TOKYO — As the grandson of the founder of Japan's largest carmaker, Akio Toyoda has always been in the public eye, attracting the same attention that a Ford or duPont might on the other side of the Pacific. Local media have even gone so far as to dub him a "prince."
There's no doubt the clean-cut, bespectacled Toyoda is the rising star of his family and an emerging candidate to head Toyota Motor Corp. sometime down the road.
His career highlights questions about the influence still wielded by Toyota's founding family at a time when this nation, long dominated by lineage and seniority, is gradually turning to Western-style promotion based on ability.
Toyoda, 44, himself insists on playing down his bloodline.
"I'm only an apprentice now — in the Toyoda family, the company and the board — so the time is not right for me to be speaking about being a member of the founding family," he said during a recent interview at Toyota's Tokyo headquarters. Toyota the company takes a "t" instead of the "d" in the family's name because that was considered luckier in Japanese numerology.
Toyoda joined the company's board of directors in June as its youngest member, and already he has been given credit for helping the company shed its stodgy image by expanding its Internet retail business, Gazoo.com. His success at Gazoo helped propel him to the board.
In October, he became president of Gazoo Media Service, a new company 75 percent owned by Toyota that will sell and then maintain computer terminals in convenience stores and car dealerships that link to Gazoo, set up in 1998 to peddle cars, music CDs and other products.
Also working in his favor is his knowledge of U.S.-style management at a time when automakers are growing increasingly global. After graduation from prestigious Keio University in Tokyo, Toyoda went abroad to study business at Babson College, near Boston.
He joined Toyota in 1984 as a regular employee before starting his rise through the ranks. His experience includes serving as vice president at New United Motor Manufacturing Inc., a Fremont, Calif.-based joint venture between Toyota and General Motors Corp. that produces tens of thousands of cars and pickups each year.
Even though he has the right name and the right experience, it's still too early to predict Toyoda's career path within the auto company founded in 1937 by Kiichiro Toyoda, who had previously been in the loom-making business.
"Toyota is filled with excellent executives who aren't Toyodas," said Toshio Konishi, deputy general manager of research at Schroder Securities in Tokyo. "The test for Akio Toyoda remains whether he can survive the competition."
One obstacle in Toyoda's way is that his family has given up nearly all of its financial stake in the company. The Toyodas control only about 1 percent of Toyota shares.
Masaaki Sato, who has written books about the auto industry, believes the founding family only has symbolic influence.
"Toyota was able to grow because it drew outside people's capital," Sato said. "It no longer belongs just to the founding family."
ASSOCIATED PRESS