A healthy and cheerful president free of worries is just what Mitsubishi Motors Corp. needs since being racked by legal troubles ranging from sexual harassment to "sokaiya" payoffs.
Looking fit and describing himself as a "sleeping machine" because he sleeps well after only one glass of sake, Katsuhiko Kawasoe, 61, is determined to get the firm back on track. "Since such a surprising (payoff) scandal occurred, it must have been a voice from heaven to reform the company," the automaker's new president said in an interview. "I want to change the company in a way that can help it reflect the market and opinions of young people."
Over the past two years, the helm of troubled MMC has too often changed hands. Nobuhisa Tsukahara, who took over in June 1995, stepped down in the spring of 1996 after falling ill. Takemune Kimura, Tsukahara's successor, resigned last week after four of the automaker's executives were jailed for allegedly buying the silence of a sokaiya racketeer at general shareholders' meetings.