Toyota’s ex‑CEO calls for joint standards among Japanese carmakers as China overtakes

Koji Sato, former CEO of Toyota and now chief industry officer, is urging Japan’s automakers to cooperate on standardising components and other areas to boost international competitiveness. As head of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association (JAMA), he warned that the Japanese auto industry “will not survive” without coordinated efficiency improvements.

Sato pointed to recent market shifts: in May, Chinese manufacturers outsold Japanese brands in Europe for the first time, and China supplied 144,425 new cars to the market versus Japan’s 117,332, making China the top source of new vehicles. He cited the proliferation of roughly 70,000 wiring‑harness variants in Japan as a barrier to automation, proposing a ten‑fold productivity gain through standardisation of harnesses, steel grades, and resin specifications. The timeline could be one to two years, with rollout expected in the next generation of vehicles.

Beyond parts, JAMA is exploring cooperation on logistics, raw‑material access, circular‑recycling commercialisation, talent recruitment, autonomous‑vehicle infrastructure, and simplifying automobile taxes. While tariffs currently limit Chinese sales in the United States, the pressure from China’s expanding global sales is driving the push for a unified Japanese automotive strategy.