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I. Promoting effective women will deliver high return in investment and opportunity.
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―As you know from the research done by Catalyst and elsewhere, are you confident with the statement that promoting women to upper management will always produce a return on investment and will contribute not only to the company's profits, but to the shareholders? Some people wonder, if this is really true, but it has been proven by the research done in the United States.
 I will turn the sentence differently. I would say, promoting effective women or women with high potential to this responsibility, without any doubt will deliver to our company high return, both for the company and for the shareholders.
That's why I insist on the fact that it should not be promotion of women for the sake of the promotion; it should be just to eliminate the barriers and just make sure that it's an even field.
We have from time to time some impression that there is more handicap, I would say for women today to reach the top job, but just eliminating this handicap and still concentrating on contribution and performance, I have no doubt on the fact that this will have a very big return and opportunity.
―So, in order to make sure that these women are effective managers and to be able to play at an even playing field?
Yes, exactly.
―You believe that it shouldn't be artificial but they should be groomed.
Exactly. They should be groomed. It's very important, because if they are not groomed, then they are like any managers. Probably the figure is very high, and then, I'm sure that they can use the figure by saying that diversity does not work. As you see, it's very important to make sure that you are selecting very carefully, and you are coaching carefully. So, the question is not so much how fast we are doing but how effectively we are doing. That is very important.
―And you are already implementing in such manner?
Yes, obviously. That is why you should have some questions about our goal setting; the ratio of our company's female managers in Japan, why we are limiting ourselves to 5% in 2007. [http://www.nissan-global.com/EN/COMPANY/CSR/CEO/index.html] It looks like, we are moving from 1.6 to 5 %; it's good but is it the fastest we can go?
It is the fastest we can go, if we take into consideration the fact that we want, not 100% success, but at least 95% success. So we can really demonstrate that this is good business for them.
―Now, Nissan Motors have not been considered as having very progressive image in promoting women to management or including women in policy decisions. What do you think was the reason for that? One of the assumptions that we do have is that Nissan cars are not popular with women, because you are not targeting to female consumers and that all decisions are based on male standards.
Well, this was true. That it is true, we don't deny it. We recognize it, and we have been working very hard on it in trying to appeal more to woman customers by taking more their taste in consideration in the design of the cars, taking more their taste in consideration even in engineering of the car, taking more their taste in consideration even in the marketing of the car and in the promotion of the car.
So, if we had in the past not so much attractiveness for women, frankly, it's because we did not work on it. We just did not work at it. Today we are working hard at it and hopefully we are going to see the shift in the perception and this shift in the perception to bring back much more women around Nissan in terms of selecting products and selecting the facilities.
―I think that your new car, March, was a success in that respect.
It's true. In the case of March, we wanted to make sure that this car would please women. So we took all the care from the beginning. We put the features; we put the colors; we put the shapes, necessary to be attractive. We had a lot of women participating also into the March.
This is one of the examples in which Nissan is trying to shift the perception that Nissan wants to be appealing for women.
―How many cars have been sold up to now for March?
Since the launch 3 years ago, it has always been ranked in the top 10.
―I noticed that your Nissan Head Office Gallery[Linked to Japanese site : http://www.nissan.co.jp/GALLERY/HONSHA/], the showroom, is very pristine and very artistic. But it doesn't lend to having babies and old people to want to come in. Are you also planning to work on changing this image?
Certainly we want our showroom to be more attractive, but in this case, we are here in Ginza, and this is not so much a residential area. This is more a working area. So we don't see so many kids coming here, mothers and babies, that's why this showroom has not been adapted for this.
But we are pushing to develop our dealers generally--- our showrooms in general to be more appealing to the women. But in this case, the traffic in our showroom in Ginza is more for professionals - professional women, professional men.
―I see. Maybe you have a different kind of showroom in the different rural areas or countryside.
Yes. You can go to some of our dealership, and you are going to see the open corner for the children where they can play, where they can have TVs; in most of our dealerships, we have this.
―I have noticed that in the Nissan Gallery it is all computer-based. You touch and you see the information.
Yes, more professional. Because this is the traffic we have. This is the kind of customers who come. This is downtown; it's more professional. It's more commercial; not so many families come here.
―I see. In the Japanese society today, statistics show that even in farm villages women have the decision making power about what tractors and farm equipments to purchase. As this example illustrates women' purchasing power, their influential voice regarding purchases and their strength as investors are growing rather rapidly. In the midst of this social change within the market, how is Nissan responding?
We are promoting more females in the decision-making inside the company. We are pushing our dealers to put more female CAs in front of the customers; we are doing in design, marketing, and promotion, because we recognize this strategy. We are totally convinced that Nissan has to go this way. So obviously we have to deal with this, and the only way is to be more convincing and attractive to women. I am totally in alignment with this.
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