BookTitleToyota Tsusho 70-Year History

Summary

Toyota Tsusho 70-Year History

AfricaIn 1980, Toyoda Tsusho began full-scale market development in Africathrough its offices in Nairobi, Kenya, and Johannesburg, South Africa. In 1982,the company opened offices in Durban (South Africa), Luanda (Angola), andCasablanca (Morocco). These openings were followed by office openings, in1983, in Mogadishu (Somalia) and, in 1989, in Abidjan (Cote d’Ivoire) andAntananarivo (Madagascar). Each of these offices focused on expanding sales ofToyota and Daihatsu vehicles and exporting agricultural products.Section 2 Response to Globalization1 Establishment of an Overseas Business SectionToyoda Tsusho established an Export Division as a general trading companyfor the Toyota Group and worked on exporting various products. The volume ofimports was large in the 1960s, and exports and imports were almost balanced.However, in the latter half of the 1960s exports from Japan increased rapidly,resulting in a significant trade imbalance. In 1970, the share of the company’ssales was 4% imports and 21% exports, a difference of more than five times.Toyoda Tsusho was promoting internationalization and diversification of itsbusiness, so the imbalance between imports and exports was an issue that neededto be corrected. In February 1970, the Export Division was abolished, and anOverseas Business Section was established to oversee international operations andto expand imports.No. 7 Toyota Maru (1970)President Nixon announces dollar defensepolicyPhoto: AP/Aflo2 Establishment of the Development Fund for ImportsToyoda Tsusho aimed to expand imports mainly through the Overseas BusinessSection, but the Nixon shock that occurred in 1971 caused the yen to be revaluedfrom 360 yen to 306 yen, making importing an even more difficult but equallyurgent proposition. To promote automobile exports, trading was carried out bythe so-called counterpurchase method, in which primary products were purchasedfor import from export destinations. However, such products were expensive, andthere were many cases where profits were lost in domestic sales.The Development Fund for Imports was established by the Japanese governmentin September 1971 to cover losses, and the fund, which started at 10 million yen,was soon increased to 100 million yen. After that, it became the DevelopmentFund and was further increased and applied to various developments in addition toimport expansion.Tokyo Stock Exchange crashes due to dollarshockPhoto: Mainichi Shimbun/AfloHistory75