President Sato

What we need to do right now is translate our healthy sense of urgency into action. On this point, I think our discussions have helped us to reach a shared understanding.

Building on this, in response to the union’s demands I would like to present our plans for comprehensive investment in human resources, consisting of three elements.

The first is ongoing discussions within individual groups and companies throughout the year.

With everyone participating in discussions, we will work one by one through issues that can be resolved within the workplace. We will also determine actions to boost individual fulfillment and competitiveness, based on each team’s circumstances.

Chief officers and presidents will monitor genba conditions to make decisions and ensure they are enacted.

This also means that differences will arise between individual groups and companies. Leaders and team members must understand that and put effort into their respective areas.

After building up actions in individual workplaces, we will convene in July and November to review progress across the company.

The second aspect is mechanisms and systems that encourage employees to act and tackle new challenges.

To better bring out individual abilities, we will change our evaluation systems for all job types and qualifications, allowing for greater variation between roles. In addition to expanding the scope of points that determine bonuses, we will consider mechanisms for rewarding effort beyond qualifications.

For technical roles, to account for the reality of more diverse contributions, we will conduct a comprehensive overhaul of our personnel systems, including job types, promotions, and allowances.

Also, to accommodate increasingly diverse team members, we will enhance measures to support newcomers, including systems that draw on senior colleagues in the workplace.

These revisions of mechanisms and systems will be the focus of a special labor-management committee, which will provide concrete details by October.

The third element is wages and bonuses.

For both wages and bonuses, a wages subcommittee will discuss and finalize the details so as to better draw out the abilities of each employee.

For example, we would like to enable a more generous allocation to those individuals who expand the scope of their work and utilize their expertise to take on new challenges, including, as we discussed, technical members involved in upstream processes such as development and manufacturing engineering, and operational staff striving to improve productivity.

This is our response regarding comprehensive investment in human resources.

From today, we once again begin our year-long dialogue.

I don’t think any of the issues we are grappling with have easy answers.

Toyota’s family discussions are a way for labor and management to think through these problems and search for solutions together.

From there, we start by making decisions and trying things out, then making improvements in the genba. If we continue to do that, the future is sure to look different.

The future will not be changed by systems, but by the energy and passion of each one of us working at Toyota.

At the first round of discussions, a union representative commented that they love cars and wanted to work for Toyota since they were little, because they believe that everyone here must be brought together by some kind of burning passion.

These words resonated deeply with me. Looking back at my own experience, I realized that it was also true for me.

The desire to make cool cars with our own hands.
To carry Japan on our shoulders while doing good for the world.

I am sure that each of us had our own reasons for joining Toyota. And, having worked hard and learned our jobs, I’m sure we each experienced the joys of personal growth and contribution.

As we get older and more experienced, in some ways, we become savvier and may end up building walls around ourselves.

If we have the will, we can change ourselves and the future. By changing ourselves, we naturally spur change in those around us.

Let us once more think back to our own starting points, ignite our ambitions, and take action.

For the smiles of our customers. For our colleagues in the automotive industry. And for the future that lies before each of us.

Let’s make ever-better cars! Let’s work hard together! And let’s create a company where employees and management can spur each other on with these words. Thank you very much.