Toyota Family Successor Returns to the Front Line of Car Manufacturing

Written by | Ying Liu

Edited by Dalu Huang

On June 5, 1950, Kiichiro Toyoda resigned as president. This founder, who brought the family loom business into the automotive industry, could not hand over the company directly to his children.

A labor-management standoff lasting two months ended with large-scale layoffs and executive resignations; 2,146 employees left, and the vice president and executive directors resigned alongside Kiichiro Toyoda on the same day. Over a month later, Juzo Ishida, president of Toyota Automatic Loom Works, concurrently took over as president of Toyota Motor Corporation, while Fumio Nakagawa and others from the banking background entered the new management team.

The turning point occurred on the twentieth day after Kiichiro Toyoda's resignation.

The outbreak of the Korean War brought truck orders from the US military, giving the bankrupt Toyota a reprieve. By March 1951, cumulative orders reached 4,679 units, totaling 3.66 billion yen. Factories resumed operations, and the books once again showed cash flow. By early 1952, the company was preparing to ask the founder to return and resume the presidency. However, just before the official comeback, Kiichiro Toyoda suddenly passed away at the age of 57.

Succession moments for Toyota have frequently undergone changes.

In 1967, President Fumio Nakagawa suffered a sudden heart attack after returning from a business trip to Tokyo; the presidential position remained vacant until after his funeral. In 1995, Shoichiro Toyoda was hospitalized for six months due to illness, interrupting the period of family control once again. In 2009, Akio Toyoda took charge amidst the company's predicted first annual operating loss since inception, later became involved in one of Toyota's most severe recall crises, and testified before the US Congress alongside Yoshimi Inaba, head of Toyota North America, in 2010.

Toyota also once had a secret succession.

In late 2022, at the Buriram Circuit in Thailand, Akio Toyoda asked Koji Sato, an engineer beside him, if he was willing to assume the presidency. Sato officially took office in April 2023. In April 2026, he transferred to the position of Vice Chairman and Chief Industry Officer, with Kenji Kondo succeeding him as President and CEO.

In 2026, another personnel change sparked external attention to the fifth generation of the family, but Toyota did not define it as a succession plan.

On August 1, 2026, Daisuke Toyoda, 38-year-old son of Akio Toyoda, will leave Woven by Toyota, the software company he co-created, and the first phase of Woven City, which has already been launched, as well as the second phase still under construction, to return to Toyota Motor Corporation. He will not join the board of directors, nor will he receive an executive title; instead, he will enter a department close to the vehicle development "frontline" (genba) as a project manager. Toyota has not disclosed the specific department or model.

Toyota has not publicly announced any successor. The company's history of nearly ninety years repeatedly proves that a name can provide credit during a crisis but may also raise doubts during a power transition.

The Fifth Generation Returns to the Vehicle Development Frontline

Woven City is built on the site of the old Toyota East Fuji factory, testing autonomous vehicles, robots, and logistics equipment in a real urban environment. In September 2025, Phase 1 officially launched, and the first residents began moving in, with multiple partner enterprises entering the co-creation phase; Phase 2 is currently still under construction.

As a founding member of Woven by Toyota, Senior Vice President, and core head of Woven City, Daisuke Toyoda once turned his gaze beyond automobiles. In a 2025 interview, he compared this city to his great-grandfather Kiichiro Toyoda entering the automotive industry and posed a question: "When we truly become a mobility company, will Toyota Motor still be the group's core? We don't know."

Less than a year later, he began to move back.

On June 1, 2026, Woven announced that Daisuke Toyoda would transfer to Toyota Motor Corporation on August 1. The company announcement did not disclose the new position. A Toyota spokesperson subsequently confirmed to Reuters that he would serve as a project manager, entering a department close to the vehicle development "frontline" (genba), but refused to specify the specific business division and model.

This means his work focus will shift from a city-level testing platform to vehicle development. However, since Toyota has not yet explained specific duties, it is currently impossible to judge whether he will independently be responsible for a specific model, nor can this confirm it is a succession training arrangement.

This is not his first time entering Toyota Motor Corporation. In 2016, he worked in the Electronic Control Engineering Department; in 2018, he transferred to Toyota's Advanced R&D subsidiary. Since then, his work has mainly focused on software, autonomous driving, and future mobility.

