Losing my mind.

Climate change.

Dying alone and in pain.

To be stuck in the past.

In a word, love. It’s all based on love. Even at the public hearings, there was love for Toyota, and I managed to pull through because there were people who felt it and supported me.

Rather than trying to do something within your own circle or looking to gain approval, I think the first step toward a new project is making others feel the potential of working together.

While many people are content with their current job, I’m sure some do not feel that way. Yet all of it has meaning. No experience is pointless—what you take out of it is up to you.

I constantly fear that Toyota will go back to being an ordinary company. When that fear spreads to many people, it will be too late. Even with the title of president, it took me 14 years to change Toyota, but things could revert in a flash.

Driving 24 hours with rivals at Nürburgring, the world's toughest circuit, presented many more challenges than driving a test course for three years. Naruse always said that ‘Roads make cars.’ The race is punishing, but it forges better machines. Nürburgring is where I learned that ‘the road makes the car.’

Having said that, feeling isolated is tough. In those times, you need a place where you can be by yourself, and friends. Company colleagues won’t do it because they’re generally self-centered (laughs). You need friends who have nothing to do with the company.