Kenta Kon
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
Born in Niigata Prefecture, he graduated from Tohoku University's Faculty of Economics in 1991 and joined Toyota Motor. He came up through the secretarial and accounting tracks, becoming General Manager of the Accounting Department in January 2017, Managing Officer in June 2018, Operating Officer in July 2019 and Executive Vice President in April 2022. As CFO he oversaw company-wide finance and also served as CFO of the software development subsidiary Woven by Toyota. He is the first president to come not from design, production or sales but from finance.
Selection
In February 2026, Toyota announced that CFO Kenta Kon would be promoted to President and that Koji Sato would become Vice Chairman, a change of president only three years into Sato's term. He became President as an executive officer in April 2026 and has served as Representative Director and President since June. In the fiscal year ended March 2026, the year before he took office, net sales topped ¥50 trillion for the first time at ¥50,685.0 billion, while operating income fell to ¥3,766.2 billion under the burden of U.S. tariffs. The appointment put a man who had held the purse strings in charge of restoring earning power and rebuilding the group.
Initiatives
On May 8, 2026, at his first earnings announcement as President, following the fiscal year ended March 2026 in which the company could not fully absorb ¥1,380.0 billion in U.S. tariffs, he gave an operating income forecast of ¥3 trillion for the fiscal year ending March 2027. At the same event he set out a policy of returning to TPS, shifting administrative and indirect workplaces away from managing figures on the books toward work that creates value on the shop floor. He laid out a plan to raise BEV sales from 243,000 to 598,000 units. On August 4 he announced first-quarter operating income of ¥1,063.4 billion and raised the full-year forecast to ¥3,400.0 billion.
Career
Career
Toyota Motor
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| Apr 1991 | Joined |
| Jan 2017 | General Manager, Accounting Department |
| Jun 2018 | Managing Officer |
| Jul 2019 | Executive Officer |
| Jun 2021 | Director and Executive Officer |
| Apr 2022 | Director and Executive Officer, Executive Vice President |
| Apr 2026 | Executive Officer, President |
| Jun 2026 | Representative Director and President |