Tomikawa

Happy New Year to all our Toyota Times listeners. I’m Yuta Tomikawa. Voice-Only Toyota Times News is back for another year of completely unscripted, candid conversations with Chairman Akio Toyoda. Welcome Akio.

Toyoda

Thank you.

Tomikawa

Time really does fly—2024 was over in a flash, and now we are into 2025.

Toyoda

That’s a sign you are getting old.

Tomikawa

So they say. It seems to speed up every year.

Toyoda

With each year, the denominator changes. To a three-year-old, for instance, one year is a third of their life. But for someone like me at 68, it’s just one sixty-eighth. That’s why it feels fast.

Tomikawa

So, 365 days to a one-year-old is about the same as six days at 68.

Toyoda

Right. That’s why saying that the years go by faster as you age is like declaring, “I’ve gotten old.”

Tomikawa

That’s true. You sure know your stuff. I was going to lead in with this topic, but you beat me to it. It’s known as “Janet’s Law,” right?

Toyoda

Oh really?

Tomikawa

Really, I was trying to lead in with that. You read my mind! (Laughs)

I was thinking that, as time seems to be passing faster and faster with each year, we need to make the most of the year ahead.

This year I hope to continue sharing the voice of Chairman Akio Toyoda and Morizo through this podcast as much as possible.

Toyoda

I look forward to working together again this year.

Tomikawa

As it happens, for this episode we are coming to you from Las Vegas.

Toyoda

You’ve really gotten the hang of this lately, haven’t you?

Tomikawa

I put out about six episodes at the end of the year.

Toyoda

They’re great. I’ve listened to nearly every minute.

Tomikawa

Thank you.

Toyoda

From what I’ve heard, you’re gradually moving from TV presenter to radio storyteller. From subtracting to adding.

Tomikawa

As I’ve said, I found my radio voice by learning from Morizo.

Toyoda

You did say that. As a TV presenter, you subtract from the way you talk—with the images there, you don’t have to say as much. On the radio, however, there are no visuals, so you need to add more through your words. I think you’re explaining it properly.

Tomikawa

But that’s what I learned from Morizo.

Toyoda

I think you do it naturally.

Tomikawa

I guess that comes with experience. And so, in 2025 the podcast will feature a slightly improved me, and I’m counting on myself to bring out Morizo’s honest thoughts.

As for why we are in Las Vegas: when I said earlier that time flies, it was five years ago on January 7, 2020, that you created a huge buzz by unveiling your vision for Woven City at CES, the world’s largest technology trade show, held right here in Las Vegas.

At the time I was working at a TV station, and the Woven City announcement made me realize that this man, Akio Toyoda, had some amazing ideas. I requested an interview and was granted an exclusive one-on-one at the groundbreaking ceremony a year later.

Toyoda

On the rooftop. Was that a TV Asahi program?

Tomikawa

(A news program called) “Hodo Station.” We reached out to CES. To give some backstory, we didn’t really get anywhere through the finance and public relations departments, so I thought about approaching from your side, and when we inquired via the president’s office you thankfully said, “Let’s do it.”

Toyoda

Ahh—that’s how Toyota works, isn’t it (laughs).

Tomikawa

Personally, I was very grateful.

Toyoda

That's the way it is with big companies sometimes.

Tomikawa

So it seems.

Toyoda

And yet I’m the one who gets blamed for everything.

Tomikawa

It felt like the opposite. However, I was only able to ask because I happened to know people in your office, and I am sure someone without that connection would think that they’d been refused by you.

Toyoda

That’s certainly true. Those in charge would have put it that way—the Chairman didn’t agree to it. You find many people like that in big companies.

Tomikawa

But when I joined the company, there was this huge disparity. Despite being the head of a big company, you’re like the father of a family-run workshop.

Toyoda

Unfortunately, when you have 370,000 employees, not all of them can know my true character. Many people want to be praised. They act if they know it will earn them praise, but without that prospect they will never budge. From my time as president to today, that is what I’ve been struggling with the most.

Tomikawa

Let’s hope that listening to this podcast will give those people at least a slightly better sense of how to move forward.

Toyoda

I hope so.

Tomikawa

As I said, it has been five years, and just moments ago you returned to the stage at CES for a press conference presentation. Firstly, how was it, standing up there again five years later?

Toyoda

I don’t really think about the fact that it’s been five years. That said, at CES the exhibitors change depending on each year’s theme, be it AI one year or avatars the next.

In the auto industry, the year would start with the Detroit Auto Show. With CES held around the same time, things moved to unveiling current cars at the Detroit Auto Show and future cars at CES.

Tomikawa

Toyota was onto that early, right?

Toyoda

Toyota first took part in 2018, launching the e-Palette. The e-Palette has become well known, but that was also the time when I announced that Toyota was going to transform into a mobility company.

Tomikawa

That was another surprise.

Toyoda

In 2020, I think people were expecting to see what kind of model the e-Palette would become in practice. That year I announced that we were starting construction on Woven City, a test course for how the e-Palette would be used.

Tomikawa

I was surprised.

Toyoda

Five years on, the first phase is now complete, and we are moving forward. At CES, I wanted to let people know that this is an ongoing project.

Just as I was thinking that it would be good to return and show the continuity between five years ago and now, I also received a request from Woven by Toyota, and so here we are.

Tomikawa

You’ve gone from president last time to chairman now, but despite the different roles there is continuity.

Then the day before the presentation, in a flash of inspiration you asked, “Can we get the same necktie as five years ago?” And you did wear the same tie.

Toyoda

In the avatar bit, there was a picture of me from five years ago. Recently people have been telling me I don’t age much.

Tomikawa

You actually look younger (laughs).

Toyoda

With that, I set myself a personal challenge: if I went out in the same tie, perhaps people wouldn’t really notice the five-year gap.

That said, I certainly didn’t expect the stylist to have brought the tie from five years ago.

Tomikawa

Amazing. Well played.

Toyoda

In the end, I went on stage wearing the same tie.

Tomikawa

But seeing both videos, if you didn’t know any better you might think that todays was recorded before the one from five years ago. Your skin is glowing (laughs).

Toyoda

I’m interested to see what the response is in that regard.

Tomikawa

Something like, “He looks younger when Phase 1 was completed than when laying out the future concept.” (Laughs)

After hearing you come up with the idea, it was interesting to actually watch it happen. The fact that it was the same tie got quite a reaction from the crowd.

Toyoda

It did. I made sure to comment on it too.