Company Reconstruction Measures

Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. received approval for the manufacturing of trucks on September 25, 1945, and was granted approval for conversion to meet civilian demand on December 8 that year.

At that time, Executive Vice President Hisayoshi Akai was fatally wounded in a traffic accident on December 10, 1945. The sudden death of Executive Vice President Akai-who had taken charge of the running of the company for President Kiichiro Toyoda when it was placed under military supervision during the war-was a heavy blow to the company.

In assuming command of the company's reconstruction, Kiichiro Toyoda spoke about his determination and described a four point plan for implementing the reconstruction.1

I'm not sure whether this can be achieved but, for now, success or failure is a separate issue. By striving to push forward and resolving not to stop until we collapse, we must open up a way to bring the company back to life.

He then presented a four point plan to be implemented:

  1. 1) In order to repair and renew machinery that has undergone heavy use or deteriorated, establish a Temporary Reconstruction Office to comprehensively promote the restoration of the plant's equipment.
  2. 2) Change the company's parts manufacturing policies to establish and develop a specialized parts plant equipped with independent capacity.
  3. 3) Implement improvement and remodeling of the company's vehicles (which was stagnant during the war), plans for design changes, and establishment of a system for the steady supply of previous model parts for repairs.
  4. 4) Change from a company that supplied and maintained automobiles under a controlled economy to establish a sales system that will better and more fully reflect users' wishes, requests and opinions.

These initiatives are described in detail hereafter.

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