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☆ Toyota gets activism, without the activists
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-05 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

SINGAPORE, June 5 (Reuters Breakingviews) - It’s one thing to be targeted by pushy activists looking for a quick return. It’s perhaps more embarrassing to receive the wholesale disapproval of American pension funds who are long-term stewards of capital. That’s the position the board of $200 billion carmaker Toyota (7203.T) finds itself in. The pair also favoured a resolution brought by Danish and Dutch pension funds urging Toyota to improve disclosure of its lobbying on climate change. Toyota insists its board adheres to the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s independence standards.

Persons: Akio Toyoda, Katrina Hamlin, Pete Sweeney, Pranav Kiran Organizations: Reuters, Toyota, New York, California Public Employees, Danish, Tokyo Stock, Twitter, Thomson Locations: SINGAPORE, New York City, Una, Saudi, East

Toyota shares closed up 3.4%, outperforming the 1.2% gain in the Nikkei index (.N225). BOARD INDEPENDENCENew York City Comptroller Brad Lander said in a statement the Toyota board was not adequately independent. The New York comptroller's office oversees a pension system with $243 billion in assets under management. Those funds held 6.7 million shares in Toyota Group companies, including Toyota Boshoku (3116.T) and Toyota Tsusho (8015.T) as of end March. The New York pension system has also urged both Ford (F.N) and General Motors (GM.N) to move rapidly toward electrification and to disclose more about their lobbying on vehicle standards.

Persons: Akio Toyoda, Glass Lewis, Toyoda, CalPERS, Brad Lander, Daniel Leussink, David Dolan, Maki Shiraki, Kevin Krolicki, Jamie Freed, Christopher Cushing, Leslie Adler Organizations: Toyota Motor Corp, California Public Employees, New York, Toyota, Tokyo Stock Exchange, Nikkei, The, Toyota Group, Ford, General Motors, Lexus, Thomson Locations: TOKYO, New York City, York, Tokyo

One of them, Glass Lewis, recommended shareholders vote against re-electing Toyoda, citing what it said was his responsibility for the lack of a sufficiently independent board. Toyota on Friday did not immediately comment on the votes against the re-election of Toyoda. The New York comptroller's office oversees a pension system with $243 billion in assets under management. BOARD INDEPENDENCENew York City Comptroller Brad Lander said the Toyota board was not adequately independent, in a statement explaining the vote by the funds it oversees. The New York pension system has also urged both Ford (F.N) and General Motors (GM.N) to move rapidly toward electrification and to disclose more about their lobbying on vehicle standards.

Persons: Akio Toyoda, Glass Lewis, Toyoda, CalPERS, Brad Lander, Elon, Daniel Leussink, David Dolan, Maki Shiraki, Kevin Krolicki, Jamie Freed Organizations: Toyota Motor Corp, California Public Employees, New York, Toyota, Tokyo Stock Exchange, The, New, Ford, General Motors, Thomson Locations: TOKYO, New York City, York, New York, Tokyo

One of them, Glass Lewis, recommended shareholders vote against re-electing Toyoda, citing what it said was his responsibility for the lack of a sufficiently independent board. CalPERS, which declined to comment, is the largest U.S. public pension fund with some $450 billion in assets under management. The New York City pension funds held 6.7 million shares in Toyota Group companies, including Toyota Boshoku (3116.T) and Toyota Tsusho (8015.T) as of end March. BOARD INDEPENDENCENew York City Comptroller Brad Lander said the Toyota board was not adequately independent, in a statement explaining the vote by the funds it oversees. The New York pension system has also urged both Ford (F.N) and General Motors (GM.N) to move rapidly toward electrification and to disclose more about their lobbying on vehicle standards.

Persons: Akio Toyoda, Glass Lewis, Toyoda, CalPERS, Brad Lander, Daniel Leussink, David Dolan, Maki Shiraki, Kevin Krolicki, Jamie Freed, Christopher Cushing Organizations: Toyota Motor Corp, California Public Employees, New York, Toyota, Tokyo Stock Exchange, The, New, Toyota Group, Nikkei, Ford, General Motors, Lexus, Thomson Locations: TOKYO, New York City, York, Tokyo

☆ Toyota governance fight gets stuck in traffic
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-30 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MELBOURNE, May 30 (Reuters Breakingviews) - Governance campaigns against Japanese companies have a hard enough time gaining traction as it is. ValueAct Capital’s two-year campaign against Seven & i (3382.T) culminated last week with at best just a third of shareholders backing its four board candidates. Glass Lewis asserts just three of Toyota’s 10 board candidates are unaffiliated, fewer than the one-third the advisory sets as a floor. Toyota insists its board meets the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s independence standards. He should go in any event: having the former CEO of 14 years lead the board is bad governance.

