© Kazuhiro NOGIJapan's automaker Suzuki chairman Osamu Suzuki, pictured here in 2017, is stepping down
Suzuki's chairman Osamu Suzuki will retire after more than four decades at the helm of the Japanese carmaker, the company said Wednesday.
The 91-year-old, who married into the firm's founding family, will leave the post after a shareholder meeting in June and become an adviser, it said.
After he became company president in 1978, Suzuki expanded the automaker's business in India, where it has had enormous success, and steadily increased its share in Japan's small car market.
He became chairman in 2000 and his eldest son, Toshihiro Suzuki, assumed the role of president in 2015.
The carmaker, which had once tied up with General Motors and Volkswagen, forged a capital alliance with Toyota in 2019.
No one will replace him for now, while Toshihiro Suzuki will remain president.
si/kaf/rbu