Sakichi Toyoda and Looms
Sakichi Toyoda was born in 1867 and from an early age was interested in invention and improvement. At the age of 24, he received his first patent for a loom, and over the next 30 years, he continued to innovate in the loom industry and was awarded 40 patents in his lifetime. He traveled across the world to study loom manufacturers and weaving mills as he looked for opportunities to improve his designs. In 1926 the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Ltd company was incorporated and one of the objectives of the company was that it ‘shall be pursuing related invention and research’. This broad objective of pursuing invention helped lead to the founding of the Toyota Motor Corporation since in the late 1920’s Sakichi’s son, Kiichiro Toyoda, was working on plans to develop an automobile.
The Start of Automobiles
In 1929 Kiichiro Toyoda traveled to Europe and the United States to investigate and learn more about automobile production. By this point, both Ford and General Motors had created assembly plants in Japan for their vehicles and the Japanese government was encouraging Japanese companies to develop automobile production. This led to the establishment of the Automotive Production Division of the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works company on September 1, 1933. Research continued and the company brought in people with automotive experience to get things started. In 1934 they produced their first engine and the Model A1 passenger car was ready in 1935. In 1937 the name was changed to Toyota Motor Company for several reasons including the fact that toyoda means ‘fertile rice paddies’ and the company wanted to avoid being associated with farming.
Fast Forward to Today
Toyota continued to grow over the years and entered the American market in 1957. Today it has a total of 5 brands which are: Toyota, Hino, Lexus, Ranz, and Daihatsu. Based on the revenue it is the 31st largest company in the world and the second largest automaker.