Isuzu’s Katayama to sit as JAMA Chair after Toyota’s Toyoda vacates post

The Chairman and Director Representative of Isuzu Motors, Masanori Katayama, will sit as the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA) Chair in January of 2024.

JAMA’s current Chair, Akio Toyoda from Toyota Motor Corporation announced the news himself at the recently held JAMA press conference.

“Katayama of Isuzu who has great experience in heavy-duty vehicles was elected as the next Chairman,” Toyoda stated.

“When I became Chairman, I told the members of the Secretariat the following — you might have been confused every time a new Chairman came into office. To prevent that, let’s create together an unshakable pillar as JAMA. JAMA Secretariat consists of only 100 people yet they represent 5.5 million people engaged in automotive industry so I hope that you would share that determination and awareness of your role in the past five years,” he added.

Katayama can expect support from his Vice Chairs Yoshihiro Hidaka (Yamaha), Toshihiro Mibe (Honda), Toshihiro Suzuki (Suzuki), Makoto Uchida (Nissan), Koji Sato (Toyota), and Seiichi Nagatsuka (JAMA) when he assumes his new role.

“I feel proud to be elected into this position,” Katayama said.

“Chairman Toyoda led the industry with his strong leadership and I would like to thank Mr. Toyoda for that. In particular in decisively pushing forward JAMA reform in recent years we saw him show excellent leadership skills on many fronts. We now have a system to work as a team to solve issues with the reform over the past two years,” added Katayama.

Photos from Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association

Also read: 

Toyota's Toyoda says Daihatsu impact test issue ‘absolutely unacceptable’

Isuzu, UD Trucks unveil jointly-developed movers