For the next 10 years, the Toyota Tsusho Group will evoke our ideal as Be the Right ONE.

The Right ONE for you
The best assurance of safety, quality, and reliability — based on your needs (Genba)

The Right ONE for us
Maximization of individual capabilities, global networks and diversity to create synergistic strengths

The Right ONE for future
Unique insights and capabilities to explore new possibilities for future and sustainable society

Developing a leading presence in more countries and regions is one of the key goals of our Vision. No region exemplifies this initiative more than Africa, where strong economic growth is expected in coming years. In 2012, we solidified our presence in Africa by making a capital investment in CFAO S.A., a French trading company with a robust automotive and pharmaceuticals business in northern and western Africa. This investment complements our own 90-year history on the continent.

We plan to broaden our business and accelerate our growth in Africa around the automotive business.

Toyota Tsusho was established in 1948. As the sole general trading company in the Toyota Group, we strengthened our overseas operations in the 1980s and 1990s and expanded around our core automotive business.

Thereafter, we began to expand non-automotive businesses. We merged with the trading companies Kasho in 2000 and Tomen in 2006 to accelerate our growth into such new business fields as infrastructure, chemicals, and food. Since 2010, we have expanded the scope and honed the capabilities of existing businesses while accelerating investments in new business fields, such as bluefin tuna aquaculture and overseas hospital management. In 2012, we made the largest investment in our history in CFAO, a French trading company with a strong presence in Africa.

In this way, we are achieving sustainable growth by widening our business field.

Toyota Tsusho is a general trading company. The business of a general trading company is difficult to define in a word. In breadth of products traded and the types of business conducted in global markets, we have a business model not found anywhere else in the world.

The fundamental model is trading. We provide information services, logistics, financing, risk management and other functions for import/export and domestic trading businesses. These functions add value to our products and services consistent with the needs of our customers.

Business investment is another core business model used by trading companies. We engage in development and investment-type business that extends beyond simple commercial transactions. We are accelerating our investments in promising business fields and markets, in collaboration with our partners around the world.

Toyota Tsusho is a member of the Toyota Group, which comprises 17 companies: Toyota Motor, Toyota Industries, Aichi Steel, JTEKT, Toyota Auto Body, Aisin Seiki, Denso, Toyota Boshoku, Towa Real Estate, Toyota Central R&D Labs, Toyota Motor East Japan, Toyoda Gosei, Hino Motors, Daihatsu Motor, Toyota Home, Toyota Motor Kyushu, and Toyota Tsusho.

As the Toyota Group's sole general trading company, we gather information and promote the development of new business from a global perspective. As automotive professionals with unique capabilities and know-how, we strive to lead the Toyota Group in the challenge to develop the evolution of next-generation mobility to contribute to the development of both society and the Toyota Group.

 

Toyota Tsusho's business spans a wide range of fields. We have organized our business under seven operating divisions: Metals, Global Parts & Logistics, Mobility, Machinery & Energy, Chemicals & Electronics, Food & Consumer Services, Administrative. Though different in the products and services they provide, these divisions share the same goal of creating and delivering diverse value by developing unique functions from a dedicated customer-oriented approach. Each division maintains highly specialized expertise and leverages unique capabilities in its respective field. At the same time, the divisions combine their know-how and capabilities to generate synergy and create new value.

It is said that trading companies are all about their people. The foundation of a Toyota Tsusho person is the Toyota Tsusho Group Way.

The Toyota Tsusho Group Way is shared among group employees in all countries and regions, no matter the work responsibilities, as our core values and code of conduct as we strive to achieve the corporate philosophy and vision.

In workplaces across the world, we share a passion for business, maximizing teamwork based on our "on-site, hands-on, in-touch" approach.

Toyota Tsusho's ability to extend its functions widely across a business field provides a unique added value. While traditional trading companies simply supply materials and products, we form collaborative ventures with affiliated companies and make capital investments to develop resources for raw materials, plan and establish efficient supply structures, and reuse and recycle waste products. The linking of value from upstream activities through downstream activities is called the "value chain."

We have special organizations within our company to promote cost reductions and kaizen (continuous improvement) using the Toyota Production System (TPS). Our sites implement comprehensive kaizen activities in logistics, production, and administrative operations, and we also promote these activities among our partners and customers.

A global network is a lifeline for a general trading company dependent on extensive information gathering capabilities to collect intelligence and generate business.

Toyota Tsusho does business with customers around the world through a global network spanning more than 90 countries and 970 group companies. We build business from a local perspective by understanding the culture and history of each country and region, and taking an "on-site, hands-on, in-touch" approach attuned to local needs and driven by talented local staff.

We are dedicated to learning from local communities and growing with them in our effort to contribute to each country and region as a truly global company.

At Toyota Tsusho, we believe that CSR activities and business activities are one and the same. We carry out compliance and environmental protection as part of the basic CSR activities required of all companies. Additionally, we take strategic CSR activities intended to solve social issues and make significant contributions to communities. These include the use and recycling of renewable energies, medical and nursing care businesses, and power generation.

Additionally, throughout the world more than 970 companies comprising the Toyota Tsusho Group actively take part in volunteer activities linked to the themes of the environment, welfare, and education as a way to contribute to local communities in their own ways.