Editing Toyota (section)

===1920s–1930s===
{{primary|section|date=December 2023}}
[[File:Toyota Loom Mass Production Bertel Schmitt.jpg|thumb|The mass-produced Toyoda automated loom, displayed at Toyota Museum in Aichi-gun, Japan]]

In 1924, [[Sakichi Toyoda]] invented the Toyoda Model G Automatic [[loom]]. The principle of ''[[jidoka]]'', which means the machine stops itself when a problem occurs, became later a part of the [[Toyota Production System]]. Looms were built on a small [[production line]]. In 1929, the patent for the automatic loom was sold to the British company [[Platt Brothers]],<ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=The Story of Sakichi Toyoda |url=https://www.toyota-industries.com/company/history/toyoda_sakichi/index.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170923003201/https://www.toyota-industries.com/company/history/toyoda_sakichi/index.html |archive-date=September 23, 2017 |access-date=September 22, 2017 |publisher=Toyota Industries Corporation}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Barrow|first= Colin|author-link= |date= August 3, 2011|title=The 30 Day MBA in Marketing: Your Fast Track Guide to Business Success |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=t2qmrGFRqHsC |location= |publisher= [[Kogan Page]]|page=71 |isbn=978-0-7494-6218-5}}</ref> generating the starting capital for automobile development.<ref>{{Cite web |title=History Of Toyota |url=http://www.toyota-global.com/company/history_of_toyota/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110812013404/http://www.toyota-global.com/company/history_of_toyota/ |archive-date=August 12, 2011 |access-date=August 15, 2011 |publisher=Toyota}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last= Morck|first= Randall K.|author-link=Randall Morck |date= November 2007|title=A History of Corporate Governance Around the World: Family Business Groups to Professional Managers |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X6knIE-47BAC |location= |publisher=[[University of Chicago Press]] |page=400 |isbn=9780226536835}}</ref>

Under the direction of the founder's son, [[Kiichiro Toyoda]],<ref name="Toyota_chron_3140">{{cite web |url=http://www.toyota-global.com/company/history_of_toyota/75years/data/overall_chronological_table/1931.html |title=Chronological Table 1931–1940 |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2012 |website=Toyota Motor Corporation |publisher= |access-date=January 7, 2022}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Toyota Company History from 1867 to 1939 |url=http://www.toyota.co.jp/en/history/1867.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130510085717/http://www.toyota-global.com/company/history_of_toyota |archive-date=May 10, 2013 |access-date=September 11, 2010 |publisher=Toyota}}</ref><ref>{{cite magazine |last= Andres|first= Anton|date= November 7, 2023|title=300 million made: How Toyota took the world by storm |url=https://www.topgear.com.ph/features/feature-articles/toyota-300-million-cars-a5100-20231107-lfrm |magazine= [[Top Gear Philippines]]|location= |publisher= [[Summit Media]]|access-date=December 28, 2023}}</ref> [[Toyota Industries|Toyoda Automatic Loom Works]] established an Automobile Division on September 1, 1933, and formally declared its intention to begin manufacturing automobiles on January 29, 1934.<ref name="Toyota_chron_3140"/><ref>{{cite book |last= El-Sayed|first= Mohamed|author-link= |date=April 2017 |title= Fundamentals of Integrated Vehicle Realization|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WOObEAAAQBAJ |location= |publisher= [[SAE International]]|page= 13|isbn=9780768080360}}</ref> A prototype [[Toyota Type A engine]] was completed on September 25, 1934, with the company's first prototype sedan, the [[Toyota A1|A1]], completed the following May. As Kiichiro had limited experience with automobile production, he initially focused on truck production; the company's first truck, the [[Toyota G1|G1]], was completed on August 25, 1935, and debuted on November 21 in Tokyo, becoming the company's first production model.<ref name="Toyota_chron_3140"/><ref name="G1_GA">{{cite web |url=https://www.toyota-global.com/company/history_of_toyota/75years/vehicle_lineage/car/id60014788/index.html |title=Toyota Model GA Truck |author=<!--Not stated--> |date=2012 |website=Toyota Motor Corporation |publisher= |access-date=January 7, 2022}}</ref>{{primary source inline|date=December 2023}} Modeled on a period Ford truck, the G1 sold for ¥2,900, ¥200 cheaper than the Ford truck. A total of 379 G1 trucks were ultimately produced.<ref name="G1_GA"/><ref>{{cite magazine |last= Sanchez|first= Edward A.|date=March 7, 2013 |title=Toyota Shows 75-Year Family Tree With Interactive Timeline: From a Pre-War Pickup to Today's Tundra |url= https://www.motortrend.com/news/163-news130307-toyota-interactive-timeline/|magazine=[[Motor Trend]] |location= |publisher=[[Motor Trend Group]] |access-date=December 28, 2023}}</ref>

