Shoichiro Toyoda

The merger of the sales and production organizations in 1982 produced Toyota Motor Corporation. Toyoda became the new entity's first president. The disparate nature of the two distinct corporate cultures required his attention, and the extent to which the "oil and water" of these two Toyota groups were merged successfully was attributed in large part to his leadership. He served as chairman from 1992 to 1999; and he became honorary chairman in 1999.

Son to the company founder, Toyoda, in 1952, joined his father's business at Toyota Motors. In ten years, he had risen to the position of managing director. He was promoted to senior managing director in 1967, executive vice president in 1972, and president of the company's marketing organization in 1981.

Toyoda attended the Tokyo First Middle School (currently Hibiya High School) and First High School (currently Tokyo University), and graduated from Nagoya Imperial University (currently Nagoya University) in 1947 with a degree in Engineering BS. He would be awarded a PhD, by Tohoku University, in 1955. At the height of the pacific theater of World War II, the Toyoda family was affected on both family business and home fronts. Shoichiro's education would be delayed by his own conscription into civil service, and his father's business warrant to manufacture trucks for the Imperial Japanese Army, of which his family's firm was spared destruction in the days before the Japanese government's surrender.

Shoichiro Toyoda (豊田 章一郞, Toyoda Shōichirō, born February 27, 1925) AC is a Japanese retired business executive who served as chairman of Toyota Motor Corporation between 1992–1999, as well as chairman of the influential Japan Business Federation (日本経済団体連合会, Nippon Keidanren) beginning in May 1994 through May 1998. Under Toyoda's supervision, Toyota approved the development of the Lexus brand and the Prius hybrid. He is the grandson of the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works founder Sakichi Toyoda and the son of the Toyota Motors founder Kiichiro Toyoda. His son Akio Toyoda is the current president of the Toyota Motor Corporation.

Shoichiro Toyoda was born in Nagoya on February 17, 1925, to Kiichiro Toyoda, the founder of the Toyota Motors, and Hatako Toyoda (née Shinshichi), the daughter of the Takashimaya department store chain co-founder, Iida Shinshichi. He is the grandson of Sakichi Toyoda, the founder of the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works.