The Toyota Motor Corporation is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on August 28, 1937. In 2017, Toyota's corporate structure consisted of 364,445 employees worldwide and, as of December 2019, was the tenth-largest company in the world by revenue. Toyota is the largest automobile manufacturer in the world followed by Volkswagen, based on 2020 unit sales. Toyota was the world's first automobile manufacturer to produce more than 10 million vehicles per year, which it has done since 2012, when it also reported the production of its 200 millionth vehicle. As of July 2014, Toyota was the largest listed company in Japan by market capitalization (worth more than twice as much as number 2-ranked SoftBank) and by revenue.
Beginning
In 1924, Sakichi Toyoda invented the Toyoda Model G Automatic Loom. The principle of jidoka, which means the machine stops itself when a problem occurs, became later a part of the Toyota Production System. Looms were built on a small production line. In 1929, the patent for the automatic loom was sold to the British company Platt Brothers, generating the starting capital for automobile development. The production of Toyota automobiles was started in 1933 as a division of Toyoda Automatic Loom Works devoted to the production of automobiles under the direction of the founder's son, Kiichiro Toyoda. Its first vehicles were the A1 passenger car and the G1 truck in 1935. The Toyota Motor Company was established as an independent company in 1937. Vehicles were originally sold under the name "Toyoda", from the family name of the company's founder, Kiichirō Toyoda. In April 1936, Toyoda's first passenger car, the Model AA, was completed. The sales price was 3,350 yen, 400 yen cheaper than Ford or GM cars. In September 1936, the company ran a public competition to design a new logo. Of 27,000 entries, the winning entry was the three Japanese katakana letters for "Toyoda" in a circle. However, Rizaburo Toyoda, who had married into the family and was not born with that name, preferred "Toyota" because it took eight brush strokes (a lucky number) to write in Japanese, was visually simpler. Since toyoda literally means "fertile rice paddies", changing the name also prevented the company from being associated with old-fashioned farming. The newly formed word was trademarked and the company was registered in August 1937 as the Toyota Motor Company. The Japanese government supported the company by preventing foreign competitors Ford and General Motors from importing automobiles into Japan.
In late 2009, Toyota Motor Corporation saw 9 million of their vehicles recalled due to reports that several vehicles experienced unintended acceleration. The sudden unintended acceleration (SUA) was the main crisis that Toyota faced; causing a chain of reactions that resulted in a series of other problems. In February 2010, a recall was also made for the hybrid anti-lock brake software. Although this was a recall different from the initial incorrect placement of the floor mat, it affected Toyota’s image and brand name worldwide. Following the reports of faulty vehicles, falling consumer confidence on the Toyota brand and the fact that Toyota was trying to recover from the economic crisis of 2009, the company faced declining sales and decided on the suspension of sales for models of the affected cars and closed down six factories. This resulted in the loss of more than 6000 jobs. With the economic downturn in 2009, Toyota faced a further financial problem with the recalls of the faulty vehicles. This resulted in the numerous jobs lost and shares plummeting in value by 15%.
Failures
There were controversies regarding the company about the death of the employees. It is said that the employee faced death due to overload of work. On February 9, 2002, Kenichi Uchino, aged 30 years, a quality control manager, collapsed then died at work. On January 2, 2006, an unnamed chief engineer of the Camry Hybrid, aged 45 years, died from heart failure in his bed. June 2010 Chinese Labor Strike corroded the company’s face. On June 21, 2010, a Chinese labor strike happened in Tianjin Toyoda Gosei Co, ,Tianjin. Toyoda Gosei Co supplies parts to Tianjin FAW Toyota Motor Co.