Aug 18th - Nissan plans foreign executive majority by 2016

Nissan Motor Co. plans to fill the majority of its top-ranking posts with non-Japanese by the end of fiscal 2016, according to sources.

Non-Japanese officials, such as directors and presidents of overseas units, currently account for 44 people of Nissan's 100 executives. The automaker intends to hire talented local people at its overseas units to accelerate its global advancement strategy, the sources said.

Domestic companies seldom allow a majority of executive positions to be occupied by non-Japanese. Industry observers have pointed out that other Japanese companies could follow Nissan's lead.

Currently, four out of nine Nissan directors at its headquarters are not Japanese, and nearly three-quarters of executive positions at its overseas subsidiaries have been filled with non-Japanese.

At Nissan, it is mandatory that English is spoken at meetings if at least one non-Japanese person is in attendance.

The nation's second-largest automaker has also introduced a personnel management system in which employees are promoted and paid based on ability and performance, regardless of nationality.

The automaker has drawn up a midterm management plan in which it aims to boost global sales from the current 4 million units annually to more than 7 million units by the end of fiscal 2016. The company apparently views more non-Japanese executives as essential to reaching this goal.

Yutaka Suzuki, chief economist at Daiwa Institute of Research, said: "Less than 5 percent of listed domestic companies have non-Japanese executives at their headquarters. Nissan's move may increase employment [in other companies] of non-Japanese people [for executive posts]."

Aug 15th - Nissan and MMC to standardize EV power

Nissan Motor Co. and Mitsubishi Motors Corp. plan to standardize a device that enables electric vehicle batteries to supply power to households, it was learned Saturday.

The unification of standards by the two automakers that currently split the domestic electric car market will highly likely lead to a unified national standard, observers said.

Electric vehicles have been attracting attention as "movable batteries" since the Great East Japan Earthquake, due to their portability and large power storage capacity.

The device makes it possible for users to connect their electric vehicles to a house's electricity distribution panel to supply the house with electricity.

Mitsubishi unveiled its device in July, while Nissan introduced its device on Aug. 2. Nissan and Mitsubishi plan to put their respective devices on the market by the end of this fiscal year.

However, they are not compatible. This means that if a user installs a Nissan electricity distribution panel at home, the user will have to purchase only Nissan cars.

An electric vehicle battery can store enough power to supply an ordinary household for two days.

But to supply electricity to a household from an electric car, a device is needed to convert the direct current from the car battery to alternating current.

The device recognizes the car's model number, selects the proper electrical current speed and checks the power level.

In Japan, more than 6,000 Nissan Leaf electric vehicles and more than 4,000 of Mitsubishi's i-MiEV cars are on the market.

Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co. said they also planned to sell electric vehicles next year.

Companies are now studying the use of electric vehicle batteries rather than household storage batteries in next generation energy-efficient households, such as those that run on a solar energy power station.