In June 2005, President Fujio Cho, who had been leading TMC's drive toward globalization, was appointed vice chairman, and Executive Vice President Katsuaki Watanabe was appointed president. At a press conference following his appointment, President Watanabe stressed the importance of shoring up TMC's foundation to cope with the rapid expansion of production outside Japan, saying, "I want to strengthen our foundation for monozukuri within the flow that begins in development and leads to production and sales." He also described his aspirations, declaring, "It's easy to miss problems when our business is growing. I plan to take precautions against arrogance and conceit and make problems visible."

In 2007, the 70th year since its founding, TMC created a new long-term vision titled "Toyota Global Vision 2020". Under the theme: "Open the frontiers of tomorrow through the energy of people and technology", the vision listed the following four concepts: 1) Excel at maintaining harmony between monozukuri and natural circulation; 2) Now is the time to return to the founding spirit; 3) Toyota pursues evolution in terms of growth, gaining depth, and true value; 4) Our goal is to become the No. 1 business in town (in terms of having the trust of local communities). The vision's goal was to help TMC become an entity that is useful as a member of both the earth's community and society, while coping with environmental and energy-related problems on a global scale.

Furthermore, in 2007, TMC broke down the concept of "Contribution towards Sustainable Development" (which was the guiding principle for CSR activities) into sustainability in three areas and communicated these to society at large. The goal of sustainability in three areas was to achieve sustainable growth in terms of R&D, manufacturing, and social contribution. Specific measures included the development of vehicles and transportation systems that can coexist with the earth's environment, production plants that aim to maintain harmony with nature (sustainable plants), and the promotion of social contribution activities such as planting trees. At the Toyota Environmental Forum held in Tokyo in June 2008, President Watanabe gave examples of sustainability in each of the three areas and indicated his determination to strengthen TMC's countermeasures related to global warming and energy problems, to help achieve an affluent low-carbon society.