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Koji Sato

President, Chief Executive Officer, Operating Officer & Director, Toyota Motor Corp

Search every verified Koji Sato interview, podcast appearance, and on-the-record quote — each transcript cross-checked by AI and human review to confirm speaker identity. In a July 2026 interview with Automotive News, Koji Sato discussed his roles as chief industry officer for Toyota and chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA). He described the chief industry officer position as newly created to connect the industry with Toyota, and stated that his work involves creating strategic areas of collaboration to strengthen the foundation for competition. Sato said that by standardizing certain components, such as steel cross-members, suppliers' productivity could be improved, and that the resulting savings could be redirected toward developing new technologies. Sato stated that the solution Toyota envisions is based on a "multi-pathway" approach, offering diverse solutions to meet customer needs in different regions and countries. He also said that the goal is for each original equipment manufacturer (OEM) to maximize its own brand value, which he described as the way to provide value to customers.

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Notable quotes

“To defend the international competitiveness of the automobile industry, the industry must present a united front and concretize strong domains; Japan must identify and demonstrate its value capabilities or it will be left behind.”

“We judged that a K‑team formation change is necessary for the future of the automobile industry, and regarding this personnel reassignment we convened a board today and made the decision.”

“We calculate that as the number of software-defined vehicles increases our necessary communications volume will grow 22 times and computational volume 150 times by 2030 compared to today, so we will establish distributed data centers to support this enormous computational volume.”

“Toyota and NTT have agreed to collaborate on building an AI and communication infrastructure in the field of mobility to work toward achieving a society free of traffic accidents.”

Other executives at Toyota Motor Corp

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