Toyota Builds Futuristic City In Japan, Will Welcome Residents This Fall

CES might be taking place in Las Vegas, but Toyota’s big debut is thousands of miles away. It’s also not a new car or invention, but rather a city.

That’s not something you read every day, but the first phase of construction at Toyota Woven City has been completed. A launch is planned for the fall and the opening has been years in the making as the idea was originally announced at CES in 2020.

More: Toyota Shocks CES With Plan To Build 175 Acre City Of The Future In Japan

Groundbreaking took place in early 2021 and it aims to completely reimagine the site of Toyota’s former Higashi-Fuji Plant in Susono City, Japan. As part of this effort, the location has been transformed into a complex that is part corporate and part community.

Toyota didn’t go into many specifics, but there appears to be multiple apartment complexes with beautiful balconies. They’re joined by a large glass building, a central park, and an elevated platform that connects the various structures.

While that’s not much to go on, Toyota said approximately 100 residents will move in at launch and be primarily employees and their families. That number should eventually increase to a total of around 360 people for Phase 1, before expanding to an overall population of approximately 2,000.

Residents will be known as Weavers and they’ll be joined by Inventors, who “share a commitment to working ‘for someone other than themselves.’” They’ll be focused on developing, testing, and validating innovative products and services.

Many of these inventors will come from Toyota or Toyota Group companies, but there will also be firms exploring “pollen-free spaces” as well as “creating new value through innovative vending machine concepts.” Others will explore food culture and “futuristic cafe experiences.”