Toyota Kaikan Museum

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The Toyota Kaikan Museum at the head office of Toyota Motor Corporation is one of the company’s oldest museums. It opened in 1977 to mark the company’s 40th anniversary. Exhibits at the Kaikan Museum highlight the company’s technological and organizational innovations and are more forward-looking than those at the Toyota Kuragaike Commemorative Hall, which focus on Toyota’s early history.

The museum is in the shape of a square, with an open central courtyard. Exhibits begin in the lobby area with displays that are changed every few months. Visitors are encouraged to walk through the building clockwise, moving through each of the five themed zones: Eco and Emotion, Safety and Freedom, Production and Creation, Company and Society, and the Toyota Showroom. Each area features detailed, interactive exhibits such as a factory welding robot and a driving safety simulator. Guided tours are available and take roughly 30 minutes, but a thorough inspection of all the exhibits can take as long as 2 hours. All the displays are explained in Japanese, English, and Chinese.

A children’s area on the second floor shows the basics of how cars work, how they are manufactured, and how their parts are recycled. The museum shop is on the same floor, with gifts for car enthusiasts of all ages, including models of Toyota’s most popular cars, clothing, and even ready-made car-themed curry.

Toyota Kaikan Museum: Exhibits

The ground floor of the Toyota Kaikan Museum is divided into five themed zones: Eco and Emotion, Safety and Freedom, Production and Creation, Company and Society, and the Toyota Showroom. Each zone has a regularly changing lineup of interactive and informative exhibits. The lobby also has a temporary exhibition that is changed every few months. The museum is designed to be explored by moving through the building in a clockwise direction, and all the exhibits are explained in Japanese, English, and Chinese.

The Eco and Emotion zone is all about Toyota’s efforts to make more environmentally friendly and sustainable vehicles. These include hybrid cars like the Prius, fully electric cars, and hydrogen-powered fuel-cell cars like the Mirai. Exhibits include full cross-sections of the Mirai and the Prius, showing how they differ from typical gasoline engine cars. There are videos explaining how car motors and engines work and how they have been refined by Toyota over the years. Concept cars are on display, and there is also a section on Woven City, a new city designed and built by Toyota that will run on green energy.

The Safety and Freedom zone focuses on the development of Toyota’s various active and passive safety features. Visitors can experience advanced safety assist features like active braking and distance monitoring in a virtual driving simulator.

The Production and Creation zone highlights some of the company’s innovations in efficiency and manufacturing. Toyota is known for its corporate philosophy of kaizen, or continuous improvement, and its policy of karakuri, which encourages workers to design simple, purely mechanical solutions to problems. The idea behind karakuri is that simple tools can be combined to achieve impressive energy savings. Further, unlike more complex automated systems, if a simple mechanism is broken, its problems can be identified quickly.

The company also pioneered the concept of just-in-time manufacturing, and its factories produce only what is needed, when it is needed. This avoids taking up large warehouse space with excess inventory. The origins of this method are explained, alongside interactive exhibits on painting and welding cars. There is a full-size working welding arm robot ready to greet visitors, too.

The Company and Society zone is dedicated to Toyota’s corporate history and its different community programs around the world. There are scale models of key Toyota cars, including the Model AA, the first commercial car produced by Toyota. There is also a miniature robot built by Toyota for a joint mission by NASA and the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency.

The Toyota Showroom features a changing selection of Toyota and Lexus vehicles, including some high-performance Toyota Gazoo Racing models. The cars on display in the showroom are rotated frequently.

A special area for children on the second floor has interactive displays that show how the basic parts of a car work, including the brakes and steering. There is also information about how cars are made and how old parts can be recycled. The museum shop offers gifts for car enthusiasts of all ages.

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Address	〒471-8571 1 Toyota-cho, Toyota-City, Aichi Prefecture, Japan
Cost	Free (factory tours require advance booking) * Fees subject to changes, please consult direct sources such as official web site and etc.
Business hours	9:30AM to 5:00 PM
Phone number	0565-29-3355
Parking	Free
Closed	Closed on Sundays, year-end and New Year, Golden Week Summer Holidays etc
Directions by public transportation	It takes about 1 hour 30 minutes from Nagoya Station to the museum. -20 minutes on foot from Mikawa-Toyota Station to the museum. -10 minutes from Tsuchihashi Station to the museum by taxi. -20 minutes from Toyota-shi Station to the museum by taxi.
Directions by car	-From Toyota Interchange Exit from the Toyota Interchange of the Tomei Expressway and travel straight for approximately 2km to the Akebono-cho crossing. Turn left at the Akebono-cho crossing and travel straight for about 3.2km to see the sign of Toyota Kaikan at the Toyota-cho S. crossing. Go straight through Toyota-cho S. crossing for about 300m until you see the sign of Toyota Kaikan again. The building at the left side is Toyota Kaikan. Total driving time from the Toyota Interchange is approximately 20 minutes. -From Toyota Higashi Interchange Exit from the Toyota Higashi Interchange of the Isewangan Expressway and turn right at Oshikamo-cho Gogami. Travel straight for approximately 3km to see the sign of Toyota Kaikan at the Toyota-cho S. crossing. Turn right at the Toyota-cho S. crossing and travel straight for about 300m until you see the sign of the Toyota Kaikan again. The building at the left side is Toyota Kaikan.
Related links	Toyota Kaikan Museum Official Web Site

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Toyota Kaikan Museum

Toyota Kaikan Museum: Exhibits

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