First of all, I would like to wish to all of you a very happy and prosperous New Year.

• How many years have you been working for AISIN and how did you decide to work in the automotive sector?

After my graduation at the university I joined SUMITOMO BANK in Tokyo for 2 years. I am now working for AISIN for 24 years including 9 years abroad (USA and Belgium).
There are 3 reasons for which I decided to work for AISIN :
1. Since the university, I was interested in cars. I enjoyed my part time job in a garage during my studies.
2. My parents asked me to come back to my home town, Aichi.
3. AISIN is the nearest major company near my parents’ house.
 

• What is your outlook on the Aftermarket accomplishments during 2016?

I really appreciated the support of AISIN brand from our customers. Because of that AISIN Europe could expand a lot the business.
We expanded our range of clutch kits and water pumps as well as brake pads. Not only for Japanese cars but also Korean and European cars. Our conversion clutch kit for Toyota Avensis/Auris has been well accepted on the market. The sales of our VVT (Variable Valve Timing) were quite well, and we could expand the range of transmission parts.
 
-             What are your perspectives for 2017?

I believe that the strong point of AISIN is the diversity of the product range. Today, the employees of the AISIN group comes over 100.000 people and we still have a lot of products which have not been introduced yet to the Aftermarket. My objective is to add those products to our range.  Of course, we will expand our current range of products like tensioner kits, brake pads etc.
The AISIN group is also considering the business of “service/maintenance”. I think the year 2017 will be the initial stage for this project. Although we started the maintenance for manual transmissions with some particular customers but the offer is still limited. I would like to share the information that AISIN Japan formed a new team, the “Service Planning Team”  in the Aftermarket department since 1^st January 2017.

I appreciated our business relation with you, and I expect more in the future!
 
Hiromi Kato