Opposition to Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda has surfaced among some of the Japanese company¡¯s biggest investors after a series of vehicle safety scandals gave rise to concerns about his leadership and the future of the world¡¯s biggest carmaker.

Nissay Asset Management voted against all 10 board members, including Toyoda, in June on the grounds their actions were ¡°strongly in opposition to the needs of society.¡± Such incidents not only hurt public trust, it published on its website, but they can also damage the market¡¯s valuation of the company.

As big shareholders begin to disclose why and how they voted during Toyota¡¯s annual meeting in June, their criticisms and fears are casting further doubt on Toyoda¡¯s chances of reappointment next year. Domestic banks and brokerages, including institutional investors, account for almost 40% of Toyota¡¯s shareholders. As the largest block, a change of heart among those ranks could have a decisive impact on the chairman¡¯s tenure.

Institutional investors in Japan are encouraged by industry associations to release their voting records to the public, though disclosure often follows a few months after the fact.

Toyoda himself said in July during a podcast published on the company¡¯s news website that his seat on the board is at risk if shareholder support continues to slide. ¡°No board member in Toyota¡¯s history has seen their support fall so low,¡± he said during a Toyota Times interview.

Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management opposed the reappointment of Toyoda as well as those of Vice Chairman Shigeru Hayakawa and President Koji Sato. Top leadership bears the responsibility for vehicle safety scandals at Daihatsu and other Toyota group companies, it said, adding that an alarm needs to be sounded over issues of governance.

After Toyoda became president in 2009, his shareholder support rarely fell below 90%. That is until government probes uncovered decades of fraudulent vehicle certifications at Daihatsu in December, at Toyota Industries weeks later and at Toyota itself in June.

Toyoda, the grandson of the company¡¯s founder, saw shareholder support drop to 85% last year, a record low at the time, and then a further decline to 72% in June. His support was especially low among overseas institutional investors at 33.6%, with domestic investors voting 55.3% in support.

There¡¯s been a rapid increase in recent years of shareholders holding executive board members to more stringent standards, according to Tokyo Metropolitan University professor Chieko Matsuda. Most institutional investors in Japan have already done so, she said. In the past they may have been more lenient compared to investors abroad, but that¡¯s not necessarily the case anymore, Matsuda added.

Sumitomo Mitsui DS Asset Management also opposed the reappointment of Toyoda and Hayakawa. They chose not to go against...