TOKYO -- Tatsuro Toyoda, the second son of Toyota Motor Corp.’s founder whose short tenure as president of the company in the 1990s was marked by health issues, has died. He was 88.
Toyoda died Dec. 30 of pneumonia, the company said Saturday.
Tatsuro, a son of founder Kiichiro Toyoda and uncle of current President Akio Toyoda, took the helm of the family’s namesake automaker in mid-1992 from elder brother Shoichiro, who piloted Toyota’s rampant global expansion. But whereas Shoichiro served as president for a decade, Tatsuro lasted just three years.
The younger sibling stepped aside abruptly in 1995 after a prolonged hospitalization for reported hypertension. The company at the time described Toyoda as fighting high blood pressure but it was speculated that he had suffered a mild stroke.
Toyoda collapsed while attending a meeting of the Japan Automobile Dealers Association on Feb. 24, 1995, and remained hospitalized until resigning in August that year.
His departure paved the way for Hiroshi Okuda to become the first Toyota president from outside the family since 1967. Okuda's appointment ushered in an era of three consecutive outside presidents that would last until 2009 when current president Akio restored family control.
During his tenure as president, Tatsuro struggled with an economic downturn in Japan and an earnings slump that were undercut by falling sales and shrinking share in the home market.
