Driving Forward with Akio Toyoda: Toyota Chairman Leads by Example With ‘Woven City’ Test Course

By Tadashi Isozumi / Yomiuri Shimbun Senior Writer

16:10 JST, January 29, 2026

As an executive, Toyota Motor Corp. Chairman Akio Toyoda values connections with people and places. He understands deeply that he and those around him owe what they are to those who came before. He struggles daily to pass on the legacy he has inherited to the next generation. Toyota’s Woven City, a testing site for advanced technology that opened in September, is part of that lineage.

Toyoda still vividly remembers a conversation he had with an employee in July 2018.

Toyoda, then president, visited Toyota Motor East Japan Inc.’s Higashi-Fuji Plant in Susono, Shizuoka Prefecture. The Higashi-Fuji Plant, which began operations in 1967, was slated for closure, due to profitability issues as well as the group’s plan to support recovery from the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake through consolidation of some of its manufacturing bases into the Tohoku region. Many employees working at the plant in Susono were expected to be transferred to other factories in Miyagi or Iwate prefectures.

At a meeting between Toyoda and the local employees, one of them spoke up during a question-and-answer session.

“I want to go to the Tohoku area and help make cars there. But some people, even if they want to go, may have to quit (the company) because they can’t take their family to Tohoku. When I think of such people, I’m not sure if I feel happy about going to Tohoku. What is the future of this place after the plant is shut down? I want to know what you are thinking at this time.”

Toyoda was deeply moved by this employee’s concern, not for himself, but for his colleagues. Toyoda had not intended to reveal his plans at that moment, but the words slipped out.

“I aim to transform (the plant) into a sacred place contributing to the future of automotive manufacturing, a massive connected city experiment for autonomous driving and other technologies,” he said. “It’s still in the conceptual stage, but I believe if we have the will, we can definitely make it happen.”

That was the moment Toyota’s Woven City project, which the company positions as a “test course for mobility,” was unveiled.

However, the project had not yet been officially decided on by the company.

It was merely something that Toyoda had floated in casual conversations with several executive vice presidents, to whom he suggested creating a city for new, human-focused technologies. Discussions about profitability and other issues had not yet taken place. His decision to speak out in this situation, essentially jumping the gun, came above all from a desire to respect the feelings of those who had worked at the Higashi-Fuji Plant.

“For people who had dedicated their lives to working there, seeing the site become a supermarket or apartment complex would make them think, ‘What did we live for, sweating and toiling here all this time?’ That’s why I wanted to create something meaningful,” Toyoda said, reflecting on his mindset at the time.

The fact that the Higashi-Fuji Plant was located at the foot of Mt. Fuji, a symbol of Japan, was also significant. Toyoda hoped the project would also “show the world that from this spot, a platform for creating the future can be built, even in Japan.”

When production at the Higashi-Fuji Plant ceased in December 2020, Toyoda said the following:

“Woven City isn’t a town built on empty land. It’s a town built upon the place where you all worked, upon the history you left behind. I want everyone involved in building this town to inherit the precious values built by you, who always put your colleagues and people’s feelings first, before yourselves.”

How did Toyoda’s words resonate with those working at the Higashi-Fuji Plant?

“He passed the torch,” said Shigezo Abe, the last general manager of the plant. Abe is now president of auto parts maker K.I.K Co. in Kitakami, Iwate Prefecture. Back then, as the person in charge of the plant, Abe was responsible for keeping production going until the day the plant closed. At the same time, he had to prepare for vacating the facility. Knowing what would happen to the site made “a huge difference in employee motivation,” he recalled.

Takashi Uchiyama, then assembly section manager at the Higashi-Fuji Plant, visited Woven City in September with former plant colleagues. Uchiyama now bears a heavy responsibility as the general manager of the Final Assembly Division at Toyota Motor East Japan’s Miyagi Ohira Plant.

“Welcome back.” Uchiyama was greeted by people including Daisuke Toyoda, Akio Toyoda’s son and senior vice president of Woven by Toyota Inc., the operating company for Woven City. “I felt that people from the Higashi-Fuji Plant were valued,” Uchiyama recalled.

Regarding Woven City’s future, Abe said, “I hope people from diverse backgrounds gather here and develop technologies and skills that can be passed on to the next generation.” These words encapsulate the sentiments of the 7,000 people who worked at the Higashi-Fuji Plant.

On Sept. 25 this year, seven years after the meeting, Woven City marked the official start of its demonstration phase. Toyota will conduct experiments here in such areas as shipping automation; delivering shared vehicles directly to users with self-driving robots; and coordination between autonomous vehicles and signals and other traffic infrastructure. Toyota Motor East Japan, which operated the Higashi-Fuji Plant, is also participating as a member of the “inventors” group in the project.

But the truth is, Woven City may not yield enough in returns to pay off the investment. The first group of buildings has been completed, and the experiments have only just begun. While the site is privately owned, allowing for freedom of movement, space is still limited. Daisuke Toyoda, the driving force behind the project, said: “Honestly, I don’t know when (results) will come. Rather than success or failure, the initial outcome will be whether we can undertake many initiatives. Learning increases through trying. I believe it’s more important to be moving than to stagnate.”

“Let’s try first. Don’t fear failure.” This is the spirit inherited from Sakichi Toyoda (1867-1930), Akio Toyoda’s great-grandfather and the founder of the Toyota group.

On Oct. 30, the anniversary of Sakichi’s death, Akio attended a commendation event in Kosai, Shizuoka Prefecture. Standing before Sakichi’s bust, he said:

“This nation has manufacturing capabilities we can proudly present to the world. We have many people with outstanding skills. I believe this is because there were ‘adults’ like Sakichi who acted with a vision for the next 100 years. We will work hard for Japan’s future. I, too, will show the way as an ‘adult.’”

The Woven City project is perhaps Akio’s attempt to present a model for the younger generation to follow.

This article was originally distributed by DOW JONES YOMIURI SHIMBUN Pro on Dec. 8, 2025.