Kiichiro Toyoda

Kiichiro Toyoda (11 June 1894 – 27 March 1952) was a prominent Japanese businessman and eldest son of Sakichi Toyoda, founder of automatic-loom manufacturer Toyoda Loom Works. Enthusiastic about making cars, Kiichiro opened an automotive department in 1933, radically changing the family business. No one then imagined that this sideline would become its main activity and make Toyota Motors a global automotive leader.

In 1937, Toyota Motors separated from Toyoda Automatic Loom Works. Since then, Sakichi’s descendants have successfully managed car production, traditionally holding senior leadership positions.

Kiichiro was president of Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. from 1941 to 1950. His son Soichiro, born in Nagoya on 17 February 1925, led the corporation from 1982 to 1992. The founder’s grandson, Akio Toyoda, remained the leading presidential candidate for a long time. In 2009, after Katsuaki Watanabe became chairman, the fifty-four-year-old family representative took charge of the automotive empire.

It is now hard to imagine how risky the automotive department had been: Kiichiro effectively staked the entire Toyoda Loom Works family business on it. Yet Sakichi believed in his son and, shortly before dying, urged him to pursue his dream and develop the new business. Fortune favoured Kiichiro, whose work created the huge Toyota Motors corporation.

His career was not entirely smooth. In 1950, a severe financial crisis caused the only workers’ strike in Toyota’s history, after which he resigned. In 1957, his cousin Eiji Toyoda took charge of Toyota Motor Corporation and astonished the world with luxurious Toyota cars sold under the Lexus brand.