Suzuki Motor former boss Osamu Suzuki, who turned the minicar maker into a global player, dies at 94

TOKYO (AP) — Osamu Suzuki, the charismatic former boss of Suzuki Motor Corp. who helped turn the Japanese mini-vehicle maker into a globally competitive company, has died, the company said Friday. He was 94.

Suzuki was known for his candid remarks and friendliness, calling himself an “old guy from a small to mid-size company.” He became CEO of Suzuki in 1978 and was leading the company when it became the first Japanese automaker to start local production in India, where its cars proved hugely popular.

Born on Jan. 30, 1930 as Osamu Matsuda, Suzuki worked in banking after graduating from Tokyo's Chuo University School of Law. He joined Suzuki Motor, which is based in the central Japanese city of Hamamatsu, in 1958 when he married a daughter of the company's then-president Shunzo Suzuki, who belonged to the company’s founding family. As is sometimes the custom in such situations, Matsuda adopted his wife’s maiden name.

In 1979, a year after he became Suzuki Motor's fourth company president, he launched an affordable minicar, which became a big hit and was promoted to world markets.

Under Suzuki's leadership, the company's sales grew more than tenfold to 3 trillion yen ($19 billion) in the 2000s. .

Suzuki also led business tie-ups with other global leaders such as General Motors and Volkswagen AG in the 2000s. Amid intensifying competition and industrial transformation, Suzuki also formed a capital alliance with Toyota Motor Corp. in 2019 to co-develop self-driving vehicles.

While other Japanese automakers have expanded in the U.S. and Chinese markets, offering a wide range of vehicles, Suzuki has stuck with mini and compact cars, mostly in South and Southeast Asia.

Suzuki stressed the importance of understanding the grassroots level.

“Making good quality and low-price products is the basis of manufacturing,” Suzuki once told an interview with the broadcaster NHK television. “We cannot lower costs while sitting in the offices of president or chairperson, so I have to be in a factory to understand the work and get ideas.”

Suzuki stepped down as president at age 85 in 2015, handing the post to his son, Toshihiro Suzuki. He served as an advisor to the company after resigning as chairman in 2021.

The company said Suzuki died Wednesday of malignant lymphoma.

FILE - Chairman and CEO of the Japanese carmaker Suzuki Motor Corp., Osamu Suzuki, left, and President and CEO of Fiat Auto S.p.A. of Italy, Giancarlo Boschetti, share a laugh before they signed an agreement on jointly developing and producing a new sport utility vehicle in a hotel in Budapest, Hungary, April 10, 2003. (Tamas Kovacs/MTI via AP, File)

FILE - Suzuki Motor Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Osamu Suzuki, center, receives a traditional welcome during his visit to the proposed site for Maruti Suzuki India Ltd's (MSIL) manufacturing facility at Hansalpur near Mehsana, about 110 kilometers (70 miles) north of Ahmadabad, India, Aug. 25, 2012. (AP Photo/AJit Solanki, File)

FILE - General Motors Chairman John F. Smith, left, and Osamu Suzuki, president and CEO of Suzuki Motor Corp., smile after announcing the two automakers' agreement to increase coordination of their global manufacturing operations in Tokyo, Sept. 16, 1998. (AP Photo/Katsumi Kasahara, File)

FILE - Osamu Suzuki, head of the Suzuki Motor Corporation, left, sits in the first Suzuki Ignis made in Hungary next to Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy just after the production start of the new Suzuki model in Esztergom near Budapest, Hungary, April 10, 2003. (AP Photo/Bela Szandelszky, File)

FILE - Toyota Motor Corp. President Akio Toyoda, left, speaks with Suzuki Motor Corp. Chairman Osamu Suzuki during a news conference in Tokyo, Oct. 12, 2016. (Shigeyuki Inakuma/Kyodo News via AP, File)

FILE - Suzuki Motor Corp. President and Chairman Osama Suzuki, right, and Vice President Osamu Honda pose with a Suzuki X-Lander hybrid concept car on display at a media preview for the Tokyo Motor Show in Tokyo, Nov. 20, 2013. (AP Photo/Shuji Kajiyama, File)

FILE - Then India's Gujarat State Chief Minister Nerendra Modi, left, poses with Suzuki Motor Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Osamu Suzuki for a photo during a reception of the "Invest Gujarat" seminar in Hamamatsu, southwest of Tokyo, July 25, 2012. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File)

FILE - Suzuki Motor Corp. Chairman and CEO Osamu Suzuki speaks during a press conference in Tokyo, Sept. 12, 2011. (AP Photo/Shizuo Kambayashi, File)

U.S. President Donald Trump says Iran has proposed negotiations after his threat to strike the Islamic Republic as an ongoing crackdown on demonstrators has led to hundreds of deaths.

