Hiroshi Okuda, chairman of the Japan Federation of Employers' Associations (Nikkeiren) and chairman of Toyota Motor Corp., has won the 1999 Zaikai Award, or Business World Award, the business magazine company Zaikai announced Monday.

An eight-member selection committee chose Okuda for the award because of his stated belief, as a business leader, that companies should not dismiss employees with little regard and that they should aim to establish a "market economy with a human face."

The Zaikai Special Award went to Tsutomu Hotta, chairman of Sawayaka Welfare Foundation and a former public prosecutor, for his "constant efforts to improve home-care services while aiming to organize 5,000 home welfare service organizations and 12 million welfare service workers," the fortnightly business magazine said.

It also announced five Management Award winners for the year. They are: Naoyuki Akikusa, president of Fujitsu Ltd.; Kakutaro Kitashiro, president of IBM Japan Corp.; Tatsuo Kawada, president of Seiren Co.; Masatake Matsuda, president of East Japanese Railway Co.; and Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, president of Kadokawa Shoten Co.

The eight members of the selection committee are: Kunio Ito, a professor at Hitotsubashi University; commentator Eiko Ohya; journalist Nobuhiko Shima; Masato Koguma, president of International Management Research Institute; information adviser Mitsuo Goto; Shinji Fukukawa, director of Dentsu Research Institute; and Yonosuke Miki, honorary chairman of Zaikai Research Institute.