Toyota Marks Completion of 10th Auto Technician Course for Brazilians in Japan

Nagoya, Aug 7, 2009; TOYOTA MOTOR CORPORATION (TMC) announces it marked today the completion of the 10th holding of the Auto Technician Course for Brazilian Residents of Japan with a ceremony at the Toyota Commemorative Museum of Industry and Technology in Nagoya. The September-August course, part of TMC's social contribution activities, is conducted at the Toyota Technical College Nagoya in Aichi Prefecture.

The ceremony was attended by the course's latest 20 participants and approximately 120 other people, including First Secretary Patricia Barbosa Lima Cortes of the Embassy of the Federative Republic of Brazil to Japan, Deputy Consul Luiz Carlos Galindo de Medeiros of the Consulate-General of the Federative Republic of Brazil in Nagoya, Chairperson Akiko Toyoda of the Toyota International Association, representatives of TMC and Toyota Technical College Nagoya, and the course participants' family and friends.

At the ceremony, TMC Managing Officer Shigeru Hayakawa said: "I trust that the course participants found it rewarding to learn together over the past year, and I am confident this experience will serve them well into the future. TMC positions this course as an important part of our social contribution activities, and we are committed to supporting it."

The course trains participants to become auto technicians and is open to young Brazilians living in Japan who are expected to contribute someday to Brazil's future. Approximately 200 people have completed the course since its inception in 1999. Many course veterans return to Brazil, where they apply the knowledge and skills gained from the course in such jobs as those at Toyota dealers or at Toyota do Brasil Ltda., TMC's Brazilian sales-and-production company.

Many youth among the approximately 320,000 Brazilians who live in Japan* face significant language barriers that make it hard for them to advance in the Japanese schooling system, thereby limiting their employment opportunities back in Brazil. Interest in the Auto Technician Course for Brazilian Residents of Japan - which is taught entirely in Portuguese and which uses the latest in TMC human resource development know-how and facilities - is on the rise: for the next holding of the course, 131 applicants took the entrance exam for the 20 available positions. Over its 10 years, the course has gained the attention and positive recognition of the Brazilian government.

*As of the end of 2007, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan