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Abstract
In discussing the birth of the Japanese automobile industry, most researchers and journalists put the Toyota Motor Corporation and the Toyoda–Platt Agreement at centre-stage. It has been widely asserted that the one million yen (¥100,000) that was received as a result of the Agreement provided Kiichiro Toyoda with the means to begin his research on the automobile. But the historical evidence does not support this legendary story, and in many ways contradicts it. This article aims to set the historical record straight.
Acknowledgements
William Lazonick encouraged me to read an earlier version of this article at the 2003 Business History Conference as a tribute to the memory of Qiwen Lu, and gave useful suggestions on how to revise it. I would like to thank him greatly. I am also extremely grateful to Edmund R. Skrzypczak, Leslie Hannah and the anonymous referees for their help and useful comments.
Notes
1 Wada, Toyoda Kiichiro Monjo Shusei.
2 Professor Yui mainly wrote about Kiichiro's young days. Wada and Yui, Toyoda Kiichiro Den.
3 Nakaoka, “Jidosha ga hashitta,” 46.
4 Kajinishi, Toyoda Sakichi.
5 The suit against Toyoda was finally dropped and brought to a conclusion sometime in or around 1949. This is discussed in Tanaka, “Thoughts Seven Years after His Death,” 129–30.
6 Kajinishi, Toyoda Sakichi, 183–5. In their award-wining article, Mass and Robertson also generally accept this legend as fact. They assert: ‘It is well known that, with Sakichi's blessing, the fees from Platt Bros. were to be devoted to developing automobile-related research and development.’ Mass and Robertson, “From Textiles to Automobiles,” 33.
7 “Hundredth Day after Death”.
8 Kiichiro Toyoda, “Situation of Engineers in the Future,” in Wada, Toyoda Kiichiro Monjo Shusei, 509.
9 Letter from Aiko to Kiichiro, dated 28 May 1921
10 Kikui Boshoku K.K., Daijukkai hokoku, Oct. 1922; on p. 2, we find the words: ‘The extra spinning machines that had not arrived in the previous half [from October 1921 to March 1922] were all operating in July.’
11 Among the items donated to the library of the Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology by Eiji Toyoda, the eldest son of Heikichi and presently top adviser at Toyota Motor Corp., are three manuals explaining how to handle Whitin machines. Two of the manuals are dated 1919, the third is dated 1920. These would serve to confirm Kiichiro's statement that he had learned how to handle a spinning machine and how to run a spinning mill from Whitin technicians, when Whitin spinning machines were being installed and put into operation.
12 “A Record of the Way in Which Toyoda Automatic Loom Works Grew Up: Reminiscences on the Automatic Looms,” in Wada, Toyoda Kiichiro Monjo Shusei, 39.
13 “Reasons Why Toyoda Automatic Loom Works Adopted the Shuttle-Change Method,” in ibid., 52–4.
14 Howa Kogyo Hachijunen-shi, 10–11.
15 Toyoda Loom Works, Sogyo Sanjunen Kinen-shi, 30.
16 Ishii, “Tokkyo kara mita Sangyo Gijutsu-shi,” 23.
17 “Personal Account of Inventions,” Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Yonju-nen shi, 80.
18 “A Record of the Way in Which the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works Grew Up,” 42.
19 Ishii, “Tokkyo kara mita Sangyo Gijutsu-shi,” 23.
20 Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Yonju-nen shi,84.
21 Kajinishi, Toyoda Sakich, 168–9.
22 Toyoda, “Shanghai Jdai no Omide,” 223.
23 Tsukamoto, Jinsei Mawaributai, 22.
24 “Reasons Why the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works Adopted the Shuttle Change Method,” 62.
25 Toyoda Cotton Spinning & Weaving Co., Sixteenth Report (1 April 1925 to 30 Sept. 1925), 2.
26 Toyoda Cotton Spinning & Weaving Co., Seventeenth Report (1 Oct. 1925 to 31 March 1926), 2–3.
27 Okamoto, Toyoda Boshoku Kabushiki Kaisha-shi, 49.
28 Kanegafuchi Cotton Spinning Co., Kanebo Hyakunen-shi, 164.
29 Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Yonju-nen shi, 115.
30 Ibid., 114.
31 “An Account of the Workshop on Spinning and Weaving Technology at Toyoda Boshoku's Kariya Factories,” 10–11.
32 “Toyoda Jidohshokki to Toyoda Shokki no Gappei-dan” (Merger talks between Toyoda Automatic Loom Works and Toyoda Loom Co.), Nagoya Shinbun, 31 Oct. 1929. Details of these negotiations regarding a tie-up involving the three companies can be found in Taniguchi's “1930nen zenngo no Boshoku-Kikai-Kougyo ni okeru Nichi-Ei Kankei no Ichi-Danmen: Platt Ryo-Toyoda no Gappei(Gouben) Mondai wo Megutte”.
33 Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Jido no tomo, Dec. 1929, 46.
34 Toyota Motor Corporation, Limitless Creation, 32. There was one exception for India: the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works was allowed to sell to Toyo Podar Mills, which was operated by Toyo Menka Co.
35 Sato, Toyota keiei no genryu, 49.
36 Toyota Motor Corporation, Limitless Creation, 32.
37 This is based on Lancashire County Council Archives, DDPSL 1/106/45. There were detailed conditions stipulated as well, but these need not be gone into here.
38 Textile Mercury, 10 Jan. 1930.
39 Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Jido no tomo, 10 May 1931.
40 Dai-Nippon Boseki Rengokai Geppo (Japan Cotton Spinners' Association Monthly Report), no. 466 (1930).
41 Ibid.
42 For some reason it is impossible to find a Japanese source that published the final results.
43 Journal of the Textile Institute (March 1932), 26.
44 Furuichi, “Onko Chishin,” part 1, 23.
45 See Lazonick, “Industrial Organization,” 195–236; idem, “The Cotton Industry,” 18–50.
46 Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Jido no tomo, June 1931.
47 See Farnie, “Platt Family.”
48 The Statist, 8 July 1922, 75.
49 See Lancashire Record Office: DDPSL 15/1/2, “Platts of Oldham.”
50 Furuichi, “Onko Chishin,” part 3, 47.
51 Ibid., p. 48.
52 Furuichi, “Onko Chishin,” part 2, 42–3.
53 On British mechanical engineering in general in the inter-war years, see Gourvish, “Mechanical Engineering,” 129–55.
54 See Zeitlin, Between Flexibility and Mass Production.
55 Furuichi, “Onko Chishin,” part 2, 42.
56 Farnie et al., Region and Strategy in Britain andJapan, 142–3.
57 Interview with Jiro Iwaoka, 23 March 1976.
58 See Toyoda Automatic Loom Works, Yonju-nen shi, 116.
59 See the “Foreign Participants” Inspection Timetable,” Kogyo no Dai-Nippon,15 July 1928, 62–3.