In 1986, Yutaka Kume, a career engineer, became Nissan’s president. Then the yen’s value rose steeply against the dollar, hurting Nissan’s U.S. profits and causing total earnings to fall into the negative category. However, the company recovered, and its operating profit soared to over a billion dollars by 1989. This was fueled in part by success in Europe, following the opening of Nissan’s plant in England, where the new “Bluebird” was produced. With it, Nissan expanded its lead in European market share over Japanese rivals. Meanwhile, Kume shook the Tokyo bureaucracy: He put one engineer in charge of each car and supported more original styling.