Sakichi Toyoda sold his loom patents to a British firm, the money started Toyota, and the loom company went to an adopted son-in-law

Sakichi Toyoda built power looms in Japan. In October 1915 his daughter Aiko married Risaburo Kodama, a younger brother of a Mitsui executive, and Sakichi adopted Risaburo as his son. Risaburo became managing director of Toyoda Boshoku in 1918. Sakichi's son by his first wife, Kiichiro, studied mechanical engineering at Tokyo University and founded Toyoda Automatic Loom Works in 1926. Britain's Platt Brothers was losing markets to the Toyoda Type G automatic loom and bought the patent rights to protect itself. Kiichiro signed the assignment in England on 21 December 1929 for £100,000 in four annual payments. Platt later tried to back out. In July 1934 the unpaid balance was cut, bringing the total to £83,500. Sakichi died of pneumonia in Nagoya in October 1930. According to EBSCO he had urged Kiichiro to build cars with the money. The car venture became Toyota Motor Co. in 1937. In 1950 a two-month labour dispute ended with 2,146 jobs cut. Kiichiro resigned as president on 5 June 1950, taking responsibility. When business recovered, company leaders informally agreed to bring him back. He died suddenly on 27 March 1952, aged 57, before he could return.