TOKYO—Toyota Motor Corp. tapped a foreigner as an executive vice president for the first time in the company’s nearly eight-decade history, in an attempt by the Japanese auto maker to shake up the ranks of its largely uniform senior management.

Didier Leroy, a 57-year-old Frenchman who oversees Toyota’s European business, will become executive vice president in charge of developed markets, Toyota said Wednesday. The company also named its first female managing officer and its first African-American managing officer.

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