Toyota, JapanTaxi Agree to Consider Joint Development of Taxi ServicesToyota to Invest in JapanTaxi

Toyota City, Japan, February 8, 2018―With an aim to revitalize Japan's taxi industry and improve its efficiencies, Toyota Motor Corporation (Toyota) and JapanTaxi Co., Ltd. (JapanTaxi) have concluded a basic agreement on considering, among other activities, the joint development of services for taxi operators. They also agreed that, to strengthen ties between the two companies, Toyota will invest 7.5 billion yen in JapanTaxi and subscribe for and acquire shares to be newly issued by JapanTaxi though a third-party allocation.

Toyota has been exploring ways to revitalize and improve the efficiencies of Japan's overall taxi industry through R&D and the development of services. Activities have included Toyota's concluding a memorandum of understanding with the Japan Federation of Hire-Taxi Associations on August 5, 2016 to study areas for collaboration, leading to such activities as the start of verification testing on data collection using Toyota data-transmission driving recorders in the Tokyo metropolitan area.

Also, JapanTaxi, to enhance peace of mind and convenience for taxi users, developed a nationwide taxi-dispatch app for smartphones and tablets, which it has been making available since 2011. To date, the app has accumulative downloads of approximately 4 million, and approximately 60,000 taxis―or about one fourth of all taxis in Japan―are registered with the service provided by the app, giving the app the top share among taxi-dispatch apps in Japan.

Toyota and JapanTaxi believe it is important to provide services that are better for both taxi users and taxi operators. As such, the two companies intend to further strengthen coordination between Toyota's Mobility Services Platform, which is currently being constructed as a comprehensive platform for such functions as mobility management, use and analysis, and JapanTaxi's integrated software-hardware platform for enhancing the overall taxi-user experience and advancing the digitalization of taxi operators.

Specifically, Toyota and JapanTaxi plan to consider cooperation and business collaboration in such areas as connected terminals for taxis, the joint development of vehicle-dispatch support systems, and big-data collection.

Going forward, by putting to use their respective hitherto cultivated know-how, services, and technologies, the two companies aim to contribute to the creation of comfortable mobility that complements people's daily lives.