☆ Not enough resources for EVs to be only cleaner car option, Toyota says
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Some investors and environmental groups have long criticised Toyota (7203.T) for being slow to embrace BEVs, saying it has lagged Tesla Inc (TSLA.O) and others amid growing global demand. Gill Pratt, chief executive of the Toyota Research Institute, told reporters that BEVs could make a positive difference in reducing climate change in countries such as Norway, which has a lot of renewable infrastructure. But in other parts of the world, where coal is still used to produce power, hybrids were better for CO2 emissions, he added. "But it's going to take decades for battery material mines, renewable power generation, transmission lines and seasonal energy-storage facilities to scale up." BEVs are "one very important option" for achieving carbon neutrality and hydrogen is as well, Toyoda, who currently is chairman of Toyota, told reporters earlier on Thursday.

☆ SoftBank shares drop after its Vision Fund tech investment unit posts a $32 billion record loss
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-12 | by ( Arjun Kharpal | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

In this article 9984.T-JP Follow your favorite stocks CREATE FREE ACCOUNTSoftBank's Vision Fund posted a record loss in the year ended Mar. The flagship tech investment unit has been hit by the falling prices of tech stocks. Akio Kon | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesShares of Japanese tech investor SoftBank fell on Friday after the company reported a record loss at its Vision Fund tech investment unit. The company said on Thursday that its Vision Fund segment lost a record 4.3 trillion Japanese yen ($32 billion) for its fiscal year ending Mar. The $100 billion Vision Fund was launched in 2017 under the stewardship of SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son and shook up the tech investing world.

[1/2] A Toyota logo is seen during the New York International Auto Show, in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., April 5, 2023. REUTERS/David 'Dee' DelgadoTOKYO, May 12 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) said on Friday the vehicle data of 2.15 million users in Japan, or almost the entire customer base who signed up for its main cloud service platforms since 2012, had been publicly available for a decade due to human error. The issue, which began in November 2013 and lasted until mid-April, stemmed from human error, leading to a cloud system being set to public instead of private, a Toyota spokesperson said. It could encompass details such as vehicle locations and identification numbers of vehicle devices, but there were no reports of malicious use, the company said. Toyota said it would introduce a system to audit cloud settings, establish a system to continuously monitor settings, and thoroughly educate employees on data handling rules.

Toyota's board on Wednesday recommended that shareholders vote against the resolution, to be put to the company's annual general meeting in June. On Wednesday Toyota said it expects a five-fold jump in pure electric vehicle (EV) sales this business year. "We need concrete policy changes and a better annual review drawing on independent data to calm international investors." LONG ENGAGEMENTIt will be the first time that Toyota faces such a climate-related resolution at its annual general meeting, the funds said. It first planned to submit a shareholder proposal in 2021, but withdrew that after it received assurances that Toyota would review its climate lobbying.

BANGKOK, May 8 (Reuters) - Japanese carmaker Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) has stopped sales and deliveries of its Yaris Ativ in Thailand, senior officials said on Monday, after its affiliate Daihatsu rigged part of the door in side-collision safety tests. Toyota was working with the Thai government to resume sales of the model, which has been produced in Toyota's Gateway plant in Chachoengsao province, and further investigation was underway. "If development had been carried out under appropriate conditions, this kind of problem would of course not have happened," Maeda said. Daihatsu has said that some 76,000 of those vehicles were Yaris Ativs mainly bound for Thailand, Mexico and the Gulf Cooperation Council. Toyota President Koji Sato, who took over the top job from Toyoda on April 1, was not at the press conference.

☆ In China, a Detention and a New Espionage Law Have Businesses Worried
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( Yoko Kubota | Miho Inada | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

China’s detention of a Japanese executive at Astellas Pharma is one of a string of incidents that have sparked new concerns among foreign companies. Photo: Akio Kon/Bloomberg NewsBEIJING— Hiroshi Nishiyama , a veteran Japanese executive at Astellas Pharma Inc. and a prominent member of his country’s business circle in China, spent late March wrapping up his assignment there and preparing to head home. He never made it. Mr. Nishiyama disappeared on what was supposed to be his last day in China. A few days later, China’s Foreign Ministry said he had been accused of espionage and detained.

