The Chairman Called Morizo: Akio Toyoda, the Executive in Love With Cars
Toyota Motor Corporation stands among the giants of the world. And the man at its summit grips the wheel himself to compete in the brutal Nurburgring 24 Hours endurance race in Germany — under the alias "Morizo," covered in grease, flooring the accelerator in earnest. Where else in the world would you find an executive like that?
Akio Toyoda. Born the eldest son of Toyota's founding family, he could have ruled comfortably from a corner office. So why does he keep dashing off to the racetrack? The answer is distilled in one phrase he has championed for years: "Let's make ever-better cars." Disarmingly soft for a CEO to utter, that single line lit a fire in the hearts of tens of thousands of craftspeople.
No throne, no airs — just a man utterly devoted to cars. This is the story of his path.
Born Into the Founding Family
Akio Toyoda was born on May 3, 1956, in Nagoya, Aichi Prefecture. His grandfather was Toyota's founder, Kiichiro Toyoda; his father, the former chairman Shoichiro Toyoda. He is, in every sense, the founding family's eldest son. While attending Keio Senior High School, he studied abroad at Punahou School in Hawaii, and in 1979 he graduated from Keio University's Faculty of Law.
Yet he did not join Toyota right away. In 1982, after earning an MBA from Babson College's graduate business school, he went straight to the American investment bank A.G. Becker. Rather than leaning on the family name, he chose first to test himself in the outside world. He finally passed through Toyota's gates in 1984, at the age of 28.
The Birth of "Morizo"
As he climbed the corporate ladder, Toyoda harbored a passion unlike his peers: a desire to understand cars not as numbers on a page, but through his own hands and feet. He had a mentor in Hiromu Naruse, Toyota's legendary test driver. Believing that no one without driving skill has the right to talk about cars, Akio honed his driving in earnest.
Then, in 2007, he made his debut at the Nurburgring 24 Hours under the name "Morizo," with Team GAZOO. An executive racing under a pseudonym caused a stir both inside and outside the industry. In 2010 he finally claimed a class victory. This habit of facing cars from the driver's seat rather than the boardroom would later feed into Toyota's revival of sports cars.
The Youngest President
After becoming Executive Vice President in 2005, Toyoda was appointed President and CEO of Toyota Motor Corporation in 2009. At 52, he was the youngest president since the merger of the company's sales and manufacturing arms. But his launch was anything but smooth: a global economic crisis and a massive recall scandal awaited him almost immediately.
In the teeth of that headwind, the banner he raised was "Let's make ever-better cars." Not a thorny financial metric, not a chest-beating slogan — that warm little phrase ended up moving the hearts of tens of thousands of craftspeople. What moves people is not numbers but words like these; his leadership quietly proved it.
Carrying the Industry
From 2012 to 2014, and again from 2018 to 2023, Toyoda served as Chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association, shouldering Japan's entire auto industry. In 2013 France made him an Officier of the Legion of Honor, and in 2017 the Japanese government awarded him the Blue Ribbon Medal. He also received a Best Dresser Award in 2014.
In 2023 he handed the presidency to Koji Sato and stepped back to become Chairman of the Board. But he did not retreat from the front lines. As chairman, he continues to push electrification and mobility ventures, still steering the vast ship that is Toyota.
The Man at Daikoku Parking Area
One anecdote captures his character. Akio Toyoda is said to simply turn up at the Daikoku Parking Area in Yokohama, posing for photos with fellow car enthusiasts — a rumor that resurfaces again and again in the automotive corners of social media. The chairman of mighty Toyota, shedding his title to stand there as just one more car lover. There could hardly be clearer proof of a man who refuses to throw his weight around.
At home, he married Hiroko, the eldest daughter of Mamoru Tabuchi, Vice President of Mitsui & Co., in 1985, and they have a son, Daisuke. In his university days he was enough of an athlete to represent Japan in hockey. His boundless curiosity and drive show not only in cars but in movement of every kind.
The weight of carrying Japanese manufacturing must be almost unimaginable. Yet Akio Toyoda has borne that weight as if he were enjoying it — racing circuits as Morizo, laughing his way through "let's make ever-better cars," dropping by Daikoku Parking Area unannounced.
An executive who moved people through passion rather than position. His enduring love affair with the car reminds us of something about the essence of craftsmanship that efficiency and numbers alone can never measure.