BookTitleToyota Tsusho 70-Year History

Summary

Toyota Tsusho 70-Year History

IntroductionThe State of the TimesSection 1 The Beginning of Automobile ProductionSakichi ToyodaThe Toyoda Precepts1 Sakichi Toyoda, Founder of the Toyota GroupIt goes without saying that the founder of the Toyota Group, including ToyotaTsusho Corporation, was the venerable Sakichi Toyoda. Sakichi was inspired by abest-selling book, Samuel Smile’s Self-Help, as translated by Masanao Nakamuraand published in 1870 as Saigoku Risshi Hen. The book describes a Westerninventor who devises textile machinery, such as spinning machines and poweredlooms.When Sakichi Toyoda was 18 the Patent Monopoly Act of 1885 was enactedin Japan to encourage inventors and to set out protections for inventions. Sakichibecame determined to invent a loom. While helping his father, a carpenter, withhis work, Sakichi came up with an idea for improving the batten-type woodenhand loom that was coming into use around the country at the time. He becameengrossed by this idea, and in 1890, at the tender age of 23, he filed a patentapplication for a hand loom.The application for“Loom (Wooden Human-Powered Loom)”was approved thefollowing year, and Sakichi began his life as an inventor. The industrial propertyrights he obtained over the course of his lifetime included 84 invention patents, 13foreign patents, and 35 utility models, including for the Toyoda Power Loom andthe Nonstop Shuttle Change Automatic Loom. In 1985, the Japanese Patent Officeselected Sakichi Toyoda as one of Japan’s 10 greatest inventors.In November 1926, Sakichi founded Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Ltd.When establishing the company, Sakichi added,“conduct research and produceinventions”and“manufacture and sell machinery relating to the spinning andweaving of textiles and other machinery”as the company purpose in the articlesof incorporation. Thus he clarified that the company was not simply a loommanufacturing firm, but it would also focus heavily on research and invention.After Sakichi’s death, the subordinates he had educated distilled his thoughtson invention and business into the following five items that make up the ToyodaPrecepts. They released those precepts on October 30, 1935, the fifth anniversaryofSakichi’sdeath.Always be faithful to your duties, thereby contributing to the company and tothe overall good.Always be studious and creative, striving to stay ahead of the times.Always be practical and avoid frivolousness.Alwaysstrivetobuildahomelikeatmosphereatworkthatiswarmandfriendly.Always have respect for God, and remember to be grateful at all times.The Toyoda Precepts have been handed down unchanged as the backbone of34