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The company and brand name TOYOTA is derived from the name of its founder Sakichi Toyoda.
In the summer of 1936, the company TOYODA ran a public competition to design a new logo. Of 27,000 entries, the winning entry was the three Japanese katakana letters for "トヨタ (TOYOTA)". There are three reasons why "TOYOTA" was chosen. The first is that the name should be refreshing and smart, with no muddy sound. The second reason is that the three Japanese katakana letters for "トヨタ (TOYOTA)" has the eight brush strokes and is auspicious. The third reason is that the impression of the company changes from an individual company to a social enterprise by making the name different from the founder's surname "Toyoda".

The company and brand name Honda is derived from the name of its founder Soichiro Honda.

The company and brand name NISSAN is derived from the abbreviation of the holding company name Nihon Sangyo (日本産業 Japan Industries or Nihon Industries), which was the former investor.

The company and brand name MAZDA is derived from the name of its founder Jujiro Matsuda, and the supreme deity of the ancient Near Eastern civilization, "Ahura-Mazda". It was named by Jujiro Matsuda because the pronunciations of "Matsuda" and "Mazda" are similar.

The company and brand name SUZUKI is derived from the name of its founder Michio Suzuki.

The company and brand name SUBARU is derived from the Pleiades star cluster in Taurus. This name was named by Kenji Kita, the first president of FUJI HEAVY INDUSTRIES LTD. The SUBARU trademark was used for the first time as the passenger car name "SUBARU 1500" developed by FUJI HEAVY INDUSTRIES in 1955 with the aim of entering the automobile market. FUJI HEAVY INDUSTRIES was created by absorbing and merging five Nakajima Aircraft companies, Fuji Kogyo, Fuji Jidosha Kogyo, Omiya Fuji Kogyo, Utsunomiya Sharyo, and Tokyo Fuji Sangyo. The name of SUBARU includes the intention to lead these companies.

The company and brand name FUJI is derived from Mt. Fuji, which was loved by Chikuhei Nakajima, who founded Nakajima Aircraft Company, the predecessor of FUJI HEAVY INDUSTRIES LTD.

The company and brand name DAIHATSU is derived from the abbreviation of "大阪の発動機", which means "The engine manufactured in Osaka". "Osaka = 大阪" is the second-biggest city in Japan. "発動機 = Hatsudoki" means an engine. Generally, Japanese people pronounce "大" as dai and "発" as hatsu. Since there were many manufacturers with "motor" in the company name, the history of the company name DAIHATSU began when customers called the DAIHATSU engine "大阪の発動機".

The company and brand name MITSUBISHI is derived from the combining the family crest of the founder, Yataro Iwasaki, "三階菱 = Sangaibishi," and the family crest of the Yamauchi clan, the lord of the Tosa-han, "三ツ柏 = Mitsugashiwa".

The company and brand name MITSUOKA is derived from the name of its founder Susumu Mitsuoka.

The company and brand name ISUZU is derived from the Isuzu River that flows through the Ise Grand Shrine.

The company and brand name HINO is derived from the place name of Hinodai, Hino City, Tokyo, where the head office is located.

The company and brand name Mitsubishi is derived from the combining the family crest of the founder, Yataro Iwasaki, "三階菱 = Sangaibishi," and the family crest of the Yamauchi clan, the lord of the Tosa-han, "三ツ柏 = Mitsugashiwa".
The history of the company and brand name Fuso dates back to 1932, when Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was still named as Mitsubishi Shipbuilding & Engineering Company. It is derived from the nickname Fuso of the first B46 type car manufactured by Mitsubishi Shipbuilding & Engineering Company.

The company and brand name UD is derived from the initials of "Ultimate Dependability". The "Ultimate Dependability" is inherited as the corporate philosophy. The traditional UD has a strong will to "continue to provide Ultimate Dependability to customers". Originally, UD is the abbreviation for the 2-cycle Uniflow Scavenging Diesel Engine released in 1955. The original UD changed its meaning and contributed to the birth of the current company name.

