairman Toyoda is the great-grandson of Kiichiro Toyoda, the former chairman who founded Toyota Motor Corporation. He became president in 2009 and led the company for 14 years before assuming the chairman position last April.

Former executive committee member Sato became the new president. President Sato stated, "Our mission is to firmly inherit the values built by Chairman Toyoda while challenging the future cars that adapt to changes in social systems."

Chairman Toyoda served as the chairperson for the last time at the shareholders' meeting. Reflecting on his tenure as president, he recalled the struggle to restore the "Toyota spirit" and expressed gratitude to the employees who supported the goal of "making better cars."

Meanwhile, Glass Lewis, a global proxy advisory firm, announced before the shareholders' meeting that it opposed the reappointment of Chairman Toyoda as a director, citing an insufficient number of independent outside directors; however, it failed to enforce its position. Additionally, three institutional investors from the Netherlands, Denmark, and Norway submitted a shareholder proposal for the first time in 18 years at the shareholders' meeting to incorporate the preparation of activity reports on climate change into the articles of incorporation, but the proposal was rejected due to lack of shareholder approval.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.