Toyota’s Woven City Opens Doors to Tech Startups

At CES 2025, Toyota Motor Chairman Akio Toyoda unveiled an ambitious vision for the future: Woven City, a living laboratory brimming with startups and cutting-edge technologies.

“Today, I say to anyone in any corner of the world, inspired or excited to make a difference. Make a change or make it count. Please consider this your official invitation to join us at Woven City,” Toyoda said, adding that the city will launch in the fall of 2025.

Woven City, a prototype city set against the breathtaking backdrop of Mount Fuji in Japan, will occupy 175 acres and serve as a playground for innovation.

But the message from Toyoda was clear: the city wants inventors. This summer the company will launch a pitch competition and dole out scholarships to startups and individuals who need the financial boost to make their ideas a reality.

“If you need support to make your ideas real, we want you,” Toyoda said, extending an open invitation.

The concept of Woven City first took shape five years ago, when Toyoda presented his utopian vision at CES 2020. Back then, it was a concept where people would live and work surrounded by Toyota’s futuristic projects, from autonomous e-Palette shuttles to robots. 

Today, that vision has grown exponentially. Toyoda spoke of electric air taxis, citing a recent $500 million investment into Joby Aviation, as well as Toyota’s involvement in autonomous vehicle technology. And, perhaps most strikingly, rockets.

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Following the press conference, Toyoda elaborated on Toyota’s budding interest in space. The idea? Use rocket technology to build telecommunications infrastructure capable of supporting autonomous vehicles. 

Toyota has already made a 7 billion yen ($44 million) investment in startup Interstellar Technologies Inc. and is putting its expertise to work, aiming to support the mass production of rockets.

But Toyoda doesn’t shy away from the risks. “I know what you are thinking with this Woven City, will it make Toyota any money?” he asked. “Well, maybe not, but that’s okay.

As global citizens, I believe Toyota has a responsibility to invest in our collective future, to share what we’ve learned with others, and support new ideas.”

Construction of Woven City began in February 2021 on the site of Toyota’s former Higashi-Fuji Plant in Susono City. The first phase is focused on buildings designed for “co-creation”—spaces where employees, scientists, entrepreneurs, and even retirees will live and collaborate.

This will be followed by Phase 2, but, as Toyoda emphasized, lessons learned in the first phase will help polish up the city’s future development.

Already, several inventors have joined the project. Discussions are ongoing with companies like ENEOS Corporation, Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corporation, and Rinnai Corporation. Thus, Woven City is gradually turning into a hotbed of possibilities as Toyota looks toward a future wherein innovation would not be a concept but a way of life.