Honda Appoints Its First Female Board Member

Honda Motor Co. has nominated Hideko Kunii to become its first female director.

Kunni is a professor and general manager of the Gender Equality Promotion Office at Japan's Shibaura Institute of Technology. Her appointment as an outside member of Honda's 13-member board of directors is to become effective in June.

Honda claims her selection has nothing to do with her gender or efforts by Japan Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to increase the role of women in the country's executive ranks.

Earlier media reports credited Honda with also naming its first non-Japanese board member, Issao Mizoguchi, a Brazilian of Japanese descent who runs the company's South American operations. Subsequent reports point out that his promotion to operating officer status does not include a seat on the Honda board.