(Tokyo) Akio Toyoda was reappointed chairman of the board of directors of Toyota on Tuesday, but not without some grumbling, with some shareholders holding him responsible for the scandals of inappropriate vehicle certification of the world’s number one automobile company in Japan.
The 68-year-old president was re-elected at the annual general meeting held at the group’s headquarters in Toyota City, but his approval rating will not be published until Wednesday, according to a spokesperson interviewed by AFP.
His score could be lower than last year’s (85%), and even further from the near plebiscites Mr Toyoda used to garner in previous years when he was chief executive.
Two major international AGM voting advisory agencies, Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS), had recommended this year that shareholders of the Japanese automobile giant vote against his re-election.
For several years, irregularities in vehicle approval tests for the Japanese market have been revealed within the group, first in some of its subsidiaries (Hino Motors, Daihatsu, Toyota Industries) and since the beginning of June at Toyota itself. -even.
Although the financial impact of these affairs is minor for the group, they have damaged its image in Japan, even though Toyota liked to consider itself a model of good governance.
“Mr. Toyoda is responsible for failing to ensure that the group maintained appropriate internal controls,” Glass Lewis estimated at the end of May, even before the latest twist in these certification scandals.
Akio Toyoda, a member of the group’s board of directors for 24 years, “should be considered ultimately responsible” for these long-standing problems, ISS also judged, further doubting the credibility of the countermeasures announced by management to reform the corporate culture.
Mr. Toyoda handed over general management last year to one of his loyal lieutenants, Koji Sato, 54. But some wonder if the grandson of the group’s founder does not continue to pull the strings behind the scenes.
On a strictly accounting level, Mr. Toyoda’s success is indisputable: once again becoming the world’s number one automobile manufacturer since 2020 in volume sales, his group generated new record results for its 2023-2024 annual financial year ended at the end of March, thanks to to the boom in sales of hybrid vehicles, its specialty.
But Mr. Toyoda has become the target of environmental organizations in recent years for his outspoken skepticism about a transition to all-electric technology.
If Mr. Sato has made 100% electric the number one priority, this segment represents barely 1% of the group’s annual sales for the moment. And Toyota continues to bet heavily on hybrids, hydrogen and biofuels at the same time: it recently presented the prototype of a new thermal engine model.
“Even if Akio Toyoda was re-elected […] it is clear that many shareholders are unhappy,” Greenpeace said in a statement on Tuesday. The group’s continued development of thermal vehicles “is in contradiction with its objective of achieving zero emissions by 2050”, according to the environmental organization.
Like last year, the Danish pension fund AkademikerPension and other shareholders of Toyota had submitted to the General Meeting the vote on a resolution aimed at forcing the group to be more transparent with regard to its activities. influence in the world linked to climate issues.
This resolution, which Toyota management was not in favor of, was not adopted on Tuesday, according to the group’s spokesperson interviewed by AFP.