☆ Toyota-affiliate Daihatsu rigged safety test for 88,000 cars
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-28 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Toyota said it had not received any report of an accident or injury related to the rigged side-crash test. Daihatsu said it had discovered the rigged safety test after a whistleblower report. It said it had reported the issue to safety regulatory agencies and stopped shipment of affected models. The affected models include Toyota Yaris Ativs made in Thailand from last August, and Perodua Axias manufactured in Malaysia starting from February. Daihatsu said it would run new safety tests in the presence of regulators and confirm the safety of the models before resuming shipments.

TOKYO, April 27 (Reuters) - Japan's Denso Corp (6902.T), a leading supplier to Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T), reported an 86.3% rise in fourth quarter operating profit on Thursday, benefitting from stronger sales and weaker lockdown-induced headwinds. The company, a major manufacturer of automotive parts and chips, posted operating profit of 158.1 billion yen ($1.18 billion) for the three months to end-March, versus an average 161.51 billion yen profit estimated by 10 analysts. A year earlier, the company earned 84.9 billion yen in profit. Denso gets about half of its revenue from the Toyota group, which also includes Toyota truck unit Hino Motors (7205.T) and small-car maker Daihatsu, and counts Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda as a board member. The company, which makes systems for running gasoline engines and driving hybrid and battery-powered vehicles, projected operating profit of 510 billion yen for the current business year that started April 1.

A new EV platform, if implemented, would be the result of a far-reaching review of Toyota's electric-car strategy undertaken last year. Its current production architecture, the e-TNGA system, was launched in 2019 and produces electric vehicles on the same assembly line as gasoline cars and hybrids. The briefing was given by the former chief competitive officer tasked with the EV strategy review, Shigeki Terashi, according to the person. So far it has fallen short - its initial battery EV, the bZ4X, suffered an early recall and has had only limited sales. GM sold more than 20,000 electric vehicles during the first quarter while Toyota and its luxury brand Lexus sold about 1,880 battery electrics.

☆ Japan's business mood sours to 2-year low as global slowdown bites, Tankan survey shows
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-03 | by ( ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +2 min

Japan's business sentiment soured in January-March to hit the worst level in more than two years, the closely-watched tankan survey showed on April 3, 2023. Akio Kon | Bloomberg | Getty ImagesJapan's business sentiment soured in January-March to hit the worst level in more than two years, a closely-watched central bank survey showed on Monday, as slowing global growth clouds the outlook for the export-reliant economy. The service-sector mood, by contrast, recovered as easing border controls and an end to Covid-19 curbs heightened hopes for a rebound in tourism and consumption, the Bank of Japan's tankan survey showed. It was the fifth straight quarter of deterioration and the worst level hit since December 2020. Given the fragile nature of Japan's recovery, the BOJ is not in a situation where it can normalize monetary policy anytime soon.

☆ Crypto is banned in China, but Binance employees and support volunteers tell people how to bypass the ban
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-23 | by ( Rohan Goswami | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +18 min

The messages CNBC reviewed come from accounts identified as Binance employees or Binance-trained volunteers known as "Angels." Whatever the method, Binance's Chinese users take on a significant risk: In China, crypto exchanges have been outlawed since 2017, while crypto itself was outlawed in 2021. But Chinese customers have continued to seek ways to trade on Binance, which include using instructions provided by employees and volunteers. "'Binance does not offer a 'Binance Chinese Android app," a spokesperson said. In addition, hours after Binance responded to CNBC, messages apeared on Twitter suggesting that some customers' Binance debit cards had been frozen.

Hong Kong/Tokyo CNN —Masatoshi Ito, the Japanese billionaire who turned 7-Eleven convenience stores into a global empire, has died aged 98, closing the chapter on one of Asia’s most storied retail entrepreneurs. A 7-Eleven convenience store in Japan's Kanagawa Prefecture, on January 9, 2023. So, how did 7-Eleven become synonymous with the Japanese convenience store culture as we know it today? He renamed the company Ito Yokado and started running the business like a US supermarket. Ito Yokado was renamed Seven & I Holdings in 2005, and Ito remained its honorary chairman until his death.

☆ Shoichiro Toyoda Led Toyota to Dominance in the U.S.
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-16 | by ( River Davis | Chieko Tsuneoka | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

TOKYO—When Shoichiro Toyoda took the helm of his father’s company in 1982, about 6% of new cars sold in the U.S. were made by Toyota Motor Corp., compared with 43% from General Motors. Mr. Toyoda, who died Feb. 14 at the age of 97, built plants in North America, smoothed over trade frictions and accelerated Toyota’s growth into a global juggernaut. He ultimately left his son, Akio Toyoda , a company that in 2021 overtook GM as the U.S.’s top-selling auto maker for the first time.

