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Top page > About Us > President's Message
President's Message
Atsuko Toyama
President, Toyota Foundation
Three specific characteristics inform the activities that the Toyota Foundation has carried out throughout its history.
The first lies in the Foundation's stated goals. We clearly set forth the lofty ideal and goal of advancing the happiness of individuals, and thereby the future happiness of the society that they make up, with our pledge to contribute to "greater human happiness." This philosophy is one that guides our efforts to draw up concrete strategies for the Foundation as well as our selections of project proposals to receive grants. And over the years we have taken a flexible approach to adjusting our grant programs, examining them in the light of this way of thinking as well as the needs of the times.
The second characteristic has been our willingness to look beyond specific academic fields to award grants to a truly broad range of research focusing on network formation with an eye on the Asian region, research on the revitalization of communities that have lost their vigor in the modern era of urbanization, and research that contributes to "the search for the richness of human life and activity." This research tends to be low-key in nature, aiming to make steady progress toward the improvement of human lives. We believe that these qualities make this sort of work absolutely essential for Japan as it moves into the future. Under the Toyota Foundation's Mid- and Long-Term Vision, crafted to mark the organization's thirtieth year, we are just setting sail in a new vessel, so to speak. With new sea charts to plot its course, we hope to see the Foundation continue to be the kind of vessel that contributes to the true happiness of people and society.
The third characteristic is the fact that our organization has never been tied directly to the profitability of Toyota Motor Corporation, but has enjoyed an independent existence from its very beginning. This is the form taken by numerous foundations in Japan that are supported by a corporate parent, but we believe that by contributing to society in this manner, Japanese corporations have created a special kind of private organization that they can be justifiably proud of on a global basis.
Private, nonprofit foundations are meaningful as organizations that can offer the sort of fine-grained, and at times bold, assistance that cannot be provided by national or local public organizations. The Toyota Foundation is committed to taking broad perspectives in invigorating its own activities while it creates new opportunities for increasing the capacity of Japan's private sector to contribute to society.
