2.1.3 The New Global Business plan: from 1995
Following the collapse of the bubble economy in 1991 in Japan and the subsequent stagnation Toyota was obliged to develop a new strategy that would allow the firm to face that crisis. The answer of Toyota was the establishment of a global production network, which major was organized in the UK, USA, Australia, South Africa and ASEAN countries. This strategy will be described in Toyota’s “New Global Business Plan” in 1995 (Toyota Global Site, 75 years of Toyota, 2017). The plan included an increase of localization of production and imports (through collaboration with foreign automobile companies) over a three-year period. A major objective of this plan was to increase Toyota’s offshore production capacity to 2 million units by 1998.
Consequently, Toyota focused on increasing overseas production by establishing new plants and expanding the capacity of the existing plants. In addition to this short-term global business plan, Toyota also announced a long-term global business vision in 1996, named the ‘Global Vision 2005.’ The main components of “Global Vision 2005” were, keeping a competitive edge in technology and accelerating globalization, sustaining market leadership in Japan and recovering market share of over 40%.

As part of its globalization efforts, the company focused more on increasing the production of automobiles in the areas where they were sold…