Watanabe has been named a vice chairman, replacing retiring Katsuhiro Nakagawa. Fujio Cho remains president and Kazuo Okamoto a vice chairman, a Toyota statement said.
Toyoda is the grandson of Toyota’s founder and is charged with rescuing the company from their biggest-ever crisis, Japanese media said.
Toyota Motor today reported a 4% year on year slump in 2008 calendar year group global sales – their first dip in a decade – and last month forecast they would post what was reported variously as their first ever operating loss, or at least the first in decades, for the 2008/9 fiscal year. The new president – who will be confirmed in his post at the June annual general meeting – is the grandson of Kiichiro Toyoda, who founded Toyota in 1937, and the son of former president Shoichiro Toyoda.
At the same time, AFP reports that Denso are planning a large-scale production halt for the first time in its near 60-year history.
Denso will stop all manufacturing lines at their domestic plants for a total of 14 days between January and March, excluding the one that makes production facilities for its own group, spokeswoman Miwa Kurokawa told the news agency.
“Carmakers are reducing production. We decided on our operation halt in line with Toyota Motors’ production suspension,” she said.
Toyota recently said they expect to post an operating loss this financial year to March due to the global economic crisis and lower automotive markets.
Roughly half of Denso’s products go to the Toyota Group.
It is Denso’s first large-scale production halt since the company was established in December 1949, it said.
