Toyota Motor Corp. said Friday that CFO Kenta Kon will take over as chief executive officer on April 1, succeeding Koji Sato, who will become vice chairman and assume the newly created post of chief industry officer.
Sato said at a press conference the change was made to improve Toyota's "earning power" and that he wanted to focus on his role as head of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association after being appointed in January, with his role considered paramount for the struggling industry as it faces headwinds with U.S. tariffs and rising costs.
"I had been asking myself whether I would be able to work at the highest capacity at the association and also be responsible for Toyota," he said at the press conference in Tokyo.
Sato also serves as a vice chair of Japan's biggest business lobby, the Japan Business Federation, widely known as Keidanren.
Having served as president for Toyota for just three years, Sato described his term as "short," but said auto manufacturing is a fast-moving industry and his company's management team needs a "change of formation" to address the challenges it faces.
Sato's time as CEO since 2023 is the second shortest in the company's history, a spokesperson said.
Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda was not involved in the decision-making process, Sato added.
Kon said at the press conference that he would draw on his experience as CFO to "focus on money, profits and numbers."
"We will raise earnings and keep business running," he said.
The change comes as the country's automotive industry has been weighed down by the steep levies imposed by the United States.
Toyota said it expects tariffs imposed by U.S. President Donald Trump to hit operating profit for the business year ended March by 1.45 trillion yen ($9.2 billion).
Among other automakers which have announced their nine-month earnings, Subaru Corp. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. forecast their net profit for fiscal 2025 to plunge 63.0 percent and 75.6 percent, respectively, due mainly to the U.S. tariffs.
Toyota announced its earnings results the same day, noting that net profit for the nine months through December dropped 26.1 percent to 3.03 trillion yen, its first fall in three years, while operating profit sank 13.1 percent to 3.20 trillion yen.
Sales rose to a record high for the period to 38.09 trillion yen, up 6.8 percent.
It revised upward its net profit outlook for fiscal 2025 to 3.57 trillion yen from the previously forecast 2.93 trillion yen on the yen's depreciation.
The Japanese automaker did not hold a press briefing for the group's earnings results for the April-December period.
==Kyodo
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