Executive Message

Rewarded with a Smile by Exceeding Your Expectations

I would like to begin by offering thanks for the continued support and understanding of all of our stakeholders.  In addition, on behalf of everyone at Toyota I would like to express my wishes for the restful peace of all those we lost to the Great East Japan Earthquake, and to offer our sincerest sympathies to all who have suffered through this great tragedy.

When I reflect on the past year, I am touched by the support offered by so many of our customers and stakeholders as we dealt with the ongoing effects of the global financial crisis, as well as product quality and safety issues.  I offer my sincerest gratitude.

Learning from these experiences, I continued to ask myself, "What kind of company do we want Toyota to be? What kind of company should Toyota be?" I realized that Toyota should strive to be a company that people choose, and that people are happy to have chosen.  The Global Vision we announced in March is strongly imbued with these ideas.

The Great East Japan Earthquake struck two days after we announced our Global Vision.  Our employees entered the stricken areas in the immediate aftermath of the earthquake and began providing support, working together with local residents to reconstruct and restore communities.  Upon viewing the situation after the disaster, our support teams assessed the situation, quickly worked out what was best for the communities and immediately set about their tasks accordingly.  This represents the very spirit of Toyota's "power of the workplace"— an asset built up and handed down through 70 years of Toyota history.  Priority was given to rescuing and preserving life, then to the restoration of the communities, with restarting production only considered after the situation stabilized.

I personally went to the scene of the disaster, not only to see for myself the scale of the destruction, but also to listen to voices of the people there.  From this experience, I strongly feel that assistance for reconstruction and restoration from the disaster must be on-going, and I instigated the "Kokoro Hakobu Project" in which our belief that automobiles carry not only goods and supplies, but they can also carry human hearts is reflected.  This project was planned and carried out by Toyota and Toyota dealer employees with thoughtful consideration.

As part of the project, in this July we announced activities we will carry out toward restoration from the disaster through social contribution and monozukuri.  We will contribute to the scholarship foundation created by Iwate, Fukushima and Miyagi prefectures for children who lost their parents in the earthquake or tsunami, and we have set up in-house training systems for the graduates of industrial high schools in the Tohoku region.  I fully expect that those who receive this training will support and continue the monozukuri tradition in Tohoku and play important roles for Japan's future.

This Sustainability Report introduces various activities we conduct with the aim of realizing a sustainable society based on the eight axes of the 'Global Vision for Those We Serve' set up in line with the Global Vision.

"Rewarded with a smile by exceeding your expectations." That is, we want to be a company that consistently exceeds the expectations of all our stakeholders, and is therefore rewarded with their smiles.  That is what all our efforts are aimed at, and your continued support will be greatly appreciated.

Related contents

• Toyota's Initiatives toward Recovery and Reconstruction of the Great East Japan Earthquake