May 10--TOKYO -- Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it takes "seriously" a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against the chief of its North American division, but that it expects the suit will have no negative effects on its business in the largest overseas market for the top Japanese carmaker.

"We take the case seriously," Toyota President Katsuaki Watanabe said at a press conference where Toyota announced its strongest-ever earnings results in its annual report for the business year ended in March. "We cannot make any more comments because the case was brought to court." Asked whether he believes there could be negative impact from the scandal on Toyota's business in the North American market, Watanabe said, "I don't think so." He also said Toyota has always dealt seriously with sexual harassment cases from the perspective of corporate compliance.

On Monday, Toyota Motor North America Inc. announced that its president, Hideaki Otaka, had resigned. The top management change came a week after a 42-year-old Japanese female employee, who previously served as secretary for Otaka, filed a $190 million sexual harassment suit against him, the North American unit and the Japanese parent company.

The woman claims that less than six months after she became Otaka's executive assistant in March 2005, she became the target of unwanted sexual advances and harassment. Otaka manipulated her work schedule so she could be with him, and she was sexually assaulted by him in Washington D.C. and in Central Park during the fall of 2005, according to the suit. She says she chose to file the suit because she could no longer remain silent regarding his conduct, but also because she felt Toyota was not interested in treating her complaint as a serious matter. The woman claims she informed the company in November that Otaka was sexually harassing her but it took no action to investigate the complaint, according to the suit.

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