Working Toward the Mobility Society of the Future
Message from
the President
The Source of Our
Value Creation:
What Makes Us Toyota
Value Creation Story:
Working toward the Mobility
Society of the Future
Business Foundations
for Value Creation
Corporate Data
> Our Founding Spirit >The Toyoda Principles and Toyota Philosophy > Toyota Production System (TPS) > Toyota and Sports
Toyota and Sports
Sports Embody the Values and
Corporate Culture That Toyota
Cherishes
Passion for Sports Passed Down Since
Toyota's Founding
Toyota's passion for sports has been a constant
since the Company's founding in 1937. That same
year, founder Kiichiro Toyoda organized Toyota's
first sports club, the track and field club. Since
then, Toyota and its athletic clubs have grown and
developed together. President Akio Toyoda
explains why he thinks this came to be.
"More than 80 years ago, our founder Kiichiro
Toyoda created a sports club along with the
Automobile Division. But what was the sports
club for? The spirit of "never giving up" and the
spirit of working "for the team," which encourag-
es effort on the behalf of others-I believe these
were exactly the mindsets the founding mem-
bers needed as they recklessly took on the chal-
lenge of establishing an automotive industry in
Japan. Kiichiro must have felt that sports could
help strengthen the values they should cherish,
creating Toyota as we know it today.
Sports Clubs Grow alongside the Company
Sports Clubs Grow alongside the Company
Following the track and field club, a judo club was
created in 1938. As the years went on, Toyota
added more sports clubs to its roster, notably
soccer, rugby, and volleyball clubs. Club activities
were put on hold during the war years but resumed
in earnest thereafter. Four clubs, including men's
and women's volleyball clubs, were established in
1946 alone, and a total of twelve were set up in
the five years from then to 1951.
1951 also marked the first-ever All-Toyota
Games, an event in which Toyota Group compa-
nies competed with each other through various
athletic events, representing growing enthusiasm
for sports activities at Toyota.
Opening ceremony of
the All-Toyota Games.
in May 1965
In 1964, Tokyo hosted the Olympic and Paralympic
Games, a proud moment for the country that led to
increased popularity of corporate sports leagues
and teams in Japan. Around this time, Toyota
helped establish a corporate-backed sports
league, the Japan League, to allow companies
from across the country to come together in friend-
ly competition. Not only did this build solidarity
among Toyota's employees, it helped forge ties
across Japan's economic sector. It was also during
this era that Toyota started to open and operate
overseas, leading to a growing international view of
the world, including with regard to sport activities.
By the 1970s, Toyota had 35 different sports
clubs divided among its primary working loca-
tions in Japan. For example, the Tokyo office had
basketball, while track and field club was in Aichi
Prefecture, where the Tahara Plant is located,
and at the Higashi-Fuji Technical Center in
Shizuoka Prefecture, it was soccer. Some of
these clubs started to include athletes that par-
ticipated regularly in worldwide competitions.
Sports had taken a prominent position in the
minds of employees at Toyota.
Internationally, Toyota made the decision to
become the main sponsor of the Toyota Europe/
South America Cup (Intercontinental Cup) soccer
competition in the mid-1980s. This event brought
together reigning champion clubs from the European
and South American confederations in a competition
to claim the distinction of the world's top club team.
The event was renamed the "Intercontinental Cup" in
1984, and the "FIFA Club World Championship pre-
sented by Toyota" in the mid-2000s. Toyota contin-
ued to support the competition as its main sponsor
for three decades until 2014.
Developing Sporting Equipment for the
Paralympics-Seizing Opportunities to
Transform into a Mobility Company
Offering Freedom of Movement for All
It was around this time that the Olympic and
Paralympic spirit spread to Toyota. In 2015,
Toyota signed on to become the official worldwide
mobility partner of the International Olympic and
Paralympic Committees.
Approximately 300 Global Team Toyota Athletes
from 50 countries and regions competed at the
recent Olympic and Paralympic Games in Tokyo
and Beijing. Toyota not only joined with Group
members and partners around the world to cheer
these athletes on, the Company worked with the
event staff, developed sporting equipment, and
supported athletes' second careers.
We believe that sports are not just about competi-
tion; first and foremost they are about bringing peo-
ple together. In this spirit, we've worked with local
chapters of the Special Olympics over the years,
and in 2017 we became an official global partner.
Toyota Times
TOYOTA TEAMS & ATHLETES
TOYOU
The Special Olympics strives to create a better
world by fostering the acceptance and inclusion
of all people through sport and promotes Unified
Sports, which joins people with and without intel-
lectual disabilities on the same teams in order to
build relationships of mutual understanding and
support. We see the opportunity to work with
Special Olympics as a way to expand our own
view of the world and help create a more inclu-
sive, harmonious society.
Sports Embody the Values of Toyota
Since its founding, Toyota has continued to
believe in the power of sport to bring people
together and boost morale, regardless of market
conditions or the broader business challenges it
faces. We are proud of the long history of our
sports teams, and will continue to cherish them.
The values of sport-taking on challenges, never
giving up, teamwork, and respect-are also the
values and corporate culture of Toyota.
Every day, across the globe, athletes demon-
strate the values of humility, hard work, determi-
nation, and perseverance.
It is our admiration for these values that contin-
ues to drive us to support the creation of a more
inclusive and sustainable society in which all peo-
ple can start their impossible.
TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION
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