Counting from Sakichi Toyoda, he is the fifth generation of the family. Counting from Kiichiro Toyoda, the founder of Toyota Motor, he is the fourth generation of the automotive business.

However, Toyota's succession history has never followed a bloodline straight line since the first president.

1937: The First President Was Not a Blood Relative of Sakichi Toyoda

At the founding conference in August 1937, the person appointed as the first president was not Kiichiro Toyoda, who opened the automotive business, but Riichiro Toyoda. Kiichiro served as vice president and only assumed the presidency in 1941.

Riichiro was originally Riichiro Kodama. After marrying Aiko Toyoda, the eldest daughter of Sakichi Toyoda, in 1915, he was adopted by the family and changed his surname to Toyota. He came from the cotton textile industry, managed the family business for years, and naturally took the presidential seat upon the company's establishment.

In other words, the first president of Toyota Motor was both a family member and not a blood relative of Sakichi Toyoda. Marriage, adoption, management ability, and family trust, several forces together decided where this position would fall.

The early family boundaries of Toyota were inherently wider than a straight-line genealogy.

In 1936, the automotive business intentionally distanced itself from the family name. The logo solicitation received about 27,000 submissions, and finally, the brand name was changed from the Katakana writing of the family surname "トヨダ" (Toyoda) to "トヨタ" (Toyota), and the Roman alphabet spelling was also changed to "Toyota".

Toyota's official reasons included: the new name uses unvoiced sounds, sounding clearer than the voiced sound of "Toyoda"; the Katakana writing of "トヨタ" is exactly eight strokes, and eight strokes are considered related to wealth and good fortune. This name change also symbolized the enterprise moving from a small independent company to a larger-scale company.

In Chinese, both "Toyoda" and "Toyota" are written as "Toyota", a subtle distinction that is easily overlooked. But this rewrite of the Japanese and English names drew a clear line: the enterprise comes from the Toyota family but does not belong solely to the Toyota family.

Even so, the Toyota surname remains deeply embedded in the company's DNA. Sakichi Toyoda left the automatic loom and the concept of "Stop at anomaly," while Kiichiro Toyoda turned family technical accumulation toward automobiles and bred the prototype of just-in-time production. Later, Eiji Toyoda, Shoichiro Toyoda, and Akio Toyoda passed the torch to mature the production system, expand globally, and drive product transformation.

This family has never provided a stable majority shareholding, but rather an industrial narrative spanning generations. Whenever the company intrudes into unfamiliar fields or hits major crises, the Toyota surname is always pushed back to the forefront. However, after experiencing the first true life-and-death test, it proved the company could actually invite the founding family off the driver's seat.

1950: The Founder Was Forced to Leave the Management Frontline

In the spring of 1950, Toyota's cash flow had reached the breaking point. Post-war economic tightening crushed automotive demand, and steel and non-ferrous metal prices soared; bank negotiation representatives sat across the conference table, demanding business restructuring, downsizing layoffs, and spinning off the sales department separately.

In April 1950, Toyota Motor Sales Co., Ltd. was established, separating manufacturing and sales, a split that lasted 32 years.

The split failed to put out the crisis immediately.

Starting from April 11, labor and management clashed over wages, layoffs, and reconstruction plans. People at both ends of the negotiation table almost met every day, negotiating for two months straight. The company eventually closed its Shibaura and Kameido factories in Tokyo; 2,146 people left, and the total number of employees plummeted from 8,140 to 5,994. The vacant workstations in the factory area were temporarily unfilled, and those who stayed had to accept pay cuts.

On June 5, Kiichiro Toyoda, Vice President Kazuo Kumabe, and Executive Director Takahachi Nishimura resigned on the same day. After the extraordinary general meeting on July 18, Juzo Ishida, president of Toyota Automatic Loom Works, concurrently assumed the presidency of Toyota Motor Corporation, while Fumio Nakagawa from the Imperial Bank entered management.

Toyota Motor had been established for only 13 years when the founder already lost control of operations.

20 days after Kiichiro Toyoda's resignation, the Korean War broke out. The US military quickly procured trucks from Toyota, issuing a first batch of 1,000 units on July 31, followed by additions of 2,329 and 1,350 units, totaling 4,679 units and 3.66 billion yen. War orders stabilized Toyota's operations after layoffs, split, and management changes.

