Toyota’s auto birthplace unveiled

Toyota Motor Corp unveiled to the media on Thursday its historic plant where the company's first prototype vehicle was developed in the early years of Showa era (1926-1989).

Called "The Prototype Plant at the Establishment of Toyota" and said to be the birthplace of its automobile manufacturing business, the plant has an atmosphere of the early days of the domestic auto industry. Located in Kariya, Aichi Prefecture, it will open to the public from July 18.

It was at this plant in 1935 that Kiichiro Toyoda, the founder of Toyota and grandfather of current Toyota President Akio Toyoda, developed a prototype automobile, a model for the company's first mass-produced cars. The plant can be said to be the starting point from which the Toyota Group expanded into the automobile industry from its original loom manufacturing business.

Currently, the plant is located on the premises of a factory belonging to group-owned firm Aichi Steel Corp. and was set to be demolished due to concerns over earthquake resistance and other problems. However, when Toyota executives visited the site in 2016, they decided to preserve the building as "a place retaining the spirit of the founding period." In May, the government recognized the plant's historic value by citing the building as an example of "functionality-oriented industrial architecture from the early Showa era" and designated it as a national tangible cultural asset.

At a time when the industrial world is undergoing a transformation, there is a trend for leading companies to display the history of their founding and the philosophy they held at that time. Panasonic Corp., which marked its 100th anniversary in March, established the Konosuke Matsushita Museum within the Panasonic Museum in Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture, in order to share its founder's management philosophy with the public.

Copyright: The Japan News/ Asia News Network