Toyota Touched Up For Touch-Up

[Mulboyne]

[floatr][/floatr]Newsday: Toyota sued in harassment case
A Forest Hills woman who worked as an executive assistant to the head of Toyota's North America operations has filed a $210-million sexual harassment lawsuit against the executive, the company and its parent corporation in Japan. Sayaka Kobayashi, 42, who still works in the company's Manhattan headquarters, said Toyota North America's president and chief executive Hideaki Otaka, 65, insisted that she accompany him on out-of-town business trips, forcibly grabbed her during outings and talked about his sexual exploits with other women...News reports yesterday said the executive, who is married, would be reassigned to an auditing job in a Toyota division in Japan. But the spokesman said he couldn't confirm "the rumor"...more...

[Greji]

"...Sayaka Kobayashi, 42, who still works in the company's Manhattan headquarters, said Toyota North America's president and chief executive Hideaki Otaka, 65, insisted that she accompany him on out-of-town business trips, forcibly grabbed her during outings and talked about his sexual exploits with other women..."

The article has an important comment on Sayaka-chan "....Kobayashi, a Japanese citizen with permanent U.S. residency...".

This point is that by attacking the icon, she would not be able to work another day in her life in Japan for any name company without being hassled, even if she could even get hired by anyone.

She probably should have just stroked the old boy's Johnson and let it go at that.

[Blah Pete]

This point is that by attacking the icon, she would not be able to work another day in her life in Japan for any name company without being hassled, even if she could even get hired by anyone.

She has filed a $210 million lawsuit.
Even if she only gets 25% (after the sharks take their cuts) do you think she will want or need to work a Japanese or any other company?

[Greji]

She has filed a $210 million lawsuit.
Even if she only gets 25% (after the sharks take their cuts) do you think she will want or need to work a Japanese or any other company?

Pete, do you honestly think she has a chance of winning this case?

Unless she has the old boy on tape, she will have a tough time getting witneses, and they will have to be all non-J people if at all.

This is not class action, it's just her, her old man, and her lawyers against the machine. There will be no calvary riding in to protect the virgin from the heathens.

I'll lay ya two to one that the machine chrushes her.

[Ketou]

Pete, do you honestly think she has a chance of winning this case?

Unless she has the old boy on tape, she will have a tough time getting witneses, and they will have to be all non-J people if at all.

This is not class action, it's just her, her old man, and her lawyers against the machine. There will be no calvary riding in to protect the virgin from the heathens.

I'll lay ya two to one that the machine chrushes her.

I'll wager on an out of court.

[Blah Pete]

Out of court for 20-30 miilion unless she has some good witnesses. If they (witnesses) are all Japanese they may not testify or will probalbe perjure themselves...

[Buraku]

I was thinking he may be a perv as well...protecting another perv

Oh what a feeling! Toyota lawsuit to drive up price of sex harassment punishment
http://mdn.mainichi-msn.co.jp/waiwai/archive/news/2006/05/20060517p2g00m0dm022000c.html

[Taro Toporific]

[INDENT]Toyota settles sex harassment suit

Bloomberg News
Published August 4, 2006, 4:55 PM CDT

Toyota Motor Corp., the world's second-largest automaker, reached a settlement with an employee who'd accused its former North American chief executive officer of sexual harassment.

Terms of the agreement with Sayaka Kobayashi, 42, who was an assistant to CEO Hideaki Otaka, aren't being disclosed, Steve Curtis, a New York-based Toyota spokesman, said today. The suit was filed in New York State Supreme Court May 2.

The case drew unwanted publicity for Toyota, including the cover page of the New York Post. Toyota, without commenting directly on the suit, replaced Otaka, 65, in May with former U.S. sales chief Jim Press. The company also boosted harassment- awareness training and set up a panel led by former U.S. Labor Secretary Alexis Herman to critique its workplace policies.

``If they hadn't settled it could have turned into something bigger and more embarrassing,'' said Mamarvin Keller, president of Mamarvin Keller & Associates in Greenwich, Connecticut, an auto industry consultant. ``In situations like this, settlement is generally the wisest course.''

Kobayashi sought damages of as much as $210 million from New York-based Toyota Motor North America and the parent company in Japan for failing to respond to her allegations about Otaka's behavior.

``We are very pleased to have resolved this matter in a way that all parties have agreed is fair, appropriate and mutually satisfactory to all concerned,'' Toyota and Kobayashi's attorneys said in a statement.

<snip>

Toyota's U.S. shares rose $1.17 to $108.14 in New York Stock Exchange composite trading at 4:27 p.m. and have gained 3.4 percent this year. The company's tatement was released after the close of primary New York trading. [/INDENT]

[Buraku]

Toyota's outsellin' those home grown made in the USA car

Net income increased to 371.5 billion yen (US$3.23 billion), or 115.2 yen a share, for the three months ended June 30, from 266.9 billion yen, or 81.8 yen, a year earlier, the Toyota City, Japan-based carmaker said. That was more than the 330-billion-yen median estimate of seven analysts surveyed by Bloomberg News. Sales rose 13 percent to 5.64 trillion yen.
http://www.shanghaidaily.com/art/2006/08/05/288228/Fuel_stingy_vehicles_help_Toyota_accelerate_profit.htm
President Katsuaki Watanabe boosted global sales and last month overtook Ford Motor Co in the US for the first time as gasoline prices soared. The company is close to ending General Motors Corp's 80-year reign as the world's biggest automaker.
"Toyota's got all the important segments and markets covered very well," said Ashvin Chotai, a London-based automotive analyst for Global Insight Inc. "Toyota's making money on each car, while GM is just moving metal."

[Blah Pete]

I wonder how much she got?
I estimated 20-30 million earlier in the thread but since it was out of court I would revise my estimate to 9-12 million before the sharks take their cut.