AP – Toyota shareholders voted yesterday in support of all the company’s proposals, including keeping Akio Toyoda, grandson of the Japanese automaker’s founder, as chairman on the board.
Details on the vote tallies were not immediately available. But the company confirmed 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 centred around fraudulent certification tests for vehicles.
The cheating did not result in recalls or safety problems. A shareholder proposal requesting that Toyota issue an annual report on its climate-related lobbying activities was rejected.
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 their feet on climate change. Under Toyoda, it has pushed a “multi-pathway” approach to ecological vehicles, emphasising hybrids, which have both a gasoline engine and electric motor, and using hydrogen for fuel instead of focusing on battery electric vehicles.
“The group considers climate change measures to be one of its important management tasks and is fully concentrated on realising carbon neutrality by 2050,” Toyota said in explaining its recommendation on the shareholders’ vote.
It stressed its multi-pathway strategy and argued it was transparent and sincere about various environmental efforts.
The results were expected because Toyota’s biggest shareholders among nearly one million are Japanese companies such as banks, insurers and financial institutions that would be unlikely to challenge the automaker, at about 39 per cent ownership of the total shares.
Other corporate entities make up 25 per cent, foreign corporate entities nearly 22 per cent and individual shareholders about 14 per cent. Toyota Industries Corp, a group company, is the number two shareholder. Parts maker Denso Corp is the sixth biggest shareholder.
Last year, Toyoda won re-election with nearly 85 per cent of the vote. That was down from 96 per cent in 2022. How much he received this year is still unclear.
Toyota officials have repeatedly apologised for the fraudulent vehicle testing, and chief executive Koji Sato reiterated the apology at the shareholders’ meeting.
