TOYOTA MOTOR acted yesterday on a promise to shift more responsibility to its non-Japanese managers, promoting a group of North Americans and Europeans to run factories outside Japan.

The changes were part of the carmaker’s response to its recent quality problems, which have damaged its reputation and forced it to recall more than 8.5 million vehicles worldwide.

One cause of the crisis, Toyota officials and outside critics have concluded, was poor communication between local managers and their bosses in Japan. In the US, especially, warnings from local managers about the outcry were passed on too slowly, and sometimes not at all.

Yesterday’s promotions in effect removed a layer of Japanese management between local bosses and top executives in Toyota City, Toyota’s headquarters in Japan.

The highest promotion went to Didier Leroy, a Frenchman who will become the first non-Japanese to head Toyota’s sales and manufacturing operations in Europe. He is to take over as president of Toyota Motor Europe from July 1st, replacing Tadashi Arashima.

Carl Klemm is to replace Kenji Manabe as head of Toyota Motor Manufacturing Poland, one of eight European production centres.

In the US, Chris Nielsen and Norm Bafunno are to take charge of Toyota assembly plants in Texas and Indiana, replacing Japanese bosses.