Kiichiro Toyoda did not return immediately.

After leaving office, he continued to privately follow passenger car development, with sketches and parts lists on his desk. By early 1952, with the company's operations improving, Juzo Ishida began arranging for his comeback. Facing the invitation, he only said: "A company that doesn't build passenger cars is not a car manufacturer."

This statement sounded tough, but Eiji Toyoda later recalled that he was actually very happy inside.

The company originally planned to officially announce his comeback at the July 1952 shareholder meeting, and the new passenger car project had already launched in January of that year. However, on March 27, Kiichiro Toyoda suddenly passed away, abruptly ending the comeback plan, and the planned welcome ceremony was never held. The development of the Crown, which later became Toyota's representative model, also launched during this period.

The founder created the automotive business himself but was forced to leave during the company's most difficult moment. Orders flooded in after he left, and when the company was ready to welcome him back, he suddenly passed away.

Toyota's first succession was not completed. The company continued to be managed by professional managers, while the founding family retreated to the edge of power for a long time, waiting for the next turning point.

1967 to 1995: Sudden Succession

On October 13, 1967, Toyota President Fumio Nakagawa attended all-day meetings in Tokyo and was driving back to Nagoya. In the dead of night, he suffered a sudden heart attack and did not wait until dawn.

The company did not announce a successor on the second day. Since other representative directors were still maintaining operations, the president position remained temporarily vacant. It was not until October 30, after the funeral ended, that Vice President Eiji Toyoda officially assumed the role.

Eiji Toyoda was the cousin of Kiichiro Toyoda. He had long been rooted in the factory and technical system, promoting the Toyota Production System to maturity together with Taiichi Ohno and others. Before being pushed to the highest position, he had worked in the company for decades.

He later recalled that the position itself did not make him feel strange, "what surprised me was the change in the attitude of people around me."

This sudden succession reflected a typical way of Toyota family influence: Family members would never sit in the highest position solely based on bloodline. However, when the company suddenly lost a leader, someone with deep internal experience who could represent the company's tradition was easier for management to accept.

Eiji Toyoda served as president for 15 years until 1982, when the manufacturing and sales companies were recombined.

At that time, Japan-US automotive trade friction intensified, and Toyota began considering overseas production. Communication costs resulting from the separation of manufacturing and sales rose higher and higher. The company urgently needed to unify products, funds, personnel, and international decision-making. In January 1982, the two signed a merger memorandum, then immediately handled merger ratios, board seats, and organizational structure.

At 9:30 AM on July 1, 53 executives attended the establishment ceremony of the new company at headquarters. Eiji Toyoda and Shoichiro Toyoda unveiled the company sign for "Toyota Motor Corporation," recombining the manufacturing and sales system separated for 32 years into one.

At the subsequent board meeting, Eiji Toyoda served as chairman, and Shoichiro Toyoda, son of Kiichiro Toyoda, became president. Eiji Toyoda wrote in a letter to employees: "Toyota's post-war era has ended."

This was a true return of the family, but still not a direct baton handover between father and son. After Kiichiro Toyoda left in 1950, three presidents passed: Juzo Ishida, Fumio Nakagawa, and Eiji Toyoda. 32 years passed before his son sat in the presidency of the merged Toyota.

Shoichiro Toyoda subsequently promoted North American localization production. In 1983, Toyota and General Motors established the New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI). His younger brother, Daigo Toyoda, deeply participated in the North American production system and succeeded to the presidency in 1992.

Family continuous control lasted only three years.

Daigo Toyoda had long suffered from health issues. He resigned after being hospitalized for about six months in 1995 and transferred to Vice Chairman. Toyota did not look for another family member to fill the position but appointed Minoru Oda, who had worked in the company for about 40 years, as president.

After that, Minoru Oda, Fujio Cho, and Takeo Hashimoto successively led Toyota, and professional managers held power for 14 years.

The family did not truly leave. Shoichiro Toyoda continued to serve as chairman and honorary chairman, retaining a voice in group relations and major directions, while daily operations were handed to internal professional managers.

