Toyoda to be replaced by Katayama as JAMA head

MANILA: Akio Toyoda, the current Chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) will step down to be replaced by Masanori Katayama.

Toyoda is the Chair of the Toyota Motor Corporation while Katayama is the head and Representative Director of Isuzu Motors Limited.

“Katayama of Isuzu who has great experience in heavy-duty vehicles was elected as the next Chairman,” Toyoda announced during the recently-held JAPMA press conference.

“When I became Chairman, I told the members of the Secretariat the following — you might have been confused every time a new Chairman came into office. To prevent that, let’s create together an unshakable pillar as JAMA. JAMA Secretariat consists of only 100 people yet they represent 5.5 million people engaged in automotive industry so I hope that you would share that determination and awareness of your role in the past five years,” Toyoda noted.

Upon assuming his role as the new JAMA Chair in January of next year, Katayama can expect support from Vice Chairs Yoshihiro Hidaka (Yamaha), Toshihiro Mibe (Honda), Toshihiro Suzuki (Suzuki), Makoto Uchida (Nissan), Koji Sato (Toyota), and Seiichi Nagatsuka (JAMA).

“I feel proud to be elected into this position,” Katayama stated.

“Chairman Toyoda led the industry with his strong leadership and I would like to thank Mr. Toyoda for that. In particular in decisively pushing forward JAMA reform in recent years we saw him show excellent leadership skills on many fronts. We now have a system to work as a team to solve issues with the reform over the past two years,” added Katayama.

Photos from Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association