Toyota Motor announced a senior management change on 5 November under which Ota Shigetaka, currently head of Lexus sales promotion, becomes head of Toyota China, succeeding Ueda Tatsuro, who moves to senior fellow. The appointment takes effect in January 2027.
Toyota said the change is being made in step with the integration of its two Chinese joint ventures, FAW Toyota in the north and GAC Toyota in the south.
Why a Lexus executive
Ota has deep China experience, having previously served as deputy general manager of sales at FAW Toyota, giving him familiarity with dealer networks and local buyer behaviour.
The Lexus background connects directly to the next phase. Lexus is due to begin production at its Shanghai plant in 2027, and handing the China mandate to an executive from the premium brand puts the localisation of Toyota’s highest-margin marque inside the same reporting line as the volume business.
The joint venture merger behind the title change
The larger structural event is the consolidation itself. FAW Toyota and GAC Toyota have completed an equity transfer, and China FAW has become a strategic shareholder in GAC Group.
Under the arrangement, the two ventures will jointly carry the functions of research and development, purchasing, production and sales for the joint businesses, coordinating across product planning, component sourcing, manufacturing and market channels.
Toyota expects the integration to lower purchasing costs, raise development efficiency and shorten decision cycles on electrification and intelligent features, where it has been losing share to Chinese brands that iterate faster.
Toyota’s China sales have held relatively steady through product mix adjustments and channel work in the first half of the fiscal year, even as domestic competition intensified. The new structure is an attempt to make that stability cheaper to hold.
The consolidation also resolves a long-running inefficiency. Two ventures with parallel engineering, duplicate supplier negotiations and separate dealer networks were a strength when China was growing fast enough for both. In a market where the top ten models absorb most of the demand, they are a cost.
Editor’s note: This is an adapted translation of the original Gasgoo report. It has been trimmed and restructured for readability for an international business audience. The full original (in Chinese) is at https://auto.gasgoo.com/news/202611/6I70477132C109.shtml.