History of Toyota - Name

Name

Toyota Motor Co. was established as an independent and separate company in 1937. Although the founding family's name was written in the Kanji "豊田" (rendered as "Toyoda"), the company name was changed to a similar word in katakana - トヨタ (rendered as "Toyota") because the latter has 8 strokes which is regarded as a lucky number in East Asian culture. Since Kanji are essentially Chinese characters, in Chinese speaking markets, the company and its vehicles are still referred to by the original Kanji name (simplified Chinese: 丰田; traditional Chinese: 豐田; pinyin: fēng tián), but with Chinese pronunciation.

During the Pacific War (World War II) the company was dedicated to truck production for the Imperial Japanese Army. Because of severe shortages in Japan, military trucks were kept as simple as possible. For example, the trucks had only one headlight in the center of the hood. The war ended shortly before a scheduled Allied bombing run on the Toyota factories in Aichi.