Toyota

Toyota Motor Corporation is a Japanese multinational automaker and the world's largest by unit sales. The company traces its origins to 1933, when Toyoda Kiichiro founded what became Toyota as a division of the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works (now Toyota Industries Corporation). Its first production car, the Model AA sedan, was released in 1936, and the following year the division was incorporated as the Toyota Motor Company, Ltd.

Headquartered in Toyota City, Japan, the company employs roughly 350,000 people globally. Its portfolio spans the Toyota and Lexus brands (Lexus, the luxury division, was introduced in 1989) and includes affiliated companies such as compact car maker Daihatsu and truck unit Hino Motors.

In 2024, Toyota sold 10.8 million vehicles, remaining the world's top-selling automaker for a fifth straight year despite a 3.7% drop in global group unit sales, partly due to governance issues over certification test procedures, especially at Daihatsu. Hybrids remain central to its lineup: in 2024, hybrid vehicles accounted for 40.8% of parent-only sales, with battery-electric models at 1.4%.

Given Toyota's massive scale and its strong reliance on hybrid technology alongside emerging battery-electric models, innovation in manufacturing, electrification, and automotive technology is directly relevant to the company. Koji Sato holds a senior board-level representative-director role, and was appointed Vice Chair of KEIDANREN in May 2025, where he is expected to promote policy centered on monozukuri (manufacturing).