It’s no secret to anyone…Toyota has been in the news a lot lately.
Have you noticed the name of Toyota’s president? He’s appeared on newscasts several times…mostly in making statements about Toyota’s recent recall problems. His name is Akio Toyoda. There’s no typo there — his last name is spelled with a “d” rather than a “t.” Weird, huh?
Akio Toyoda is the grandson of Toyota’s founder, Kiichiro Toyoda. He created the company back in 1937 — it was the new automobile side of his father’s loom-making company.
Back then, cars were sold under the “Toyoda” name — the company then decided to hold a public competition to design a new logo for the automaker. The challenge from Toyoda was to create a logo that “expressed a feeling of speed.” The winning entry was three Japanese katakana letters (for Toyota) in a circle. But for some reason, it just didn’t sit well with one of the family members — it was just too much work to scribe the logo. So the name was officially changed to “Toyota” — which only takes eight brush strokes to write. And eight is like seven here in the U.S. — it’s a very lucky number. It was also visually simpler, and sounded more clear when spoken. The logo was altered … and Toyota was born!
Nevermind the fact that toyoda, in Japanese, means fertile rice paddies. Not very marketable when you’re trying to sell cars! So the Toyoda family wanted to dissociate that name with their automobile — and changing one letter gave the company a whole new, different identity.
In August 1937, Toyota became official…and the name was trademarked and registered.
Now you know…