☆ Kazuo Ueda nominated to lead Japan's central bank in possible move away from ultra-easy policy
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-14 | by ( Laura He | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +5 min

Hong Kong CNN —The Japanese government has nominated Kazuo Ueda to lead its central bank, in a surprise move that could pave the way for the country to wind down its ultra-loose monetary policy. Accommodative is a term used to describe monetary policy that adjusts to adverse market conditions and usually involves keeping interest rates low to spur growth and employment. As part of that program, the central bank targeted some short-term interest rates at an ultra-dovish minus 0.1% and aimed for 10-year government bond yields around 0%. But as prices rose and interest rates elsewhere went up, pressure has grown on the BOJ to wind down YCC. But Kuroda later dismissed a near-term exit from his ultra-loose monetary policy.

☆ New Toyota Chief Says He Will Accelerate Shift in EV Strategy
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-13 | by ( River Davis | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

TOKYO— Toyota Motor Corp.’s new chief executive said he was looking to accelerate the auto maker’s push into electric vehicles by introducing new EV-optimized parts and manufacturing methods. Toyota will develop new EVs for its luxury Lexus brand by 2026, and everything in those models will be optimized for EVs including the battery and the manufacturing platform, Koji Sato said at a briefing Monday. Mr. Sato, 53, is set to become chief executive in April, taking over from longtime leader Akio Toyoda .

☆ Toyota's Q3 profit jumps 22%, buoyed by weak yen and higher sales
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Daniel Leussink | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +4 min

Operating profit for the three months ended Dec. 31 was 956.7 billion yen ($7.28 billion). That beat the average 764.54 billion yen profit estimated by 10 analysts, according to Refinitiv data. In the same period a year earlier, Toyota reported a 784.4 billion yen profit. He will hand over to the leader of Toyota's Lexus luxury brand as the shift to electric vehicles challenges the car giant. It also cut its sales target for battery electric vehicles to 40 from 58, following an embarrassing recall of its first battery electric model, the bz4x, last year due to safety issues.

☆ Toyota's Q3 profit jumps 22% as weak yen helps
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-09 | by ( Daniel Leussink | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Operating profit for the three months ended Dec. 31 was 956.7 billion yen ($7.28 billion). That beat the average 764.54 billion yen profit estimated by 10 analysts, according to Refinitiv data. In the same period a year earlier, Toyota reported a 784.4 billion yen profit. While it trimmed its annual production target by about 1%, to around 9.1 million vehicles, it stuck to its forecast for annual profit of 2.4 trillion yen for the year to end-March. The automaker is likely to comfortably exceed that forecast, given that it has now delivered 2.1 trillion yen in the first nine months of the year, said Koji Endo, senior analyst at SBI Securities.

☆ Toyota Rethinks EV Strategy With New CEO
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-29 | by ( River Davis | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

Toyota ’s chief executive always said he wasn’t a skeptic about electric vehicles—he was a realist. Longtime CEO Akio Toyoda called himself a spokesman for “a silent majority” of people in the auto industry who questioned a single-minded focus on EVs. He argued that hybrid gas-electric vehicles like Toyota’s Prius could be just as environmentally friendly, and said other companies were pushing consumers to make a leap into EVs that they might not be ready for, without a charging infrastructure fully in place.

The 66-year-old Toyoda on Thursday announced he would step aside as leader of the company his grandfather founded from April 1 to take the role of chairman. He will hand over to Koji Sato, the 53-year-old head of Toyota's luxury Lexus brand. "It's likely that he'll remain active as chairman for a long time and continue to put his mark on Toyota." "Toyota is a public company that likes to pretend it's a family company," said John Shook, a former Toyota manager who now consults on the lean management techniques pioneered by the automaker. "Choosing someone who is much younger and with Sato's background indicates Akio recognised the time for change had come."

TOKYO, Jan 27 (Reuters) - Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) chief Akio Toyoda is set to remain a dominant force inside the world's largest automaker for years to come, and will continue to influence the agenda after stepping down in April, experts and people familiar with the firm said. The 66-year-old Toyoda on Thursday announced he would step aside as leader of the company his grandfather founded from April 1 to take the role of chairman. "It's likely that he'll remain active as chairman for a long time and continue to put his mark on Toyota." "Toyota is a public company that likes to pretend it's a family company," said John Shook, a former Toyota manager who now consults on the lean management techniques pioneered by the automaker. "Choosing someone who is much younger and with Sato's background indicates Akio recognised the time for change had come."

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