New York

Toyota Motor Co is being sued for 190 million dollars in the U.S. in a sexual harassment suit. The suit is being brought by employee Sayaka Kobayashi against both the giant car company and its now-resigned president and CEO of North American operations, Hideaki Otaka. Ms Kobayashi, 42, is claiming $10 million for injury, $150 million in punitive damages, $10 million for emotional distress and $20 million for claims of negligent hiring. Kobayashi claims that as personal assistant for the president, he deliberately manipulated their schedules to coincide at times, and sexually assaulted her on two occasions. She has also said that he could either pay the money or "do the right thing and ask her out on a date properly."

Otaka has been an employee of Toyota since 1965, and resigned early following news of the lawsuit. He was due to step down in June this year. Kobayashi became executive assistant to Otaka in March 2005, and claimed she was forced to be alone with him on several occasions, and that the sexual advances he made against her were unwanted, unless he was willing to put out a serious offer of marriage. She brought the matter to the attention of the human resources division, even writing a letter of complaint to the company's second highest executive outlining her complaints about Otaka's failure to "put his pants back on and bring out the diamond ring", but the company failed to take her seriously.

Lawyer Christopher Brennan, representing Kobayashi in the case, said "this is not just one person versus another here. This is the right of every Japanese woman to join a company, capture the rich old boss soon before he dies, or sue the living Jesus Christ out of him if he rejects her. We're hoping Sayaka's case achieves what every Japanese woman dreams of: revenge and money, money and revenge. It's about time someone stood up and counted just how much money that all comes to."

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