Kiichiro Toyoda (豊田 喜一郎 とよだ きいちろう, Toyoda Kiichirō) (June 11, 1894 – March 27, 1952), was

a Japanese
businessman and the son of Toyoda Loom Works founder Sakichi Toyoda. His decision to change Toyoda's focus from
automatic loom manufacture into automobile manufacturing created what would become Toyota Motor Corporation.

Contents

 1Toyoda Loom Works and Toyota Motor Corporation

 2Early life and education
o 2.1Family tree
 3References

Toyoda Loom Works and Toyota Motor Corporation[edit]

Kiichiro Toyoda persuaded his brother,who was responsible as head of the family business, to invest into expansion of
Toyoda Loom Works into a concept automobiles division; of which was considered a risk to the family business at the time.
Shortly before Sakichi Toyoda died, he encouraged his son to follow his dream and pursue automobile manufacturing —
Kiichiro would solidify the mechanical prowess the family had experienced inventing steam, oil, and electric looms, and
would develop and institute what eventually became the global powerhouse of modern fame today, Toyota Motor
Corporation. He would also institute the spelling of the automobile company away from the family name to famously
garner good luck.
Toyoda would never know the success that would come to him as he resigned from the company he developed in 1950 in
reaction to flagging sales and profitability. He died two years later; his contemporaries would call him "Japan's Thomas
Edison".[1] In 1957, his cousin and confidant Eiji Toyoda, would follow him as head of Toyota Motor Corporation, and build
the late Toyoda's successful expansion into a world class conglomeration of engineering and the launch of Japan's most
prominent luxury brand, Lexus.

Early life and education[edit]

Son to the founder of Toyoda Automatic Loomworks, and the forebear of two Toyota Motors chief executives, Kiichiro
Toyoda was born on June 11, 1894 at Aichi Prefecture, Japan. [1] He would go on to marry Hatajo Shinshichi, the daughter of
the Takashimaya department store chain co-founder, Iida Shinshichi. At the height of the Pacific theater of World War II, the
Toyoda family would be affected on both family business and home fronts. His children's education would be delayed by civil
ramifications, and his business would be compelled to manufacture trucks for the imperial Japanese Army. The family firms
would be spared destruction in the days before the Japanese government's surrender.

Family tree[edit]