Toyota City, Japan―June 1, 2026―Toyota Motor Corporation (TMC) has added a new exhibition space to the Toyota Kaikan Museum,* a corporate exhibition hall located in Toyota City. Titled "TOYOTA's Creative Carmaking," the new section will open to the public on Friday, June 5. The immersive exhibits feature real vehicles and visual displays that guide visitors through each stage of Toyota's long-established carmaking process, from vehicle planning and development to procurement, production, and customer delivery.
| * | The Toyota Kaikan Museum was established in 1977 to commemorate TMC's 40th anniversary. The museum showcases Toyota's corporate philosophy and latest automotive technologies. It has received over 17 million visitors, including those who visited Toyota Hall, its predecessor, which opened in 1960. |
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The Japanese automotive industry is widely known for its creative manufacturing processes, including kaizen activities that drive continuous improvement on the production line. To pass this manufacturing philosophy and these processes on to future generations, TMC introduced the Toyota Virtual Plant Tour on its website in 2023 as a comprehensive guide to the car manufacturing process. The new exhibition space builds on this initiative. After introducing the origin of Toyota's passion for manufacturing, the exhibition takes a close look at the entire carmaking process―from vehicle planning and development to production and logistics. The exhibition is divided into three zones, each presenting a multifaceted perspective through real vehicles and dynamic visuals.
Zone 1: The Inspiration for TOYOTA's Creative Carmaking
Toyota's approach to creative carmaking was inspired by Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of the Toyota Group and the father of Kiichiro Toyoda, who founded TMC. As a young boy, Sakichi wanted to ease his mother's work burden. His commitment to "for the benefit of others" continues to inspire TMC employees today, as does the slogan "Let's Make Ever-Better Cars," introduced in 2009 by Akio Toyoda, the current TMC chairman. United by these enduring visions, TMC employees pursue creative carmaking every day.
Kiichiro Toyoda aimed to establish the automobile industry as the foundation of Japan's economic development. "With Japanese ideas and skills, we must create an automobile industry for Japan," he declared before successfully completing the Toyoda Model AA, Toyota's first passenger car. Zone 1 features a concept video on the origins of Toyota's carmaking philosophy, together with a one-eighth scale model of the Toyoda Model AA.
Zone 2: Let's Make Ever-Better Cars (Vehicle Development)
One of Toyota's distinctive approaches to carmaking is its organizational style, which grants chief engineers extensive responsibility over their respective models, covering planning, development, production, and sales. This exhibit zone uses graphics, videos, and figures, and special lighting effects to show how teams unite under the chief engineer's leadership. The exhibition uses the fifth-generation Prius released in 2023 as a case study. Through real vehicles and life-size video presentations, the exhibition presents behind-the-scenes development episodes and demonstrates how engineering, production, and sales personnel worked closely together throughout the development process.
Zone 3: Experience the Wonder and Craftsmanship of Toyota's Manufacturing Plants (Production)
This exhibit zone uses graphics to illustrate the basic production flow, including stamping, welding, painting, assembly, inspection, and logistics. Real disassembled parts and welding robots complement the displays. In addition, visitors can experience dynamic plant operations in an immersive theater, together with large-screen production line footage from the workers' perspective.
Through this exhibition, we hope to convey the appeal of automobiles and the spirit of carmaking and monozukuri that underpin them to people of all ages, and to contribute to promoting automobiles as part of Japanese culture.
About the Toyota Kaikan Museum
- Hours
- 9:30 a.m.-5:00 p.m.
- Closed
- Sundays, summer vacation periods, year-end and New Year's holidays, and Golden Week (in accordance with the Toyota holiday schedule)
- Admission
- Free
Exhibit descriptions are available in Japanese, English, and Chinese.
