01
A bed sized by fruit baskets
Because the seventh generation was not sold in Japan, it could be designed without being bound by Japan's 1,700 mm width limit. The size of the bed was set at the suggestion of the plant in Thailand, by how many standard fruit-transport baskets it could carry, so that it could carry at least one more than competitors. The width grew 60 mm over the previous model, yet the minimum turning radius shrank by 0.2 m.
02
I will take responsibility
The seventh generation began as the IMV project. In the autumn, ten months before the launch at the plant in Thailand, checks to confirm development was complete turned up many unexpected problems, and Hosokawa's team considered delaying production trials by about a month. The people at the Thai plant said they would see it through without a delay, and just as Hosokawa was about to propose a delay at a meeting, Senior Managing Director Akio Toyoda, head of the Asia division, closed the meeting by saying to proceed as planned and that he would take full responsibility if anything happened.
