“Oh what a feeling! Toyota Lawsuit”
“Oh what a feeling!” was a top slogan utilized by Toyota in the 1980s along with the lesser known “what will you do with all the money you save?” Well, Toyota Motor Corp is going to have to fork over $190 million of the “money they saved” while their employee was being sexually harassed, and the only feeling they’ll endure is shame.
I read this article late Tuesday night when I should have been asleep, mainly because I like to follow Toyota’s new cute cars (like the FJ Cruiser pictured above left and the Yaris bottom left), I wouldn’t drive anything else (with the exception of the Mercedes CLS500 or the Jaguar XJ220, hehe), and because the employee’s name is Kobayashi. Sayaka Kobayashi, 42, claims that Hideaki Otaka, Toyota’s North America President and CEO, repeatedly engaged in sexually inappropriate and 
unwanted advances towards Kobayashi, his then assistant. A few of the attacks happened during their walks through Central Park, which must bring out the amorous impulsive side of men, according to the high percentage of women mugged and raped there.
Although their vehicles are brimming with quality and integrity, Toyota’s top execs sometimes choose the lesser paths. When Ms. Kobayashi emailed a complaint to another high-ranking executive, Dennis Cuneo, she was told that he would fabricate lies to protect his boss’ feelings. And just when Kobayashi thought her troubles might be over, she was offered a bribe to leave the company quietly by her new supervisor, Alan Cohen. Well, she had had enough and I think she did the right thing.
I really doubt this will have any sort of impact on Toyota’s sales because it’s not exactly shocking that a Japanese 
businessman would be a little frisky. I think businessmen in general get the “infidelity without repercussion” award. Guess it goes with the immorality and tenacity that makes them feel entitled to rape the planet, target child labor, club baby seals for profit; why should fondling female coworkers be any different?
Because Toyota enforces a zero tolerance policy toward sexual harrassment, Otaka literally risked his job for some extra-marital poon. So instead of saying (another earlier Toyota slogan) “I love what you do for me”, Otaka is hearing “you asked for it. You got it”. And all Toyota can do is keep “moving forward”.
