NEW YORK — Toyota Motor North America (TMA) announced that Jim Press, TMA president and a Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) senior managing director, will resign on Sept. 14, 2007. Shigeru Hayakawa, currently TMA's executive vice president, will be named president of TMA and will continue to serve as a TMC managing officer.

Press joined Toyota Motor Sales USA Inc. in 1970 and has been a key driving force behind Toyota's U.S. operations for 37 years.

Hayakawa joined Toyota in 1977. He started in the overseas department of the Public Affairs Division, where his responsibilities included international media relations, government affairs, investor relations and corporate advertising. In 1994 he began a six-year assignment in New York at TMA. He became head of the International Communications Department in 2002 and general manager of the Public Affairs Division in 2005. He was named managing officer of TMC and executive vice president of TMA in 2007.

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