Toyota Motor Corporation
Fujio Cho has been instrumental in honing the Company’s production system throughout his career. He later put that knowledge to work in distribution control and on the project team that coordinated the preparations for Toyota’s plant in Kentucky, its first plant in North America. Mr. Cho also has extensive experience in government and industrial affairs, having worked in a supporting role until 1998 at the Japan Federation of Economic Organizations (Keidanren), which was at the time headed by then TMC Chairman Shoichiro Toyoda.
A graduate of the Faculty of Law at the University of Tokyo, Mr. Cho joined Toyota upon earning his degree in 1960. After spending his early career in general affairs, in 1974 he became a manager in the production control division, where he was assigned to the operations management consulting department to learn the principles of the Toyota Production System from TPS authority Taichi Ohno. In 1984, Mr. Cho became department general manager of the logistic management division, while co-serving as a project general manager in the production control division.
In 1987, Mr. Cho was dispatched to Kentucky as executive vice president at Toyota Motor Manufacturing, U.S.A., Inc. (TMM). He was named a Toyota director in 1988, and later that year he became president of TMM. He returned to Japan in 1994 where he was named managing director. He became senior managing director in 1996. In 1998, Mr. Cho became executive vice president, where he oversaw Toyota's corporate planning, information systems, and industrial equipment. Mr. Cho assumed the position of president in 1999. As the company’s head, he not only shapes corporate policy for Toyota but serves as a spokesman for the automobile industry and for manufacturing in general.
Mr. Cho enjoys golf and fishing, and he also likes to listen to music. Mr. Cho was born in Tokyo in 1937, and presently resides in Toyota City, Aichi Prefecture, with his wife, Emiko. The Chos have two sons.