Mitsubishi Motors Recruits Ford Japan Head Eiji Iwankuni Into Board of Directors

TOKYO AP reported that Japan's Mitsubishi Motors Corp. which has been struggling to win back sales under a partnership with DaimlerChrysler AG of Germany, has recruited the head of Ford Japan, Eiji Iwakuni, as a board member.

Iwakuni's addition to the board marks the first time in Mitsubishi's 30-year history that it has put an executive from another automaker other than partner DaimlerChrysler on its board, Mitsubishi said Tuesday.

The appointment will become official after a June 25 shareholders' meeting. Iwakuni replaces Hiroshi Yajima, who is retiring.

Before being named to head Ford Japan in 1998, Iwakuni, 60, was with Japan's No. 2 automaker Honda Motor Co., where he was credited with strengthening Honda dealerships.

Mitsubishi Motors' sales in Japan have slipped since the automaker disclosed in mid-2000 that it had been hiding auto defects for decades to avoid expensive recalls.

In fiscal year 2001, Mitsubishi Motors' Japan sales fell by about 8 percent. A year earlier, they dropped by 15 percent.

In an attempt to patch up its battered corporate image, Mitsubishi Motors is introducing another major managerial change next month. Rolf Eckrodt, the chief operating officer and a former DaimlerChrysler executive, will become chief executive and president, replacing Takashi Sonobe.

Sonobe took over as president about two years ago after his predecessor resigned to take responsibility for the auto defect coverup. He will become chairman.

Ford Japan is a unit of Ford Motor Co., the American automaker based in Dearborn, Mich. The company has not commented on Iwakuni's departure.

Under Iwakuni's helm, Ford Japan has been trying to streamline its dealerships to push Ford brand cars, rather than models made by Mazda Motor Corp.and sold as Fords. Ford owns about a third of Mazda.

But Ford's sales in Japan dropped by about a half -- from 22,000 vehicles in 1998 to 11,000 now -- although the percentage of original Ford brand cars rose from 30 percent to 70 percent.

In the fiscal year that ended in March, Mitsubishi Motors posted its first annual profit in three years -- despite lower sales -- because of cost-cutting that was a central part of a recovery plan led by Eckrodt.