Toyota thus formed a structure that repeatedly appeared: the family was responsible for preserving history, sense of direction, and symbolic meaning during crises, while professional managers were responsible for maintaining operational continuity in a huge organization. The boundaries between the two were not clear, but they checked and balanced each other for a long time.

2009: The Family Returns in a Crisis

In late 2008, the global financial market was full of alarm bells, and Akio Toyoda's name began to appear frequently in succession rumors.

At that time, the global financial crisis rapidly suppressed automotive demand. Toyota had just surpassed General Motors to become the global sales champion but was expected to face its first annual operating loss since inception. Whether to have the founding family retake the helm at this moment, there were different opinions within the company.

According to Reuters reports at the time, key figures such as Fujio Cho, Minoru Oda, and Shoichiro Toyoda weighed whether to arrange a transitional manager first to let Akio Toyoda accumulate a few more years of experience. Ultimately, Toyota chose to have 52-year-old Akio Toyoda assume the role directly.

His surname was both a talisman and a shackle.

When Akio Toyoda joined the company in 1984, his father Shoichiro Toyoda warned him that no one wanted to become "the president's son's subordinate." Many employees kept their distance from him for a long time. He rotated through production, sales, North American joint ventures, and Asian and Chinese businesses, moved his desk time and time again, only entering the board of directors in 2000 and officially assuming the presidency in 2009.

Soon after taking office, a large-scale recall crisis came head-on. Between 2009 and 2011, over 10 million Toyota vehicles were recalled due to issues such as accelerator pedals and floor mats. In 2010, Akio Toyoda testified before the US Congress alongside Yoshimi Inaba, head of Toyota North America.

At that hearing, he linked his family identity with personal responsibility: "I am the grandson of the founder, and all Toyota cars carry my name. When the car gets hurt, I feel hurt too."

After this, Akio Toyoda served as president for 14 years but did not hand the position to his son. In late 2022, at the Buriram Circuit in Thailand, he asked Koji Sato, head of Lexus and GR: "Would you be willing to assume the presidency?"

Koji Sato officially took office in April 2023, and Akio Toyoda transferred to Chairman. According to his own words, an important reason for selecting Sato was that he was young, loved cars, and demonstrated Toyota's philosophy and way of doing things on the vehicle development frontline.

2026: Kenji Kondo Assumes Presidency

In February 2026, Toyota announced that Sato would transfer to Vice Chairman and Chief Industry Officer in April, with Kenji Kondo succeeding him as President and CEO.

This adjustment occurred amidst Toyota facing multiple pressures. The certification violation incident of 2024 is still testing the group's governance. At the same time, uncertainty in trade policy, costs, and industry competition is rising. Toyota listed improving profitability and reducing break-even sales volume as urgent tasks in official explanations and stated that Sato still needs to devote more energy to the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association and industry collaboration.

Therefore, the change of command should not be simply understood as a negation of Sato's three-year term but more like a reorganization of responsibilities for operations and industry affairs.

Kenji Kondo's most important resume is serving as Executive Officer and Chief Financial Officer of Toyota Motor Corporation. He has long engaged in finance and operation management, having served as Akio Toyoda's secretary early on, and later concurrently served as a Woven director and CFO.

These experiences concentratedly reflect his trust relationship with Akio Toyoda, financial expertise, and cross-departmental experience. According to Toyota's published division of labor, Sato will mainly be responsible for industry cooperation and external affairs, while Kenji Kondo will be responsible for corporate operations, profitability improvement, and reducing break-even sales volume.

From Akio Toyoda stepping down to Koji Sato and Kenji Kondo succeeding one after another, the presidential position was handed to non-family members twice. Akio Toyoda still serves as Chairman and Representative Director, continuing to exert influence in products, culture, group relations, and manager training.

This influence cannot be explained solely from shareholding ratios.

Akio Toyoda's personal shareholding is less than 0.2%, and the total family shareholding is also lower than 2%, making it impossible to influence the board of directors with majority shareholding. Toyota's current major shareholders are mainly trust banks, financial institutions, and group enterprises; family members don't even squeeze into the top ten shareholder seats.

Scholars researching Japanese family enterprises call names, reputation, internal relations, social networks, and long-term accumulated management knowledge "soft family assets." At Toyota, it is precisely these assets that allow the family to influence corporate culture and strategy even after shareholding is constantly diluted.

