Mr. Saihei Iritani Born September, 1915

The succession of Chief Engineers who have overseen the development of the Land Cruiser. We were able to speak with each of these engineers and gain a glimpse of their perspectives on the Land Cruiser over time.

< Shimmy damper >

In the days of the FJ20, a 3-plate spring was used that was taken from the Crown, which improved the riding comfort. It was not a problem in Japan that it could only travel up to 60km/h, but this was not adequate for American highways, and the suspension was so soft that it tended to do a shimmy. The result was to add a shimmy damper on those models bound for export to America. This was a new mechanism for cars at that time.

< Blessed by special demand >

Participating in the test at Aberdeen in the United States, and after that with the special demand from the U.S. Army Procurement Agency (APA) in Japan, many things were learned form the U.S. Army, and changes were made to the drawings, specs, and inspection methods, everything was spelled out in contracts, and much was learned about cleaning repair parts, painting, rust protection, protecting packaging and wrapping. This know-how was very useful later as Toyota got more into the export market. From 1958 Toyota became the leading export company in Japan. It wasn't so much the special demand that made the difference, but the tremendous know-how gained from the United States in the process.

< Gaining recognition in America >

The FJ20 responded favorably to tests conducted by the U.S. Army in 1957, and from the next year began to be exported to America. Thin in 1961 the Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) held an RV Symposium, in which the Land Cruiser participated. In this way step by step the Land Cruiser came to gain both official and popular recognition as a world-class 4x4, which made us very happy. Whenever there was a local technical exposition I was called on to either speak in or deliver a paper in English, and as hard as that was I look back on it as a good thing.

In 1965 Toyota focused its efforts company-wide in an effort to win the Deming Prize for quality manufacturing, which they did in October.

< The savior of Toyota America >

Toyota America was established, and in 1958 the 1st model Crown was supplied to the U.S. market. However, at that time the Crown was not adequately built to travel at speed on American highways, and after a succession of troubles we were forced to pull it out of the U.S. market in 1960. Although we had created a Toyota America, we had lost our main product for that market. The Land Cruiser continued to sell, and was what kept Toyota America going. In 1965 a new model Corona was introduced to the U.S. market, which further boosted its strength. It is no exaggeration to say that the Land Cruiser was the company's savior at that time.

In 1958 Toyota began exporting the Crown to America, but could not compete with U.S-made passenger cars and had to pull out of that export business 2 years later. From that time until the new model Corona was released in 1965, the Land Cruiser kept Toyota in business in America.

Domestically in Japan the Crown was a huge success, but it met unexpected competitive resistance in America.

The Land Cruiser sustained Toyota's business in America for over 4 years after it had to pull out of the passenger car export business.