Eiji Toyota, Creator of Toyota Export Giant, Dies at 100.

              Former Toyota Motor Corp President and Chairman Eiji Toyota, a key figure in firm's rise to become one of the world's biggest carmakers, died on Tuesday, the company said. He was 100. Toyota died of heart failure at the Toyota Memorail Hospital in Toyota city, central Japan, where the car giant's headquarters is located. a member of Toyota's founding family, Toyoda served as president of the company from 1967 to 1982. He promoted the "Toyota Way," a manufacturing method enabling high production efficiency, helping the firm catch up with US car giants such as Ford Motor Co and General Motors Co. Toyoda set up the country's first plant dedicated to passenger car production, building the base of  Toyota's business. He also drove the introduction of the Crown, the first Japan-made sedan, unveiled in 1955 and the Corolla in the 1960s which became one of the most popular cars of all time.

                               During his 57 year career, the younger cousin of Toyota Motor's founder helped reshape a maker of Chevrolet knockoffs into an automaker whose manufacturing efficiency became the envy of General Motors Corp. and ford Motor co. By the time he stepped down in 1994, the company was assembling corollas in the U.S., had started the Lexus luxury brand and had initiated a project that would develop the world's most successful gas-electric vehicle, the Prius. His greatest achievement may have been laying the foundation for the company to apply its manufacturing expertise overseas, which led to the formation of Toyota's first  venture in the U.S. in 1983, a year after he passed the presidency to his cousin, Shoichiro.

                                 He also oversaw Toyota's development of Lexus, approving development of the luxury car in 1983 to compete with Mercedez Benz and Bayerische Motoren Werke AG's BMW. The first vehicle, the LS 400, went on sale in the U.S. in 1989. The U.S. Automotive Hall of Fame inducted Toyoda in 1994, making him the second honoree from Japan, after Soichiro Honda. As a member of the automobile industry, this indeed a great moment for me, he said in a statement upon his induction. Ever since Toyota's establishment in 1937, I have been involved in this wonderful business, and as long as my engine keeps running, I intend to give back as much as I can for the industry's further development."