Trump said late Sunday that his administration was in talks to set up a meeting with Tehran, but cautioned that he may have to act first as reports mount of increasing deaths and the government continues to arrest protesters.

“The meeting is being set up, but we may have to act because of what’s happening before the meeting. But a meeting is being set up. Iran called, they want to negotiate,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One on Sunday night.

Iran did not acknowledge Trump’s comments immediately. It has previously warned the U.S. military and Israel would be “legitimate targets” if America uses force to protect demonstrators.

The U.S.-based Human Rights Activists News Agency, which has accurately reported on past unrest in Iran, gave the death toll. It relies on supporters in Iran cross checking information. It said at least 544 people have been killed so far, including 496 protesters and 48 people from the security forces. It said more than 10,600 people also have been detained over the two weeks of protests.

With the internet down in Iran and phone lines cut off, gauging the demonstrations from abroad has grown more difficult. Iran’s government has not offered overall casualty figures.

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China says it opposes the use of force in international relations and expressed hope the Iranian government and people are “able to overcome the current difficulties and maintain national stability.”

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said Monday that Beijing “always opposes interference in other countries’ internal affairs, maintains that the sovereignty and security of all countries should be fully protected under international law, and opposes the use or threat of use of force in international relations.”

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz condemned “in the strongest terms the violence that the leadership in Iran is directing against its own people.”

He said it was a sign of weakness rather than strength, adding that “this violence must end.”

Merz said during a visit to India that the demonstrators deserve “the greatest respect” for the courage with which “they are resisting the disproportional, brutal violence of Iranian security forces.”

He said: “I call on the Iranian leadership to protect its population rather than threatening it.”

Iran’s Foreign Ministry spokesman on Monday suggested that a channel remained open with the United States.

Esmail Baghaei made the comment during a news conference in Tehran.

“It is open and whenever needed, through that channel, the necessary messages are exchanged,” he said.

However, Baghaei said such talks needed to be “based on the acceptance of mutual interests and concerns, not a negotiation that is one-sided, unilateral and based on dictation.”

The semiofficial Fars news agency in Iran, which is close to the paramilitary Revolutionary Guard, on Monday began calling out Iranian celebrities and leaders on social media who have expressed support for the protests over the past two weeks, especially before the internet was shut down.

The threat comes as writers and other cultural leaders were targeted even before protests. The news agency highlighted specific celebrities who posted in solidarity with the protesters and scolded them for not condemning vandalism and destruction to public property or the deaths of security forces killed during clashes. The news agency accused those celebrities and leaders of inciting riots by expressing their support.

Canada said it “stands with the brave people of Iran” in a statement on social media that strongly condemned the killing of protesters during widespread protests that have rocked the country over the past two weeks.

“The Iranian regime must halt its horrific repression and intimidation and respect the human rights of its citizens,” Canada’s government said on Monday.

Iran’s foreign minister claimed Monday that “the situation has come under total control” after a bloody crackdown on nationwide protests in the country.

Abbas Araghchi offered no evidence for his claim.

Araghchi spoke to foreign diplomats in Tehran. The Qatar-funded Al Jazeera satellite news network, which has been allowed to work despite the internet being cut off in the country, carried his remarks.

Iran’s foreign minister alleged Monday that nationwide protests in his nation “turned violent and bloody to give an excuse” for U.S. President Donald Trump to intervene.

Abbas Araghchi offered no evidence for his claim, which comes after over 500 have been reported killed by activists -- the vast majority coming from demonstrators.

Araghchi spoke to foreign diplomats in Tehran. The Qatar-funded Al Jazeera satellite news network, which has been allowed to work despite the internet being cut off in the country, carried his remarks.

Iran has summoned the British ambassador over protesters twice taking down the Iranian flag at their embassy in London.

Iranian state television also said Monday that it complained about “certain terrorist organization that, under the guise of media, spread lies and promote violence and terrorism.” The United Kingdom is home to offices of the BBC’s Persian service and Iran International, both which long have been targeted by Iran.

A huge crowd of demonstrators, some waving the flag of Iran, gathered Sunday afternoon along Veteran Avenue in LA’s Westwood neighborhood to protest against the Iranian government. Police eventually issued a dispersal order, and by early evening only about a hundred protesters were still in the area, ABC7 reported.

Los Angeles is home to the largest Iranian community outside of Iran.

Los Angeles police responded Sunday after somebody drove a U-Haul box truck down a street crowded with the the demonstrators, causing protesters to scramble out of the way and then run after the speeding vehicle to try to attack the driver. A police statement said one person was hit by the truck but nobody was seriously hurt.

The driver, a man who was not identified, was detained “pending further investigation,” police said in a statement Sunday evening.

Protesters burn the Iranian national flag during a rally in support of the nationwide mass demonstrations in Iran against the government in Paris, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Michel Euler)