Toyota and Volkswagen to end distributor contract in Japan

Toyota Motor Co. and Volkswagen Group Japan KK (VGJ) have reached an agreement that their contract of distributing Volkswagen cars in Japan will end at the end of 2010. The existing Volkswagen dealers under company distributorship (called DUO) will move to a new direct dealer contract with VGJ. The decision was initiated by the proposal of Volkswagen AG to move to direct contracts with all dealers in Japan without a distributor. (December 29, 2009)