Eiji Toyoda (born 1913) is a former chairman of Toyota Motor Company. His family-run business made revolutionary changes in the way automobiles were made.

Eiji Toyoda, the man who was in the driver's seat of the Toyota Motor Company for over 25 years, is virtually unknown outside of Japan's Toyota City, headquarters of "the company that stopped Detroit," according to the New York Times. But like a latter-day Henry Ford, Toyoda made his mark on the auto industry. He not only presided over revolutionary changes in the way cars are built, he saw his family-run business become a powerhouse in the world export market and has forged an unlikely alliance with an archrival, General Motors Corporation. Although he resigned his post as chairman in 1994, he continues to hold the title of honorary chair of the company.

As the head of one of the most powerful industrial clans in a nation...