The company name "J-BUS" is derived from the following three things.
・The initial of "Joint", which means a joint venture between HINO and ISUZU.
・In alphabetical order, the "H" initial of HINO and the "I" initial of ISUZU are followed by "J".
・Each initial of "Japan", "Join" and "Joyful".

J-BUS is a joint venture between HINO and ISUZU, and mainly manufactures bus bodies.

The company and brand name NMKV is derived from the initials of "Nissan Mitsubishi Kei Vehicle".

The company and brand name PRINCE is derived from the car name given in 1952 to commemorate the Crown Prince Akihito performing the Ritsutaiko ritual.

The brand name Netz means "network" in German. Netz stands for "Network of Energetic Teams for Zenith", means "The organization that works energetic in search of the best".
Netz is one of the brands distributed by TOYOTA.

How that the brand name LEXUS is derived to be remains a mystery, though there are four different theories that have been posed over the years.
The most probable theory, the magazine "BEYOND BY LEXUS": The brand name LEXUS is a coined name for "luxury" and "latest technology". "Alexis" and "Lexis" were also nominated as the candidates when deciding on the brand name. This is the testimony of Yoshio Ishizaka, who directed the launch of the LEXUS brand and the of the strategy for expanding overseas of Toyota Motor Corporation.
The 2nd theory, the book "The challenge of LEXUS TOYOTA": LEXUS is derived from the German word "Luxus".
The 3rd theory, the book "The Lexus Story: The Behind the Scenes Story of the #1 Automotive Luxury Brand in America":
According to a New York advertising company involved in the launching LEXUS brand, "LEXUS" has no specific meaning.
The 4th theory, the financial magazine "Forbes": LEXUS stands for "Luxury Exports to the U.S."
LEXUS is one of the brands distributed by TOYOTA.

The brand name CLIO is derived from the name of the goddess of history in Greek mythology.
HONDA CLIO is one of the brands distributed by Honda.

The brand name PRIMO means "first", "primary", "root", etc. in Latin.
HONDA PRIMO is one of the brands distributed by Honda.

The brand name VERNO means "get younger", "rejuvenate", "new", etc. in Latin.
HONDA VERNO is one of the brands distributed by Honda.

The brand name ACURA is derived from the English word "Accuracy". Also, the reason why the brand name starts with "A" is that ACURA comes first than any other brand when arranged in alphabetical order.
Acura is one of the brands distributed by Honda.

The brand name INFINITI means the Italian word "infinity". The spelling of this brand name is not the English word "infinity". The name of INFINITI was decided in July 1987.
INFINITI is one of the brands distributed by NISSAN.

The brand name DATSUN is derived from the coined word that combines SUN in English with the initials D, A, and T of the investors Kenjiro Den, Rokuro Aoyama, and Meitaro Takeuchi. The pronunciation of DAT is similar to the Japanese word "脱兎", which means "rabbit runs away” and is likened to being very fast.
The first car was named DAT CAR, which was completed in 1914. Then the completed vehicle in 1930 was named DATSON, which means "The son of DAT". At the same time, the definition of DAT was changed to Durable, Attractive, and Trustworthy. However, SON is similar in pronunciation to the Japanese word "損", which means to lose. Due to bad luck, SON was changed to English SUN in 1932 by Ryozo Yoshizaki of Datsun Shokai. Then the brand name DATSUN was born.
DATSUN is one of the brands distributed by NISSAN.

The brand name ẽfini is derived from the phonetic symbol of French word "infini", which means "infinity, infinite" in English. "ẽ"(= ɛ̃) of ẽfini is written with a tilde"~" over the lowercase the Greek word "ε".
ẽfini is one of the brands that once distributed by MAZDA from 1989 to 1996.

The brand name AUTOZAM is derived from Automobile + ADZAM, which read the spelling of MAZDA in reverse.
AUTOZAM is one of the brands that once distributed by MAZDA from 1989 to 1998.

The brand name EUNOS is derived from the ancient Greek word "eu" meaning "good" and "nos", an abbreviation of "numbers" in English, meant to signify a number, or assortment, of good things.
EUNOS is one of the brands that once distributed by MAZDA from 1989 to 1996.

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