An employee in the New York corporate office of Toyota, the North American arm of Japan's Toyota Motor Corporation, accuses its chief executive Hideaki Otaka, of repeated aggressive sexual advances that occurred while she worked for him as an executive assistant in 2005.

The suit, filed by Ziegler, Ziegler & Associates, LLP in New York State Supreme Court, was brought by Sayaka Kobayashi, 42, who was plucked from her job in Toyota's corporate planning department in March 2005 to become personal assistant to Mr. Otaka. Starting last September, Ms. Kobayashi contends she was subjected to several sexual assaults by Mr. Otaka, who boasted of his marital infidelities and continued to pursue a physical relationship with his assistant even after she rebuffed him.

Ms. Kobayashi alleges that Mr. Otaka forced himself on her -- in a Washington D.C. hotel and in New York's Central Park. She also claims he continuously pressured her to travel with him, at one point instructing Toyota North America employees to book a hotel reservation under her name even after she hesitated to do so for fear of another sexual assault. On the same day that he was served with a copy of the lawsuit, Mr. Otaka announced that he was leaving his post as president and CEO of Toyota North America.