Honda puts 1st woman on its board
TOKYO — Honda appointed a woman to its board for the first time and gave a major promotion to a foreigner in signs the automaker wants to change perceptions of a hidebound corporate culture.
Technology expert Hideko Kunii, 66, will join the board, and Issao Mizoguchi, a Brazilian of Japanese ancestry, who has worked with Honda’s South American operations for nearly 30 years, has been appointed operating officer, Honda said. The appointments need shareholder approval at a meeting set for June.
Companies have come under fire within Japan for not promoting anyone other than Japanese men.
Toyota has a foreigner on its board, American Mark Hogan, formerly of General Motors, but has yet to tap a woman, and it said it is not necessarily looking to promote a woman.
Honda has cultivated an international image from its early years, as founder Soichiro Honda always had global acceptance as part of his vision for the company. It was the first Japanese automaker to open a vehicle assembly plant in the U.S.
But the addition of Mizoguchi, 54, as one of the top executives at headquarters, as well as the appointment of Kunii, a professor, is a high profile move for the company.
