Toyota: A Brief History

January 16, 2020

Posted: 9/01/2019

Toyota Motor Corporation is known for reliability, innovation and an unwavering commitment to excellence. You may be surprised by this great company’s humble beginnings. So, we thought we would share a brief introduction to how this multi-faceted global company began…

1867 – Sakichi Toyoda born February 14 in the village of Yamaguchi (now part of the city of Kosai) in Shizuoka Prefecture

1898 – Sakichi Toyota invented the first power loom in Japan, the device was awarded patent No. 3173 “Loom” in August

1894 – Sakichi Toyoda’s eldest son, Kiichiro Toyoda, was born on June 11, in the village of Yamaguchi (now part of the city of Kosai) in Shizuoka Prefecture

1925 – March, a little over 20 years since Sakichi first began his study into an automatic loom, Kiichiro made Sakichi’s dream a reality

1930 – Sakichi Toyoda, president of Toyota Boshoku, passed away on October 30, after falling into ill health that summer

1933 – September 1, Kiichiro Toyoda launched the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works automotive business

1934 – The first prototype engine was completed on September 25

1935 – Hinode Motors becomes the first Toyota Dealer

1935 – December, Tokyo Toyoda Motor Sales Co., Ltd was established as the second Toyota dealer

1936 – In October, the company name was changed from “Toyoda” to “Toyota” in conjunction with the adoption of the Toyota logo

1937 – Toyoda Automatic Loom Works’ Automotive Department was spun off and Toyota Motor Co., Ltd. was established as a new company