Who knew that Toyota started out building weaving machines? 🤷‍♂️ Well, now I do! The first half of this museum is dedicated to the development of Toyota's weaving machines. And they produced machines for the entire process, from separating and cleaning the cotton balls, to spinning the cotton into yarn, and finally to weaving the yarn into cloth. They have quite an impressive collection of machines and they are all in working order. Toyota's manufacturing expertise was developed over the years through the creation of these weaving machines. Many of the machines have live demonstrations offered in both Japanese and English. After the docents perform the demonstration, they kindly take questions and interact with the guests. It is all included in the price of admission (which is ¥500). I learned a lot about the processing of cotton into yarn and the automated weaving of it into cloth. The development and manufacturing of these machines was quite fascinating. The second half of the museum is dedicated to the development of Toyota's automobiles. The early history of the first model produced and the first factory is presented in minute detail and with helpful displays and reproductions of the original workshops. From here, you will see all of the historic models of Toyota cars on display, including the rare and highly valuable 2000GT. Many modern manufacturing techniques and robots are on display and demonstrated as well. You can spend a lot of time at this museum. I would recommend allocating at least half a day. There are audio guides available in English for ¥200, but you will probably need to stay even longer if you want to listen to all of the commentary available. They also have a small snack shop and we enjoyed a nice coffee and dessert after our visit. This is a must see attraction if you are in Nagoya.

This place is amazing to understand the Toyota history and its automobile process. I would easily spend a half day. I participated in the English tours for the Textile and Automobile aspects and I was blown out of mind. Don’t miss this in Nagoya. It’s great!!!

We visited on a weekday afternoon and it was not crowded. We bought our tickets from the self service kiosks (which was easy to use) and entered the 1st pavilion after showing our tickets to the staff. The museum is bigger than expected and there are a lot of exhibits and information provided; from the early days of Toyota (as a weaving company and pivoting to the automobile industry) to current day. The museum is a must visit for automobile fans.

I was expecting to find an automotive museum , nothing prepared me for the textile machinery. The huge number of machines arranged chronologically was truly mind-blowing. With staff strategically positioned to run through demonstrations. The automotive section was good too!

Very well done. They saved many of the massive machines for display with a significant number still in working order. Many that you could click a button and watch it go. Anyone in the quilting world or the engineering /robotics will be fascinated. Slightly disturbing that in the various historical notes the years from 1941 to 1944 never appear. 1945 does and is referred to as the beginning of the postwar period. Come on Japan! The Germans don't gloss over what happened. The US is getting better at acknowledging the errors of our past. Get with the program.

Very interesting self guided tour starts in the textile side with a great history of thread and weaving technology. A small section on materials and metal refining and working and ending in the automotive area. Signage in multiple languages including English. There are audio tour headphones available which we didn’t use. Docents and guides are posted around to demonstrate and answer questions. 1000 yen $7 admission fee. Well worth it.