Life begins at 60: Toyota is enjoying its best years in Brazil

At a time when Toyota was still far from being a global giant, and globalisation was an abstract concept, Japan's largest vehicle manufacturer chose Brazil for its first international foray.

On 23 January 1958, Toyota opened its first overseas operation in São Paulo, the largest ‘Japanese city’ outside Japan. Founded just 20 years earlier, Toyota followed thousands of its compatriots, who 110 years earlier had begun to emigrate to the South American country, building the world’s largest community of Japanese descendants.