Akio Toyoda Goes MAGA

Days after announcing plans to invest another $10 billion in the U.S. market, Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda turned up his effort to minimize trade tensions between Japan and the United States by showing up in a MAGA hat and Trump-Vance campaign T-shirt at the NASCAR race at Fuji Speedway. Headlight.News has more.

Toyota Chairman Akio Toyoda was a walking billboard for the Trump administration during a demonstration NASCAR race at Japan’s Fuji Speedway over the weekend.

Accompanied by American Ambassador George Glass, the Toyota chairman showed up wearing the familiar red MAGA hat, as well as a red T-shirt emblazoned “Trump-Vance 2024.”

Toyoda, the grandson of the automaker’s founder, has played an active role in the effort to tone down trade frictions between the U.S. and Japan, meeting with Donald Trump late last month during the president’s Asian trade mission and then confirming plans to invest another $10 billion to build up the company’s American manufacturing network.

Race car diplomacy

The joint appearance by Toyoda and Ambassador Glass came at the start of an event meant to highlight American race culture, with six NASCAR racers and their drivers putting on a demonstration at Fuji Speedway. Off to the sidelines, a number of American vehicles also were put on display. These included several U.S.-made Toyotas, as well as a Ford Bronco, reported Automotive News.

Significantly, Toyoda has laid out plans to help gain more of a market presence in the traditionally closed Japanese market for American-made vehicles, Headlight.News reported earlier this month. The Toyota chairman has even told retailers he will assist U.S. competitors, such as Ford, to gain a foothold. Only 16,707 U.S.-made autos were sold to in Japan in 2024, while Japanese brands captured a combined 37.4% share of the U.S. market, Toyota alone holding a 15.3% share.

To further whet the appetite of Japanese race fans for all things American, they were given the opportunity to taste such specialties as chili cheese fries and a “California grill BBQ burger,” at stands around the track.

Trade war

There have long been tensions between the U.S. and Japan over trade issues, a so-called “Voluntary Restraint Agreement” limiting Japan’s auto exports to Japan went into effect in 1981 and continued through 1994. The latest friction was touched off by the Trump administration which enacted strict new tariffs on Japan, along with broader duties on imported autos and auto parts.

During his visit to Japan, Trump met with Toyoda and subsequently indicated his company would make $10 billion new investments in the U.S. – on top of the roughly $50 billion it’s already made setting up the largest foreign-owned auto manufacturing and distribution network in the States.

“I’m not here to argue whether tariffs are good or bad. Every national leader wants to protect their own auto industry,” Toyoda said, ahead of the weekend NASCAR event. “We are exploring ways to make tariffs a winner for everyone. The people we want most to be winners are our customers.”

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A surprise move

In his role, not only as chairman of Toyota but also as head of the trade group, the Automobile Business and Culture Assoc. of Japan, Toyoda has had a high-profile presence in both governmental and business affairs in Japan. That has included trade issues. But his decision to don MAGA-wear at the NASCAR event did take a number of observers by surprise, both outside and inside Toyota.

It left one senior company executive “baffled,” considering the controversial nature of the MAGA theme, at least in the U.S. Added one person who knows Toyoda, this appeared to “highlight” Toyoda’s support for stronger Japanese-American ties, but it was “Not exactly how I’d suggest he accomplish this.”

Added another source close to the company, the move risks getting Toyota tied up in increasingly fractional American politics. He pointed to the way Tesla has faced boycotts by opponents of the Trump administration due to the role of its CEO Elon Musk who invested heavily in the Trump 2024 campaign and then served briefly as head of the president’s Department of Government Efficiency.

Those who spoke about the Toyoda’s chief’s choice of clothing over the weekend asked to be kept on background. The automaker declined comment beyond indicating its goal to invest in the markets where it sells its products.