This change in roles sees a car guy engineer being swapped for a financial guru at the helm of Toyota. It signifies an intention to accelerate management decision-making in response to the fast-changing automotive landscape.

Kon is one of the architects of Toyota’s stellar profits and a longtime confidant of Chairman Akio Toyoda. In his previous stint as the CFO of Toyota, he navigated the company through the 2020 global pandemic and the global semiconductor shortage. He was reappointed as its CFO in July 2025.

Through his efforts, he helped develop Toyota’s new trajectory of profit generation from selling services and add-ons to its vehicles. This approach has relieved reliance on the sale of new vehicles and has created revenue generation through parts, accessories, used vehicles, connected services, and finance.

The appointment marks a strategic shift for Toyota, prioritizing financial discipline as it invests billions in software, artificial intelligence, and autonomous driving to compete with Chinese rivals and Silicon Valley tech companies.

Meanwhile, Sato, who has helped steer Toyota to record global sales of 11.3 million vehicles in 2025, will focus on the broader auto industry as CIO. This includes improved coordination among Japanese automakers in far-flung fields such as software, semiconductors, supply chain management, and logistics.