BookTitleToyota Tsusho 70-Year History

Summary

Toyota Tsusho 70-Year History

and sold products related to multimedia and the Internet, both hardware andsoftware; a Network Solutions Department that built and proposed communicationservices with excellent cost performance, from long-distance domestic andinternational calls to data communications; and a Mobile CommunicationsDepartment that sold mobile phones, PHS (personal handy-phone system) devices,and pagers.Together with Internet Initiative Japan Inc. (IIJ), TMC, Denso Corp., andNagoya Railroad Co., Ltd., Toyota Tsusho established IIJ Tokai Inc. (currentlyInternet Initiative) in November 1994 as an Internet connection service to provideInternet access services, mediation services, and network construction services inthe Central Japan region.In 1998, Toyota Tsusho provided Japan’s first electronic courier service,developed and commercialized by e-Parcel in the U.S.Furthermore, in July 1999 Toyota Tsusho, in a joint venture with Hakuhodo Inc.,established an electronic distribution company, Indivisio (currently Hakuhodo DYDigital), and began selling digital content on the Internet.Manifest service website3 Cultivating Environmental and Recycling BusinessesThe 1990s was a time when the world began to focus intensely on globalenvironmental problems. Efforts to deal with environmental problems were a“nowor never”situation, resulting in measures such as the Kyoto Protocol voted on atthe Third Conference on the Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP3)in Kyoto in December 1997. Toyota Tsusho also understood that the time wasright to take on new challenges related to the environment and recycling.In December 1998, Toyota Tsusho launched an Internet-based project to meet itsobligations under the newly enacted rules regarding the compulsory managementof industrial waste (obligatory manifest issuance). In July of the same year, thecompany conducted repeated trials and launched the service to coincide withmanifest issuance becoming mandatory. Toyota Tsusho also developed software todigitize and commercialize end-of-life vehicle (ELV) manifests and deploy themnationwide.4 ITS Business InitiativesIntelligent transport systems (ITS) are the potential foundation of nextgenerationtransport infrastructure. Toyota Tsusho’s entry into the ITS businessstarted in 1995 through contact with the Ministry of Transportation of the People’sRepublic of China. In 1996, the size of the project increased with the full-scaleentry of TMC, and in September of the same year, Toyota Tsusho set up the ITSITS demonstration at China-Japan Intelligent Transport System Exchange Exhibition in China (October 1996)History105