Toyota Museum A Success For Toyota - And Aichi

 

The Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology opened in 1994 on the 100th birthday of Toyota Motor Corp. founder Kiichiro Toyoda (1894-1952). The facility's attractions include textile machinery that chronicle the development of the automatic loom by Kiichiro's father, Sakichi (1867-1930), known as the "king of Japanese inventors," as well as automotive technology that began with the capital created by Sakichi's enterprise.

"If the warp yarn breaks, the machine will come to a halt." This explanation in English was given as the 90-year-old loom, operating with quite a ruckus, came to a stop to the gasp of foreign visitors. One of them, 23-year-old Michelle Wheat from the United States, said she got a real sense of Japanese technology at the museum, and that she was impressed by it more than any other museum.

The number of visitors to the museum during its first 10 years was steady at about 100,000 people annually. The figure jumped to 304,000 in 2005 as a result of the Aichi Expo, but fell thereafter. Last year, however, a record 309,000 people visited the museum, establishing a new record for the first time since the expo.

This year, the museum drew 311,000 visitors as of the end of October, ensuring a new record for the second consecutive year.

The driving force behind the good times is foreign tourists.

The live demonstrations put on by museum staff, who operate real machinery, spin yarn and weave cloth, have generated a buzz on global travel information website TripAdvisor, where the museum was ranked No. 28 in this year's "Japanese sightseeing spots popular among foreign tourists."

Foreigners account for about 30 percent of the visitors to the museum. Apparently, the increase in the number of individual visitors is outpacing that of groups.

Another factor behind the museum's renewed popularity is the TBS TV drama "Leaders," which focuses on the life of Kiichiro Toyoda. The series was aired this past March.

The museum served as a location for scenes such as one in which Kiichiro is seen drawing. The series depicts how he redirected the assets of his father, Sakichi, and pursued his dream of developing Japanese-made automobiles.

The Tokai region in central Japan has many industrial sightseeing facilities suitable for touring that carry the stories about and history of industrial technology. Visitor numbers apparently peaked around the time of the Aichi Expo, with excitement waning thereafter. However, the cheaper yen has signaled the winds of change, with more foreign tourists visiting Japan.

Toyota is forecast to earn a net profit of 2 trillion yen ($16.81 billion) for the fiscal year ending in March 2015, a record high.

Masami Hayashi, the head of the Chubu Bureau of Economy, Trade and Industry's logistics and service industry section, hopes the company's performance, along with the increasing flow of visitors to Toyota's "group mecca," will "lead to a utilization of the region's assets and stimulate the economy."

Asahi