BookTitleToyota Tsusho 70-Year History

Summary

Toyota Tsusho 70-Year History

suddenly.At the General Shareholders Meeting held on May 27, 1946, a new managementstructure was decided upon, and Managing Director Tojiro Okamoto becameToyota Sangyo’s vice president and in essence its chief executive, while DirectorsHeikichi Toyoda, Akiji Nishikawa, and Taizo Ishida and Auditors RisaburoOshima and Takatoshi Kan retired. In their place, Toranosuke Kobayashi,Toranosuke Hotta, Sadao Okajima, and Tomotsune Jiromaru became directors,and Akiji Nishikawa, Taizo Ishida, and Kohachiro Nishimura became auditors. Anew management structure was established.However, on December 25, 1946, since officers of restricted companies andsubordinate companies were banned from holding multiple positions based onthe Ordinance for Restriction of Possession of Company Securities, KiichiroToyoda, Sasuke Toyoda, Kohachiro Nishimura, and Taizo Ishida were forced toretire. Masao Nishikawa and Rizo Suzuki were selected to succeed the latter twoindividuals as auditors.At the same time as the whole country was struggling to recover, the ToyotaGroup was also in dire straits. But Toyota Sangyo, which had income fromdividends, possessed internal reserves of more than 700,000 to 800,000 yen (onthe order of 1 billion yen at present-day value), and it was able to use that to helpits personnel buy the daily essential goods. At the time, Toyota Sangyo had 131employees and branch offices in Tokyo, Osaka, and Kyoto, in addition to the HeadOffice (Nagoya).Distant view of Toyoda Kaikan, (left side ofphoto)The completed Toyoda KaikanToyoda Building5 Completion of Toyoda KaikanAmong the matters decided at the first postwar Board of Directors meeting onAugust 27, 1945, was the problem of the use of the land in front of Nagoya Stationthat Risaburo Toyoda had bought from Nagoya-shi in 1940. The area was 2,559square meters, and at the Board of Directors meeting it was decided to be used itfor construction of offices for Toyota Sangyo and showrooms for automobiles andother products.Toyota Sangyo decided to build a two-story building there with an area of 1,650square meters. However, construction was difficult due to the extreme shortageof supplies after the war. Tojiro Okamoto, who was now representative director,was able to procure materials through negotiation with Toyota Motor Co., Ltd.,and Tokai Hikoki, but it was a challenge to secure funds to cover the skyrocketingconstruction and materials costs. In the beginning, costs were expected to bearound 1.6 million yen, but that quickly ballooned due to postwar inflation, andin the end it was necessary to take out a loan for 5 million yen. Requests forfinancing were made to several banks, but there weren’t many positive responses.The only bank that was willing to offer the loan was the Mitsui Bank, Nagoyabranch.Toyoda Kaikan was completed in November 1946, and on the 11th of thatmonth Toyota Sangyo moved its headquarters there. It was later rebuilt, and wasreborn in November 1955 as the Toyoda Building, with nine floors abovegroundand two underground. This building was to play a leading role in the developmentof the area in front of Nagoya Station as a bustling business district.Right in the middle of the postwar recovery, Toyota Sangyo was about to stepinto the next era.44