Toyota names founder's grandson to lead company

TOKYO — Toyota Motor, the Japanese auto giant, named Akio Toyoda, the grandson of the company’s founder, as its next president on Tuesday, returning to its roots as it faces the roughest downturn in more than 70 years.

The appointment of Toyoda, 52, was widely expected as part of a management reshuffling at the company, which expects its first full-year operating loss since his grandfather started the company in 1937. The last family member to lead the company was his uncle, Tatsuro Toyoda, who stepped down in 1995.

Toyoda will take over as the company vies with General Motors to become the world’s largest automaker but also struggles to overcome the sudden and steep drop in the global market. He must also convince skeptics that a member of the Toyoda family, which now owns less than two percent of the company, should even hold the post.

The younger Toyoda will succeed Katsuaki Watanabe, who will become vice chairman. Fujio Cho will remain as chairman.

The transition will occur in June, after Toyota’s annual shareholders’ meeting. That is the normal time for Toyota to change management, and Watanabe will be finishing the usual four-year tenure for a Toyota chief executive.

But the early announcement that Toyoda would be assuming the president’s job is unusual for Toyota, which traditionally does not signal such shifts until the spring before they take place.

The move may be aimed in part at assuring shareholders that Toyota, which faces its most significant financial crisis in years, is ready to take drastic steps to address it, and also to give the company time to get used to its relatively young new president.

No matter the timing, Toyoda is already a widely known figure in Japan, where his public appearances have drawn crowds of journalists, especially in recent years when it became clear he was headed for the top job.

Last month, Toyota said it expected to lose $1.7 billion in its main automaking business during the current fiscal year, which ends March 31. That is the company’s first loss since its first few months in operation in 1937, when Toyoda’s grandfather, Kiichiro Toyoda, founded the automaker as an offshoot of an automated loom business.

Endo said he expected to lose up to three times as much in the next fiscal year.