Toyota Motor Corp. shareholders on Tuesday approved a proposal to reelect Chairman Akio Toyoda to the board despite investment advisories urging a vote against him following a recent series of safety test scandals at the leading Japanese automaker group.

At the annual shareholders' meeting at its headquarters in Aichi Prefecture, nine other board members, including President Koji Sato and Vice Chairman Shigeru Hayakawa, were also reappointed.

The scandals and the group's corporate governance were central themes at the meeting's question and answer session, attended by 4,656 people. Attendees were up by 882 from last year despite the rainy weather, highlighting a high level of interest in the matter among the shareholders.

Confronted with questions regarding his management, Toyoda defended his approach, saying he is making sure he leaves making decisions up to a younger generation and that he only acts as an advisor.

"I will lead reforms as a person responsible for the whole group," the Toyota founder's grandson said.

Prior to the meeting, U.S. proxy advisory firm Institutional Shareholder Services recommended that shareholders oppose a company proposal to reappoint Toyoda, saying the long-time top executive was responsible for recent safety data rigging at group companies.

Another U.S. proxy adviser, Glass Lewis, also recommended rejecting the reappointment of the chairman for the same reason, as well as Hayakawa, questioning his performance as chair of a meeting that decides executive personnel appointments.

Toyoda's reappointment was widely anticipated given his popularity among individual investors and the company's record profits in the last fiscal year, as well as years of cross-shareholdings with its business partners.

At the meeting, Sato pledged the world's biggest auto group would improve compliance while apologizing for its vehicle test fraud cases in Japan.

"We are trying to reform the foundation of our corporate culture," Sato said.

Toyota's truck-manufacturing subsidiary Hino Motors Ltd. admitted to cheating on emission and fuel efficiency data in 2022, and its small-car-making unit Daihatsu Motor Co. said the following year that safety data had been manipulated for most of its cars.

In January this year, affiliate Toyota Industries Corp. revealed that engine data had been falsified for years. This month, Toyota said it did not fully follow government standards for collision and other vehicle tests and also rigged engine output data for seven of its models.

The transport ministry has ordered a shipment ban on three of the affected models currently on the market.

All the affected models were rolled out when Toyoda was in his previous role as president.

==Kyodo

© Kyodo News International, Inc., source Newswire