Kiichirō Toyoda

was a Japanese engineer and businessman, and the son of Toyoda Loom Works founder Sakichi Toyoda. His decision to change Toyoda's focus from automatic loom manufacturing into automobile manufacturing created what later became Toyota.

Toyoda Loom Works and Toyota Motor Corporation Kiichiro Toyoda persuaded his father, who was responsible as head of the family business, to invest in the expansion of Toyoda Loom Works into a concept automobiles division, which was considered a risk to the family business at the time. Shortly before Sakichi Toyoda died, he encouraged his son to follow his dream and pursue automobile manufacturing. Kiichiro built on his family's engineering prowess: they invented steam, oil, and electric looms. Eventually turning it into Toyota – the well known car manufacturer. He changed the company's name from his family's name for good luck.

In response to the company's flagging sales and profitability, Toyoda resigned from his position of leadership in 1950. He died two years later, without witnessing the company's eventual successes. His contemporaries later dubbed him "Japan's Thomas Edison". In 1957, his cousin and confidant Eiji Toyoda, followed him as head of Toyota Motor Corporation and built upon the late Toyoda's expansion to turn Toyota into a world-class engineering conglomeration. He also launched Lexus - the luxury car division.

Early life

Childhood Kiichiro Toyoda was born on June 11, 1894, in Yamaguchi in the village of Yoshitsu in Shizuoka Prefecture, Japan (currently Yamaguchi, Kosai, Shizuoka), the son of Sakichi Toyoda and Tami Sahara. In addition, the ratio of overseas exports of Japanese automobiles was 55% in 1985. and made GHQ admit that the new situation was different from that of wartime. This shows how much Kiichiro was trusted as the president of Toyota Motor Corporation by the owners of the dealerships. In fact, Kiichiro valued relationship with dealerships, so he usually communicated with people directly and dealt with problems as soon as possible. In October 1947, the first Japanese passenger car after the war, the SA model with an S engine, was released Due to the Dodge Line recession, over 8000 companies went bankrupt during the year of 1949. Under such situation, the reason why Kiichiro did not perform personnel reduction was that he experienced the employment problem at Toyota Industries Corporation during the Showa Depression in 1930, In this way, Kiichiro overcame the bankruptcy crisis of 1949.

Labor dispute Despite the strong promotion of management rationalization measures, the company's business performance never recovered. The reason is, on October 25, 1949, GHQ issued a "Memorandum on the total removal of restrictions on the production and sale of automobiles". As a result, the production and sale of automobiles became free in principle, so Toyota Labor Union judged that the personnel cut was inevitable, and a quasi-fighting system was established in March of the same year. Since then, labor-management negotiations have intensified into long-standing disputes. Under such tension, Kiichiro, who was originally hypertensive, became ill, so negotiations with the labor union were handled by the management army instead of Kiichiro. Since the company would be destroyed as it was, on June 5, 1950, Kiichiro announced that he would resign as the president to take on this series of responsibilities. By his retirement, the strike ended finally. Everyone was shocked by Kiichiro's resignation, and the union also had a respect for Kiichiro. On March 27, 1952, Toyoda died at the age of 57 after suffering a fall. It was thought the fall resulted from a cerebral hemorrhage caused by chronic disease.

Family tree