MUSCAT — A high-powered team from Toyota Motor Corporation has arrived in city. The officials from Japan include Hisayuki Inoue, managing officer and Hajime Sakaguchi, general manager-Toyota Motor Corporation.

The visit of these senior officials highlights the strategic importance of the Omani market for Toyota in Oman.

Hisayuki Inoue graduated from the Waseda University in 1977 with a degree in Economics. He then spent most of his eventful career at Toyota Motor Corporation either working overseas or supervising overseas activities.

From 1989 to 1994, he worked at the Lexus Division of Toyota Motor Corporation, USA, where he coordinated the launching of Lexus in the United States.

After Inoue returned to Japan, from 1996 to 1999 he oversaw Japanese local dealer operations and business. The experience of these diverse long-term projects added resonance to Mr. Inou’s favourite maxim, “A single stone does not a mountain make.”

Inoue’s notable contributions to Toyota’s North American and Japanese operations led to his appointment in 1999 as the managing director of Toyota Deutschland GmbH in Cologne, Germany, where he contributed to the reorganisation of Toyota’s operations in the German market.

He remained in this position till 2003. In 2004, Inoue was appointed general manager of the Overseas Planning Division, which was reorganised as the Global Planning Division in 2006, to integrate domestic operations. Here he directed strategic product planning and oversaw pricing, sales and human resources for Toyota worldwide. In June 2007, he was appointed the managing officer. In his current position, Inoue oversees Toyota operations in the Middle East, Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean.

Inoue is committed to developing new strategies to achieve sustainable growth while fulfilling Toyota’s social responsibilities.

This, he feels, will further empower Toyota to create value that transcends conventional frameworks.

His immediate goals for his division are to deepen understanding of field operations, act more decisively on this knowledge and cultivate a finer sense of balance and spirit of collaboration. This, he feels, will empower Toyota to create value that transcends conventional frameworks.

Hajime (Jim) Sakaguchi, a Julis doctor from New York Law School, also is a post-graduate in Public Administration from Harvard University. He began his career at Toyota Motor Sales in 1979. Since then, he has handled several functions across the globe and contributed immensely to Toyota’s overseas businesses.

Jim currently spearheads Toyota operations as general manager of the Middle East & Southwest Asia Sales and Marketing Division.