Toyota Stockholders Retain Akio Toyoda As Chairman

Toyota shareholders have voted to support all the company’s proposals, including keeping Akio Toyoda, grandson of the Japanese automaker’s founder, as chairman on the board, Yuri Kageyama reported for the Associated Press (AP).

Toyota and other major domestic makers have been embroiled in a scandal centered around fraudulent certification tests for vehicles. I Photo: Toyota

Details on the vote tallies were not immediately available, but the company confirmed that the majority voted in support of its positions.

A shareholder proposal requesting that Toyota issue an annual report on its climate-related lobbying activities was rejected.

The annual meeting, held at company headquarters in Toyota City, central Japan, has drawn attention because Toyota and other major domestic makers have been embroiled in a scandal centered around fraudulent certification tests for vehicles.

Still, it’s a major embarrassment for a manufacturer with a reputation for quality whose production methods are studied around the world. Some individual shareholders asked about the scandal during the meeting.

Toyota, which makes the Prius hybrid, Camry sedan, and Lexus luxury models, is at times seen as dragging its feet on climate change.

Under Toyoda, it has pushed a “multi-pathway” approach to ecological vehicles, emphasizing hybrids, which have both a gasoline engine and electric motor, and using hydrogen for fuel instead of focusing on battery electric vehicles.