This influence is also constrained by shareholders. In 2024, dragged down by certification violations and corporate governance controversies, Akio Toyoda's shareholder support rate once fell to about 72%. In 2025, the support rate rose back to 96.72%. A surname can bring authority within the company but cannot exchange for unconditional support in the capital market.

Beyond the Surname, There Is Also a System

In Toyota's current company documents, there are no clauses like "Family Priority," "Primogeniture," or "Founding Family Reserved Seat."

According to Japanese company law and Toyota's governance structure, shareholder meetings are responsible for electing directors, and the board of directors selects representative directors from them and appoints positions such as Chairman and President. Akio Toyoda personally does not possess legal "power of transmission," and Daisuke Toyoda cannot directly inherit the presidency by a surname.

Toyota did not start disclosing president training and selection mechanisms only in 2026. As late as 2023, its comprehensive report and shareholder meeting notices had already listed links such as talent training, evaluation feedback, candidate determination, and external director participation. The 2026 shareholder meeting notice, combined with the appointment of Kenji Kondo, once again and more centrally explained how this mechanism works.

Potential candidates will be sent to serve as internal company presidents, regional CEOs, and functional heads, taking on management responsibilities in product, regional, and professional posts. Candidates will also demonstrate judgment, skills, and working style through regular operational discussions and frontline work. Independent external directors observe their execution through listening to internal heads and regional executive reports and visiting business sites.

Toyota also conducts interviews with over 40 management executives and senior management talents each year to understand their personal characteristics. Candidates receive comprehensive evaluations and 360-degree feedback from multiple superiors and relevant personnel annually, with evaluation results continuously accumulated for several years. Finally, candidates must also undergo individual interviews.

Final choices are deliberated by the executive appointment meeting.

This meeting currently has three members, including two independent external directors and one internal director, with external directors holding the majority. The meeting is responsible for discussing executive and director candidates, forming appointment plans, and then submitting them to the board of directors for a vote; director candidates must finally be handed to the shareholder meeting for formal election.

Toyota told The Financial Times that the company will not be subjected to "inappropriate influence" from the Toyota family, and family members joining the company must go through the same procedures as other employees.

Beyond the system, personal trust still truly exists.

The fact that Koji Sato received the inquiry by the race track indicates that the formal nomination procedure cannot completely present the entire process of succession brewing. Long-term observation and personal trust still affect when candidates enter the formal procedure.

Akio Toyoda's arrangement for his son is constrained by company systems but also carries the consideration of family heritage.

When asked in 2025 whether Daisuke Toyoda would continue the family business, Akio Toyoda said: "He is my son, but also a completely different person." He does not want his son to replicate the path he walked but still hopes something can be passed down.

"The driver decides the flavor of the brand."

Daisuke Toyoda has participated in endurance races and also participated in the vehicle evaluation of the Toyota GR GT flagship sports car from the concept stage. Official materials list him as one of the drivers involved in development evaluation. He has provided feedback to the engineering team on vehicle performance alongside Akio Toyoda, professional drivers, and internal evaluation drivers.

These experiences can prove he understands driving and products but cannot replace a complete management resume. In public materials, he has not yet independently been responsible for a global mass-produced model, nor has he managed a large factory, a major regional market, or a business requiring profit responsibility.

The position of Project Manager is therefore worth attention. Woven and Woven City gave him experience in software, partners, and future mobility. After returning to Toyota Motor, whether he can supplement the vehicle development and operation management resume depends on specific duties and actual results.

In 1936, Toyota proactively distanced itself from the family surname in brand spelling, hoping the automotive business would grow into a socially broader enterprise. Nearly ninety years later, the Toyota family has never truly exited this company, but they also did not guard a stable hereditary channel.

The founder was once forced to resign, professional managers held power for consecutive years, and family members also left the scene in disgrace due to illness. The presidential seat can be temporarily filled after a funeral or decided with a question by the side of a track, but finally, everything must go through corporate governance procedures and the test of operational results.

The Toyota surname offers an earlier opportunity to be seen and brings a more difficult responsibility to shoulder.

On August 1, 2026, Daisuke Toyoda will enter a department close to the vehicle development frontline as a project manager. For him, this is a position transition. Whether it is also a path to higher management positions, there is no answer yet.