Toyota Motor Company, had died, at age 100. It was no surprise that he had lived that long. Toyoda’s affectionate nickname was “the Ox, ” and he still came into the office in his nineties.
周二，日本传出消息：丰田汽车创始家族的成员之一丰田英二（Eiji Toyoda）辞世，享年100岁。他的长寿并不令人意外，外号“公牛”的丰田英二在九十多岁时仍会到公司办公。
Eiji Toyoda wasn’t the family member who founded the auto company. His cousin Kiichiro was the man who argued with his father Sakiichi, Eiji Toyoda’s uncle, for the ability to set up a car company in a corner of one of the family’s loom works factories.
然而，这个家族中创办丰田汽车的人并不是丰田英二，而是他的表兄丰田喜一郎（Kiichiro Toyoda）。最初，是丰田喜一郎从自己的父亲、英二的伯父丰田佐吉（Sakiichi Toyoda）那里争取到了在家族纺织厂的一个角落开办车厂的机会。
But Eiji Toyoda, who served as the car company’s president from 1967 to 1982, gets much of the credit for creating the modern version of Toyota. Without his persistence, Toyota would not have devised the famous Toyota Production System that governs its operations.
但是，在1967到1982年间担任丰田总裁的丰田英二却对现代丰田公司的塑造功不可没。没有他的坚持，就没有现在统帅丰田运营的“丰田生产方式”（Toyota Production System）。
Lexus lineup that at times has been the leading luxury car brand in the American market. Now, Toyota has the 13th most valuable brand in the world, and sits at No. 31 on Forbes’ Global 2000 list.
在美国制造汽车的举措使丰田迈向了全球主导地位，假如没有丰田英二的推动，丰田可能要晚很多年才走出这一步，而且也不太可能推出雷克萨斯（Lexus）这个不时主导美国汽车市场的豪车品牌。如今，丰田已成为全球第13大最有价值品牌，并在福布斯全球企业2000强榜单上高居第31位。
Toyoda wasn’t involved yet in Toyota when it produced its first vehicle, the AA, in 1936. He went to work there in 1938, after he graduated from Tokyo Imperial University and spent time at the family’s automated loom business. Toyoda was assigned to the research department, but production was soon interrupted by World War II.
当丰田公司首款汽车——丰田AA——于1936年推出之时，丰田英二尚未加入这项事业。1938年，他从东京帝国大学毕业后进入丰田公司工作，并被分派到研究部门。但生产活动很快被二战打断。
Toyota got back on its feet slowly after World War II, facing one of its worst financial crises in its history. The company actually was saved in part by the U.S. military, which placed orders for trucks and buses needed for the Japanese reconstruction effort.
二战结束后，丰田面临着有史以来最严重的财务危机之一，开始走上缓慢的恢复之路。这家公司得以生存下来，还有美国军队的部分功劳——他们带来了日本重建工作所需的卡车与公交车订单。
In the 1950s, Toyoda came to the conclusion the company would be better off reinventing its production processes from scratch. In a legendary company story, he convinced officials at Ford Motor
到50年代，丰田英二得出结论，重头设计生产流程会更有利于公司发展。他竟说服了福特汽车公司（Ford Motor）的管理人员，被获准参观密歇根迪尔伯恩（Dearborn, Mich.）规模庞大的福特罗格厂区（The Rogue complex）。当时，此举对福特完全不构成威胁：那时的丰田总共只生产了2,500台汽车，相对于福特8,000辆的日产量而言根本不足为虑。这个故事后来成为公司的传奇之一。
Of course, the visit led to the creation of the Toyota Production System, developed by Taiichi Ohno, and which helped the company build its operations in Japan through the 1950s and 1960s. Toyoda had his eye on the U.S., however, and he wanted the company to become a player in a market then overwhelmingly dominated by the Detroit car companies.
正是在这次参观之后，“丰田生产方式”应运而生。这个由大野耐一（Taiichi Ohno）开发的体系帮助丰田汽车在五六十年代实现了在日本的扩张。但丰田英二的野心却是在美国市场，当时的美国是底特律汽车公司的天下，而他希望在其中占据一席之地。
Ford turned him down twice when he suggested a joint venture, including a deal that would have had the two companies produce a version of the Camry. But by the early 1980s, Toyota’s need to produce vehicles in the U.S. coincided with General Motors
他曾两次向福特汽车提出创立合资企业的建议，其中一个提议是两家联合生产一个版本的凯美瑞（Camry），两次都被拒绝。但到80年代，丰田想在美国生产汽车的需要恰好与通用汽车（General Motors）生产低油耗车辆的想法不谋而合。那是一个精简成风的年代，两次石油危机与企业平均燃油经济性法规（Corporate Average Fuel Economy）的颁布迫使美国走上节约之路。
General Motors‘ need for fuel efficient vehicles. It was an era of downsizing, forced by two oil shocks and the creation of Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards.
时任通用汽车CEO的罗杰•史密斯（Roger Smith）认为合资之道可行，于是两家公司联手，在通用位于加州弗里蒙特（Fremont, Calif.）的一家停产的工厂中设立了新联合汽车制造公司（New United Motor Manufacturing Inc）。（这也是特斯拉现在建造Model S汽车的地点，特斯拉也是丰田的合作伙伴之一。）
GM’s then-CEO, Roger Smith, thought the idea of a joint venture might work, and the pair teamed up to create New United Motor Manufacturing Inc. at a defunct GM plant in Fremont, Calif. (It’s the same place where Tesla now builds the Model S, and Tesla is also a partner with Toyota.)
合资企业成立后，丰田英二就开始着手推销丰田的两大系列，它们已然成为丰田拓展美国市场进程中的里程碑。其一是1989年推出的雷克萨斯系列，其二则是普锐斯（Prius）混合动力系列。丰田英二对车辆给环境造成的危害尤为关注，而正是这种关注催生了丰田普锐斯。
From the joint venture, Toyoda moved on to promote two sets of vehicles that have been cornerstones for Toyota’s American expansion. One was the Lexus lineup, which was introduced in 1989. Another was the hybrid-electric Prius family, whose creation stemmed from Toyoda’s concerns about the effect automobiles were having on the environment.
丰田英二与妻子寿子育有三子一女，长子丰田干司郎仍然在世。但丰田家族的优良传统在另一位后辈身上得到了传承——丰田英二的侄孙丰田章男如今掌管这家汽车公司，他手中掌握着的正是当初丰田英二重塑这家公司的那些成功要素。
Toyoda is survived by three sons, Kanshiro, Tetsuro and Shuhei, according to the Times, all of whom have been associated with the automaker or its supplier companies.
译 丁盈幸 校 李其奇
The family legacy also lives on at the auto company in another relative. Toyoda’s great-nephew, Akio, now runs the car company, and holds the same keys to reshaping the company that Eiji Toyoda once did.
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