In April 1936, Toyoda's first passenger car, the [[Toyota AA|Model AA]], was completed. The sales price was ¥3,350, ¥400 cheaper than [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]] or [[General Motors|GM]] cars.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Information from a sign at the Toyota Museum in Nagakute-cho, Aichi-gun, Aichi Pref |url=http://www.toyota.co.jp/Museum/data_e/a03_08_1.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121120220844/http://www.toyota.co.jp/Museum/data_e/a03_08_1.html |archive-date=November 20, 2012 |access-date=December 7, 2012 |publisher=Toyota}}</ref>{{primary source inline|date=December 2023}} The company's plant at Kariya was completed in May. In July, the company filled its first export order, with four G1 trucks exported to northeastern China.<ref name="Toyota_chron_3140"/>{{primary source inline|date=December 2023}} On September 19, 1936, the Japanese imperial government officially designated Toyota Automatic Loom Works as an automotive manufacturer.<ref name="Toyota_chron_3140"/>{{primary source inline|date=December 2023}}

[[File:1936 Toyoda Model AA 03.jpg|thumb|The 1936 Toyota AA, the first vehicle produced by the company while it was still a department of Toyota Industries]]

Vehicles were originally sold under the name "Toyoda" (トヨダ), from the family name of the company's founder, [[Kiichiro Toyoda|Kiichirō Toyoda]]. In September 1936, the company ran a public competition to design a new logo. Of 27,000 entries, the winning entry was the three Japanese ''[[katakana]]'' letters for "Toyoda" in a circle. However, [[Rizaburo Toyoda]], who had [[mukoyōshi|married into the family]] and was not born with that name, preferred "Toyota" ({{nihongo2|トヨタ}}) because it took eight brush strokes (a lucky number) to write in Japanese, was visually simpler (leaving off the [[Dakuten|diacritic]] at the end), and with a [[voiceless|voiceless consonant]] instead of a [[voice (phonetics)|voiced]] one (voiced consonants are considered to have a "murky" or "muddy" sound compared to voiceless consonants, which are "clear").

Since ''toyoda'' literally means "fertile rice paddies", changing the name also prevented the company from being associated with old-fashioned farming. The newly formed word was trademarked and the company began trading on August 28, 1937, as the Toyota Motor Company Ltd.<ref name="Toyota_chron_3140"/><ref name="Davis">{{Cite book |last=Davis |first=Pedr |title=The Long Run – Toyota: The first 40 years in Australia |publisher=Type Forty Pty Ltd |year=1999 |isbn=0-947079-99-8 |location=South Hurstville |page=24}}</ref><ref name="fiftyyears64">{{Cite book |title=Toyota: A history of the First 50 Years |publisher=Toyota |year=1988 |isbn=0-517-61777-3 |page=64}}</ref>{{sfn|Dawson|2004}} Kiichiro's brother-in-law [[Rizaburo Toyoda]] was appointed the firm's first president, with Kiichiro as vice-president. Toyota Automatic Loom Works formally transferred automobile manufacturing to the new entity on September 29.<ref name="Toyota_chron_3140"/>{{primary source inline|date=December 2023}}

The Japanese government supported the company by preventing foreign competitors [[Ford Motor Company|Ford]] and [[General Motors]] from importing automobiles into Japan.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Chang |first=Ha-Joon |title=Bad Samaritans: The Myth of Free Trade and the Secret History of Capitalism |publisher=Random House |year=2008 |location=New York |page=20}}</ref>

At the onset of [[World War II]], Toyota almost exclusively produced standard-sized trucks for the Japanese Army, which paid one-fifth of the price in advance and the remainder in cash upon delivery.<ref name=daito>{{cite journal|author-last=Daito|author-first=Eisuke|title=Automation and the Organization of Production in the Japanese Automobile Industry: Nissan and Toyota in the 1950s|journal=Enterprise & Society|year=2000 |issue=1|volume=1|page=143|jstor=23699656 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23699656|quote=Moreover, during the war, Toyota manufactured standard-sized trucked almost exclusively for the army, which paid one-fifth of the price in advance and the balance in cash on delivery.}}</ref><ref name=EB>{{cite encyclopaedia|encyclopedia=Encyclopaedia Britannica|title=Toyota Motor Corporation|date=June 14, 2023 |quote="During World War II the company suspended production of passenger cars and concentrated on trucks"|url=https://www.britannica.com/topic/Toyota-Motor-Corporation}}</ref>