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formerly known as Koromo, is a city in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 426,162 and a population density of 464 persons per km2. The total area was . It is located about 35 minutes from Nagoya by way of the Meitetsu Toyota Line. Several of Toyota Motor Corporation's manufacturing plants, including the Tsutsumi plant, are located here. The longstanding ties between the Toyota Motor Corporation and the town of Toyota-shi, formerly known as , gave the town its current name. The city's flag (and seal), is a unicursal hexagram.
[edit] History
[edit] OriginsThe area of present-day Toyota City has been inhabited since prehistoric times, and archaeologists have found a continuous record of artifacts from the Japanese paleolithic period onwards. In early proto-historic times, the area was under the control of the Mononobe clan, who built numerous kofun burial mounds. The local place name “Koromo” is mentioned in the Kojiki and other early Japanese documents. [edit] Edo periodDuring the Edo period, parts of the area of the current city were under the control of Koromo Domain, a feudal han under the Tokugawa shogunate; however, most of the area of the current city was tenryō territory controlled directly by the government in Edo and administered through hatamoto class appointed administrators. The village of ”Matsudaira”, from which Tokugawa Ieyasu took his clan name, was located within what is now the city of Toyota. [edit] Meiji periodAfter the Meiji restoration, the area was organized into the towns of Asuke and Koromo and numerous villages under Higashikamo District and Nishikamo District with the establishment of the modern municipalities system. The area was a major producer of silk and prospered from the Meiji period through the Taishō periods. As the demand for raw silk declined in Japan and abroad, Koromo entered a period of gradual decline after 1930. The decline encouraged Kiichiro Toyoda, cousin of Eiji Toyoda, to look for alternatives to the family's automatic loom manufacturing business. The search led to the founding of what became the Toyota Motor Corporation. Toyota built the first manufacturing facility, known as Toyota Honsha plant in November 1938, breaking ground in December 1935. [edit] Modern historyOn March 1, 1951, Koromo gained city status, and absorbed the village of Takahashi from Nishikamo District on September 30, 1956. Due to the fame and economic importance of its major employer, the city of changed its name to Toyota on January 1, 1959. Toyota became a sister city with Detroit, Michigan, United States in 1960. It continued to expand by annexing the towns of Kamigo (Hekikai District) on March 1, 1964, and Takaoka (Hekikai District) on September 1, 1965, and Sanage (Nishikamo District) on April 1, 1967, as well as the village of Matsudaira (Higashikamo District) on April 1, 1970. In 1979 the Nagoya Railroad (Meitetsu) opened the Toyota New Line (now Toyota Line), and in 1988: The Aichi Loop Line was opened, thus considerably improving access to the city via rail transport. Toyota became a Core City in 1998, with increased local autonomy. On March 25, 2005, Expo 2005 opened with its main site in Nagakute and additional activity in Seto and Toyota. The Expo continued until September 25, 2005. On April 1, 2005, Toyota absorbed the town of Fujioka, and the village of Obara (both from Nishikamo District), the towns of Asuke, Asahi and Inabu, and the village of Shimoyama (all from Higashikamo District) to create the new and expanded city of Toyota. Mitsuru Obe and Eric Pfanner of The Wall Street Journal stated that by 2015 Toyota was recovering from an economic depression "so deep that some were comparing it to Detroit."
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