Toyota (豊田市; -shi), or Toyota City, is a city located in the Mikawa region of Aichi, Japan, ESE of Nagoya.
As of 2003, the city has an estimated population of 358,241 (including nearly 12,000 foreign nationals ) and a density of 1,234.85 persons per km². The total area is 290.11 km².
Koromo (挙母) Town, the predecessor of present day Toyota, was a major producer of silk, and prospered in the Mikawa Region from the Meiji Era through the Taisho period. As the demand for raw silk declined in Japan and abroad, the town entered a period of gradual decline. That decline encouraged Kiichiro Toyoda , cousin of Eiji Toyoda, to look for manufacturing alternatives to the family's automatic loom manufacturing business. This in turn led to the founding of what became the Toyota Motor Corporation.
The town changed its name to Toyota in 1959 and became the sister city of another automotive industry headquarters, Detroit, Michigan, one year later. Toyota-shi is also twinned with the County of Derbyshire, England.
On March 25, 2005, Expo 2005 opened with its main site being in Nagakute and additional activity in Seto and Toyota.
The Matsudaira clan , one member of which took the name Tokugawa Ieyasu and became the first of fifteen Tokugawa shoguns, derived its name from a village of the same name, now part of Toyota.
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