Top executives from Ford and Toyota meet in Japan

Ford Motor Company chief executive officer Alan Mulally met in Japan last week with top Toyota Motor Corporation executives, including Toyota chairman Fujio Cho, a person familiar with the situation told the Detroit Free Press newspaper on December 26.

The companies would not publicly acknowledge the meeting, but Ford showed interest in Toyota’s hybrid and fuel-cell technology as well as its manufacturing methods, according to a report by the Japanese newspaper, the Nihon Keizai Shimbun.

Ford's media relations department issued the following statement, attributed to Mulally, following the newspaper reports: "We meet regularly with other automakers on a variety of topics of mutual interest."

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http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061226/NEWS99/61226023