Daihatsu Motor's chairman and president will resign, Toyota Motor Corp. announced on Tuesday. This comes nearly a year after the small-car division claimed it had rigged crash safety tests.

In an effort to bring Daihatsu back to its historical status as one of Japan's most recognizable small car manufacturers, the departures represent some of the company's most significant recent adjustments.

The safety certification violations at Daihatsu, in addition to distinct governance problems at truck manufacturer Hino Motors and subsidiary Toyota Industries, could potentially harm Toyota's brand. Last month, Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda issued a rare apology in response to the crises involving the three companies.

With effect from March 1, Soichiro Okudaira will step down as president of Daihatsu, according to a statement released by the top-selling carmaker in the world and Masahiro Inoue, its chief executive officer for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Toyota also stated that Sunao Matsubayashi, the chairman of Daihatsu, will retire and not be replaced. Before taking over as president of Daihatsu in 2017, the departing Okudaira had nearly forty years of experience with Toyota, having joined the company the year before it became a fully owned subsidiary. However, Toyota CEO Koji Sato informed reporters that Daihatsu's organizational reform was not implemented as retaliation against the departing executives.

In terms of volume, Daihatsu made up 7% of Toyota's 11.2 million group sales in 2023, which also included Hino Motors and the upscale Lexus brand. In a second statement, the manufacturer announced that Daihatsu will also no longer be a part of the Commercial Japan Alliance Technologies (CJPT), a commercial vehicle alliance, due to the misbehavior surrounding the safety test certification applications.

To support the advancement of commercial vehicle technology, Toyota, Hino, and Isuzu Motors formed the alliance in April 2021. July of the same year saw the merger of Suzuki Motor and Daihatsu.