BookTitleToyota Tsusho 70-Year History

Summary

Toyota Tsusho 70-Year History

Chapter 1The Emergence of a FinanceCompanySection 1 The Founding of Toyota Kinyu1 The Founding of Toyota KinyuOn October 31, 1936, Toyoda Automatic Loom Works established ToyotaKinyu. The capital of the company was one million yen, and Risaburo Toyodabecame its president. The directors were Kiichiro Toyoda, Kenkichi Takeuchi, andEiichi Okazaki, while Tojiro Okamoto was the auditor. Shotaro Kamiya was notdirectly involved in the management, but he invited Tomotsune Jiromaru, who hadbeen his subordinate at GM Japan and was well versed in installment finance, torun operations. The following business objectives were established:-Lendingcapitaltoautomobiledistributorsandindividualbuyers- Investing and lending capital to automobile and parts manufacturers andretailers or businesses focused on transport by automobile- Any work incidental to the above itemsThe second business objective concerning investing in businesses focused ontransport by automobile. This was included as a response to the increasingly activetruck transport business in Japan. At the time, horse-drawn carts, rickshaws, andbicycle-drawn carts were the general means of freight transport, but an increasingnumber of vendors were starting to use trucks. These vendors were all small inscale, so they had to rely on monthly installment payments to purchase expensivetrucks. To compete with GM and Ford, Toyota Kinyu offered a 12-monthinstallment plan, which contributed to increased sales of Toyota vehicles.October 1936, the Fukuju Building, the first homeof Toyota Kinyu (Minamiotsu-cho, Naka-ku,Nagoya-shi)2 The Diminishing Finance BusinessToyota Kinyu was founded with an eye to the future, but it soon ran into extremedifficulties. In 1937, a year after its establishment, the Sino-Japanese War brokeout. As wartime controls became stronger, promulgation of the Temporary FundAdjustment Act restricted monthly installment financing. Further expansion of thewar caused the control regime to tighten, and on May 1939 the Law on Restrictionof Passenger Automobile Supply was announced. This law required a declarationto and the approval of the Minister of Commerce and Industry for the sale ofautomobiles, including the number of vehicles, their price, delivery date, and thereason for their sale, etc.In August 1940, the production and sales of trucks and buses came undergovernment control, and starting with the system of distribution, the supply ofautomobiles became a military priority. Furthermore, in October of that yearthe Ordinance Concerning Operation of Funds of Banks and Other FinancialThe first sales report for Toyota KinyuHistory37