Over the years, I’ve visited a lot of Toyota offices. I’ve been to its outposts in California, Kentucky, Ann Arbor, Texas and of course, in Japan.
There, I’ve shuttled between its manufacturing headquarters in Toyota City, executive offices in Nagoya and its headquarters in Toyko. If you watched the recent Tokyo Series between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Chicago Cubs, the Toyota Tokyo office sits right next to the Tokyo Dome where the games took place. I had a nice view of the Dome from Toyota’s offices.
Now, Toyota is going to move to a different part of Tokyo, and it won’t just be throwing up another bland office building.
Toyota has begun construction on a new Tokyo head office in a brand new building in front of Shinagawa Station. It’s a busy transportation hub with more than 6,000 hotel rooms nearby.
The last time I visited Toyota, my bullet train left from Shinagawa, rather than the venerable Toyko Station. I was dazzled by its then-new architecture and many spots to buy ekiben (bento boxes to eat on the train.)
It intrigued me that both Toyota and General Motors are moving into new headquarters, so I dove into the press release that describes Toyota’s move.
What it is up to
Toyota says that it wants to focus in two directions going forward: carbon neutrality and expanding the value of mobility.
“The new Tokyo Head Office will be a key base in leading these initiatives and will be positioned as a place for people to gather and generate synergy,” Toyota said. “It will also serve as a center for collaborative creation with a diverse group of partners both inside and outside the company, thereby becoming a domestic and international hub.”
The press release included these two bullet points.
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The new building will serve as a development base for software, AI, and other forms of intelligence. There will be functions that “enable development while seeing and touching actual mobility vehicles and a layout that enables open communication across all levels.”
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Toyota will “consider” implementing a Genki-Kûkan environment, where employees can work alongside vegetation. It hopes to create a space that encourages good workplace mental and physical well-being for staff to take on challenges.
I hadn’t heard of Genki-Kukan before, so I looked up what Toyota meant by it. Basically, it is looking at the affect of nature on minds and bodies. If you’ve heard of the concept of “forest bathing,” where people spend time outdoors in peaceful surroundings, Toyota is trying to replicate that indoors.
This might sound kind of wacky for a car company to explore, but forest bathing is a real trend in Japan. I recently watched the Japanese Netflix show, Is Love Sustainable, in which the main characters go on a day-long date that includes forest bathing. It’s literally relaxing amid trees.
In American business society, that might seem too touchy-feely, but it’s interesting that Toyota has gone to the extent of trademarking the phrase Genki-Kukan. Given the interest by millennials and Generation Z in the environment, it’s a cross-generational step.
The ground breaking took place on May 23, and since it will take a while for the building to go up, we probably won’t hear much about it for now. But I hope I’ll get a chance to visit it and add it to my Toyota collection.
