JAMA leaders acknowledge ‘sense of urgency’ in tackling ‘7 priority challenges’

MANILA: The new leaders of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) acknowledged a sense of urgency in tackling its seven priority challenges. 

Of note, JAMA is now headed by former Toyota Motor Company Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Koji Sato, whose leadership brought into the spotlight seven priority challenges aimed at making Japan’s automotive industry more competitive on the global stage. 

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Sometime in February, the team convened for a second meeting and agreed that the group must have a sense of immediacy and importance in addressing the aforementioned hurdles. 

“In addressing these seven priority challenges, what we have felt most keenly through our discussions is a renewed sense of urgency: unless we move on to concrete discussions grounded in that shared urgency, the goal we ultimately reach may be different,” Sato was quoted as saying. 

“What sense of urgency will we bring to these seven priority challenges? If we fail to get on the same page, our destination is going to look very different,” he added. 

For those wondering what those seven priority challenges are, here are the obstacles defined by the JAMA team: 

Challenge	Definition
Ensuring stable procurement of critical resources and components	Eliminate production constraints caused by resource and component shortages
Implementing a multi-pathway approach	Promote the adoption of various decarbonization products to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050
Building mechanisms for a circular economy	Establish systems for maximizing the use of components and resources, contributing to economic security and environmental sustainability
Strengthening human resources and foundational roles	Establish systems to continuously secure and nurture talent, supporting stable product development, manufacturing, sales, and service operations
Creating mobility systems built around integrated automated driving	Establish systems that integrate vehicles, people, and infrastructure to enable safe and secure mobility
Promoting fundamental reform of automobile-related tax systems	Create a simpler less onerous tax structure that users can endorse
Enhancing competitiveness across the entire supply chain	Restructure supply chains to boost competitiveness while addressing electrification, intelligent technologies, and labor shortages creating additional genba capacity

At the board meeting, Vice Chairman Masanori Katayama (Isuzu Motors Limited) also stressed that, when it comes to the seven priority challenges, the value lies not in the initiative itself but in delivering results. 

Further, Executive Director Masahiro Moro (Mazda Motor Corporation) presented the new leadership team with a strongly worded proposal. 

“Before we begin delving into the specifics of these seven priority challenges, I felt it was crucial that we bring into sharper focus the sense of urgency underlying them all, which I spelled out in a kind of written proposal,” Moro noted. 

“We must squarely confront the question of whether individual companies continuing to do their best and pushing each other to excel, as they do now, will secure the future international competitiveness of Japanese monozukuri as a whole,” he added. 

In light of Executive Director Moro’s proposal, JAMA has set out three focal points for pursuing its seven priority challenges: 

Focal point	Definition
Leverage the diversity of Japan’s automakers	Boost Japan’s overall competitiveness by harnessing its broad scope and various strengths
Narrative approach	Demonstrate societal value through cross-industry and public-private collaboration to broaden support
Sense of urgency	Clarify projects with social implementation as the goal and commit — as a core industry — to strengthening the economy

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