By Tadashi Isozumi

Yomiuri Shimbun Senior Writer

"This is something that we cannot stop doing among the things that we have done for years," Toyota Motor Corp. Chairman Akio Toyoda said emphatically, referring to a grand summer Buddhist ceremony praying for traffic safety held on July 18 as an annual event at Tateshinasan Shokoji temple in Chino, Nagano Prefecture.

Since becoming company president in 2009, Toyoda has implemented various reforms, too numerous to all mention, including a significant reduction in executives and advisors, as well as the standardization of models sold by dealerships, which had previously sold different models in accordance with the dealership networks they belonged to.

Toyoda, however, has never changed his practice of offering prayers at the temple, because "achieving zero traffic fatalities" was the strong belief of his father, Shoichiro Toyoda, who passed away in 2023 at the age of 97.

50 years of 'unseen good deeds'

"We should not intend to reduce traffic fatalities to one third or a half, but rather we must aim for zero."

This is what Shoichiro reportedly told people such as Takeshi Uchiyamada, who oversaw the development of the first-generation Prius hybrid and currently serves as a senior advisor at Toyota, and Moritaka Yoshida, who was involved in developing the high-end Lexus brand and is now the president of Aisin Corp. Shoichiro served in posts such as president, chairman and honorary chairman at Toyota.

While spurring on the technical team, Shoichiro valued spending time praying at the temple. He continued to attend the summer event for nearly 50 years, although there were some sarcastic voices, such as that "prayer alone would not reduce accidents."

Shokoji was established in 1970 as a temple dedicated to traffic safety, led by Shotaro Kamiya, then president of Toyota Motor Sales Co. (now Toyota Motor Corp.) At the time, the number of traffic accident deaths exceeded 16,000 per year in Japan, becoming a societal issue.

Upon the temple's establishment, Kamiya made the following statement: "While automobiles bring benefits to society, they also cause various problems, albeit indirectly. Among these issues, the tragedy of traffic accidents affects both cities and rural areas, and hearing sad news every day is something that we, who have dedicated our lives to automobiles, cannot bear at all."

Few people knew that Toyota officials had been offering prayers at the temple for 50 years, until about five or six years ago. Shoichiro liked the idea of "intoku," which means doing good deeds that are not seen by others. It was not particularly intended to be a secret, but the prayers were continued quietly without being actively publicized.

Age with highest pedestrian accidents

After the establishment of the temple, the number of traffic fatalities steadily declined. This was attributed to efforts by both the public and private sectors, such as the widespread use of airbags, stricter penalties for drunk driving, mandatory seat belt use for all seats and advances in safety technology including automatic brakes.

However, in recent years, the pace of decline in the number of deaths has slowed, and the number has hovered at the 2,500-3,000 level. This figure may be familiar to many people in Japan, as it is reported every year in newspapers and on television, appearing in headlines. For example, The Yomiuri Shimbun reported 2024 figures in its Jan. 8, 2025, morning edition with a headline that read, "Traffic accident deaths at 2,663 last year, down 15."

Yet, few people would be able to answer the following questions.

What is the percentage of seat belt usage for rear seats?

What is the most common age of pedestrians killed or injured in accidents?

The answers are 45.5% for the first question and seven years old for the second one. The seat belt figure may be considered surprisingly low. Improving this figure will likely be effective in reducing traffic accident fatalities. The answer for the second question indicates that first grade elementary school students are prone to traffic accidents, which is heart-wrenching.

These two pieces of data were presented at the "Tateshina Meeting," which was held ahead of this year's summer ceremony. The meeting, which brings together representatives from various industries to discuss traffic safety, was first held in 2019.

Initiated by Akio who was president of Toyota Motor at the time, he invited top executives of companies including from tire manufacturing and nonlife insurance industries and launched the meeting to exchange opinions, out of the belief that traffic safety is not something that can be achieved only with Toyota producing products with that end but needs the cooperation of various parties.

The Tateshina Meeting this year, the third one that's been held, was attended by top executives from Suzuki Motor Corp., Mazda Motor Corp., Subaru Corp. and Isuzu Motors Ltd., as well as a senior National Police Agency official and academic experts. Participants shared the recognition that a three-pronged approach -- technological development by automakers; awareness-building activities targeting drivers, pedestrians and others; and improvement of traffic infrastructure -- is essential to reduce the number of traffic fatalities, which remain at the same level.

At the end of the meeting, Akio delivered a speech: "(I started this initiative) with the idea of sharing knowledge about safety beyond industry boundaries. I have grandchildren of my own. I have learned that it is important to think about this as something that concerns me personally. This meeting has become better than I expected."

Words from father-son dialogue

At the end of a book by Shoichiro, titled "Mirai wo Shinji Ippo-zutsu (Believe in the future and go forward step by step) and published in 2015, there is a father-son dialogue between Shoichiro and Akio. In the dialogue, which took place in September 2014, Shoichiro said the following to Akio.

"Our hope is to create a better and more convenient society through automobiles. We also need to reduce the number of people who are injured or killed in traffic accidents. (The number of deaths in Japan) has fallen to less than a quarter of the peak, but we are still far from zero. It is important to constantly think about innovation and paradigm shifts. This is because society is always changing."

There is no doubt that Shoichiro's words remain in Akio's mind. If he were to see Akio trying to shift from "unseen good deeds" to "building partnerships," Shoichiro would surely give a pat on his son's back.

The causes of traffic accidents range, and it will take time to eliminate them entirely. Nevertheless, as someone who has dedicated his life to automobiles, he cannot afford to give up. This is not just about Japan. About 1.2 million people reportedly die in traffic accidents worldwide each year.

As my time covering the events at the temple was nearing its end, Akio told me, "I hope you continue to cover this in a 50-year term." I am determined to do so for as long as I continue my work as a journalist.

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This article is from The Yomiuri Shimbun. Neither Dow Jones Newswires, MarketWatch, Barron's nor The Wall Street Journal were involved in the creation of this content.

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August 21, 2025 03:06 ET (07:06 GMT)

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