The resignation of Toyota Motor Corp.'s first female executive, who lasted just 90 days in the job, is a blow to Toyota's drive to make management ranks more international and accepting of female executives.
It also deals a high-profile setback to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, who has made empowering women a priority to help modernize and jump-start the nation's economy, including calling on Japan Inc. to have women in 30 percent of leadership roles by the end of the decade.
Julie Hamp, a 55-year-old American who was Toyota's chief communications officer and one of the company's highest-ranking non-Japanese executives, gave notice of her resignation Tuesday over her drug-related arrest last month.