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| Toyota Tsusho lends support to cultural activities such as a Japanese chess festival in Beijing. |
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For millions of people around the world, the name "Toyota" has long been synonymous with dependable vehicles built with hi-tech engineering and a distinctly Japanese-style of innovation. Few, though, are aware of the Toyota Tsusho Corporation, an affi liate company of the world’s largest car manufacturer and one that plays a vital role in its continuing success.
Toyota Tsusho was established in 1948, originally to provide consumer finance for car purchases. Since that time its role has broadened enormously and it is now one of the world’s largest trading companies with interests stretching far beyond its initial automobile remit.
A series of mergers — with the Kasho Company in 2000 and with the Tomen Corporation in 2006 — as well as organic growth has seen it trading in a wide range of non-automotive markets, including chemicals, foodstuffs, as well as industrial and consumer goods.
According to the Tokyo-based company's President and CEO, Junzo Shimizu, this diversifi cation has been the key to the company’s success: "Too much dependency in one industry is not ideal because of the many changes taking place in the world today. To achieve sustainable growth in the future, we need to diversify our business areas, whilst maintaining a balanced business portfolio and keeping automotive as our core business."
Complementing its automotive-related business, Toyota Tsusho has divided its other activities into a number of separate operating divisions — Metals, Machinery & Electronics, Energy & Chemicals, Produce, Foodstuffs & Consumer Products, and Services & Materials.
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| Toyota Tsusho President and
CEO Junzo Shimizu |
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In line with this diversification program, Toyota Tsusho has formally adopted "Vision 2015 — Lead the Next", a farreaching agenda aimed at establishing a 50-50 balance between its automotive and non-automotive businesses within the next six years.
As part of the same development push, the company is also looking to increase its business with developing countries and, especially with the so-called BR ICS economies — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. The company has been doing business in China since 1971 and is particularly keen to increase its share of this potentially huge market.
Shimizu said: "China is essential to Japan’s developmentas a country and for Toyota Tsusho’s growth as a company. We currently have 176 ventures in China. We are constantly forming new partnerships in other areas of our business aside from automotive-related ones in order to meet our objective of diversifying into other business areas."
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the opening of the company’s first office in Beijing. Since then, it has opened 19 new offices, formed several partnerships and invested $285 million in China.
The company sees investing in cultural initiatives, aimed at improving relationships and understanding between China and Japan, as a key measure in developing its business in the country.
It has recently sponsored a number of programs aimed at fostering cross-cultural wellbeing—including training in how to play the erhu(a traditional Chinese two-stringed lute-style instrument), lessons in Chinese calligraphy and instructions on how to play Shogi (a form of Japanese chess).
Shimizu is a strong advocate of these initiatives and of the company’s approach to environmental responsibility: "We hope that there is greater cooperation between China and Japan both culturally and in business. As an environment-related business, we believe we can make a substantial contribution to building a sustainable society through our activities as a trading company.
"I have seen a lot of improvements made in China over the years and we hope to contribute even more to its society by utilizing our expertise in every way possible."
www.toyota-tsusho.com
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