Toyota: Rattled but Resilient

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"The departure will have almost zero impact on earnings," says Yoshida at UBS, adding, however, that Toyota will miss Press's well-honed investor-relations skills. "Mr. Press was excellent at analyst meetings. He's a natural salesman."

Some analysts believe that in the longer term, the presence of Press at Chrysler could prove to be beneficial for Toyota. "The loss of Jim Press wouldn't be necessarily bad if it means Toyota has a close friend at Chrysler," says Yasuhiro Matsumoto, an analyst at Shinsei Securities in Tokyo. He reckons Press at Chrysler could make it easier for the two automakers to liaise on future projects, such as the joint development of costly environmental technologies or Toyota tapping Chrysler's excess capacity if necessary labor agreements could be reached with the United Auto Workers union.

Future Top-Rung Considerations

For all that, no one can doubt that the departure of Press—and, to a lesser extent, Deborah Wahl Meyer, a former vice-president for marketing at Toyota's Lexus Div. who was already poached by Chrysler—gives Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe and colleagues plenty to chew over.

On the one hand, Toyota needs to promote more non-Japanese to top positions. After all, most of Toyota's sales and almost half of production come from outside Japan. Meanwhile, the presence of more non-Japanese senior executives can help deflect political tensions at a time when Toyota is poised to overtake Ford Motor (F) as the second biggest automaker in the U.S.

Yet the notion that senior executives, even 37-year veterans like Press, will jump ship for new challenges or higher remuneration outside the company is unthinkable to Toyota's rank and file in Japan. Nevertheless, Toyota says the departure of Press won't deter it from adding other gaijin to its most senior ranks. "When it comes to higher management ranks, specifically in selecting board members, we take several factors into consideration, regardless of nationality. We intend to continue doing so," says a spokesman.

Rowley is a correspondent in BusinessWeek's Tokyo bureau.