President Sato

Earlier, Vice Chairman Eshita spoke about “shared leadership.” As Toyota’s current management, we embrace this idea, having set out to lead the company as a team.

I would like to follow up those comments with a suggestion.

These labor-management discussions serve as a platform that brings representatives together to discuss. Today, in this environment, I feel that the talks have made progress.

But if we want to get everyone engaged, as we pointed out earlier, I think these discussions should move a bit closer to the workplace level.

In other words, what I am suggesting is that we hold the second round of discussions between workers and management at the group level, separately within each group.

The group’s chief officer would take the lead, ensuring that everyone understands the concept of shared leadership we talked about. They would discuss the issues to be resolved now or steps to be taken for the future, specific to the needs of individual workplaces, and link them to at least one or two concrete actions. It may be a good way to formulate decisions.

And for decisions that cannot be finalized, or which impact the entire company, we can then bring them back together again to be discussed collectively.

Chairman Kito

This session has allowed workers and management to gain a shared understanding of the issues that Toyota is grappling with, and the concerns of our automotive industry colleagues. It has once again highlighted our difficult environment, from various perspectives, and given us the opportunity to consider in depth what we can or should do to overcome these challenges.

I believe the common issue throughout today’s discussion is that a lack of accountability has taken root across the company, and we have ended up with a culture where directions are based on vertical relationships and which prizes a hierarchical mindset over individual ideas.

I think this is something that everyone at Toyota should reflect on, not only union representatives or management. Unless we break with the status quo, I don’t think it is possible for the company to change fundamentally.

We aim to eliminate a mentality centered on title-based seniority and hierarchical relationships between production line processes, enabling everyone to think independently and, within their respective roles, actively work for the benefit of others without feeling obligated to do so. This is how we can ensure job satisfaction and fulfillment for every Toyota employee, and I believe that will lead to ever-better cars and greater productivity.

However, this transformation cannot be accomplished overnight. Union members, executives, management, and the company as a whole must constantly think about how we can change the current situation, and what we can do moving forward, translating these ideas into concrete action.

By sustaining such action, we—as individuals, as teams, and as a company—will be able to make our greatest contribution to the growth of Japan and the auto industry.