Team size: Six

Key team members: Chan Hoe, Carmen Chow, Yu Moteki, Andrew Tan, Ngo Thai Ha, Farhana Chuang

What are the most significant cases or transactions that your legal team has recently been involved in?

Toyota is transforming itself, from an automotive business to one of mobility services. In connection with this, Toyota Motor Asia Pacific’s legal and compliance department has been providing support on a number of business collaborations which have taken place to expand its value chain businesses and to integrate digital technology into its existing business.

As an example, a joint venture company was established in Indonesia to engage in business activities involving transportation mobility and other value chain services.

Toyota Motor Asia Pacific’s legal and compliance department has also been advising on projects involving technologies to analyse driver behaviour in support of the expansion of the mobility business. Such technologies aim to, amongst others, reduce fuel consumption and CO2 emissions, in line with Toyota’s target to become carbon neutral by 2050.

Can you sum up the team culture or ethos?

We are proud to have built a diverse and multi-cultural team of members from different specialisations, qualifications and cultural backgrounds. Our team comprises both local and foreign talents. With an intra-company transfer program in place, we currently have team members seconded from Japan and Vietnam. We place great value in such diversified backgrounds and talents which allows the team to obtain insights in local markets in the region and facilitate immediate updates on legal and regulatory frameworks of various countries.

The team is led by Chan Hoe, who has over 20 years of post-qualification experience and just celebrated his 15th year anniversary with Toyota Motor Asia Pacific. Chan Hoe believes in transparency from top down and stresses the importance of fostering a healthy work environment with an open and candid exchange of ideas and opinions.

Apart from legal matters, has the team worked on other company initiatives?

Toyota recognises the need to be proactive in both legal and compliance requirements. Toyota Motor Asia Pacific’s legal and compliance department has embarked on creating a comprehensive compliance framework which focuses on major compliance areas such as ABAC matters, personal data protection, competition law, ethics and corporate governance.

As part of the regional office, the legal and compliance department conducts regular trainings, including the launch of relevant global policies and systems (such as Toyota Code of Conduct, Global ABAC Policy, and Global Speak-Up System), to the region’s Toyota entities on best practices and promotion in the various compliance areas.

In order to support the digitalisation of the business, we also take on the role of strengthening personal data protection knowledge amongst members of the organisation so that we can ensure compliance with up-to-date applicable data protection laws, including the implementation of protocols on data collection, data storage and data processing within the region.

On the competition law front, we help build awareness so as to prevent breach of anti-competition regulations such as price-fixing.

The legal and compliance department is also tasked to promote a whistleblowing system where potential misconduct can be reported in a secure and anonymous manner, where whistleblowers can comfortably report suspected misconduct without fear of retaliation and where every allegation can be investigated impartially and transparently.

Does your team make use of interesting technology solutions to streamline its workload?

We currently use Slido in trainings for quizzes to create more interactive learning sessions and to promote members’ engagement. We also regularly use Survey Monkey to conduct communications or ethics survey.