Toyota executive Eiji Toyoda dies at 100

Toyota executive Eiji Toyoda dies at 100

Eiji Toyoda, a member of Toyota's founding family who oversaw its global ascent and helped drive a revolutionary production process, died on Tuesday at the age of 100, the car maker said.

Eiji Toyoda at the opening of the Toyota museum at Nagakute in Aichi prefecture on April 1, 1989. Toyoda, a member of Toyota's founding family who oversaw its global ascent and helped drive a revolutionary production process, died on Tuesday at the age of 100, the car maker said.

Toyoda, a cousin of the automaker's founder, died of heart failure less than a week after becoming a centenarian.

He joined the company in 1936 and became Toyota's president in 1967 when he spearheaded a push for mass production of cars, notably its Corolla brand, using a just-in-time production system that aimed to cut waste and improve efficiency.

Toyoda's tenure saw the firm's sales overseas soar, helping turn it into what is now the world's number-one automaker.

"With Mr Toyoda, the company became a global player with production in other developed countries -- he initiated that expansion," a company spokesman said.

Stepping down from his role as president in 1982, Toyoda was chairman until 1992 before finishing his nearly half-a-century career two years later.

Born in the central city of Nagoya, Toyoda was also a nephew of Toyota Group founder Sakichi Toyoda.

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