As Toyota was focusing its energies on achieving monthly production of 100,000 units, President Fukio Nakagawa passed away suddenly on October 13, 1967 as a result of a heart attack.

After joining Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. from Teikoku Bank following the 1950 labor dispute, then-Senior Managing Director Nakagawa regularly aided President Taizo Ishida and made contributions to Toyota's restoration and prosperity. Following his appointment as president in 1961, he spent busy day after busy day in back-to-back negotiations with various parties. On the day he died, President Nakagawa had attended a conference in Tokyo and suddenly passed away after returning to Nagoya.

Following the death of President Nakagawa, Vice President Eiji Toyoda was appointed president on October 30. A short time later, President Toyoda made the following statement concerning his appointment:

Even though the president had passed away, there were other representative directors, and there would be no particular impediment to the company's operations in the short term, so the position was left vacant until President Nakagawa's funeral. I was appointed president on October 30. ...

I felt no different as president than I had as a managing director or executive vice president. What amazed me, however, was the difference in attitude of those around me. ... When Toyota was founded, aside from Kiichiro, only I and Shoichi Saito had graduated from college. Unless we stood up and took the initiative ourselves, the company wasn't going to go anywhere. We had to stay on our toes. Then, before I knew it, the company had grown into a large corporation and I was sitting at the top.

(From Toyota: Fifty Years in Motion, p. 136, by Eiji Toyoda)

Under the leadership of President Eiji Toyoda, development of mass production systems advanced even further.