Shoichiro Toyoda, the honorary chairman of Toyota Motor Corp. who transformed the Japanese automaker into a leading global brand, died of heart failure on Tuesday, the company announced. He was 97. Shoichiro was a third-generation scion of the founding family.

He is credited with establishing a culture of quality control that helped Toyota evolve into the world-leading automaker. He was also responsible for pushing Toyota, which had started life as a loom manufacturer, to produce vehicles also overseas.

Shoichiro was a grandson of Sakichi Toyoda, who founded the Toyota group, and a son of Kiichiro Toyoda, the founder of Toyota’s predecessor Toyota Motor Co. Shoichiro Toyoda joined the company as a board member at just 27 years of age.

After serving as president of Toyota Motor Sales Co. under the Toyota group, he became the first president of what is now Toyota Motor Corp., a new company formed after the merger of its manufacturing and sales companies in 1982. He held the position until 1992 when he became chairman.

Going overseas

Toyoda propelled overseas production on the back of Japan’s economic growth, with Toyota, headquartered in the Aichi Prefecture, setting up a joint venture with General Motors in the United States in 1984. It was called NUMMI and took over a closed GM factory in Fremont, California, to produce up to 400 000 Corollas over there. In 2010, Tesla took over the plant to establish its first big production site there.

Other plants in Kentucky and Canada were built in 1986, significantly boosting the company’s production capacity. It was also in the 1980s when Toyota actively expanded beyond the North American market. The auto giant currently has production sites worldwide, including Europe, China, and Africa.

Housing

Following the family tradition of launching a new business each generation, Shoichiro Toyoda focused his efforts on the housing business. His grandfather Sakichi had started the manufacturing of looms, and his father Kiichiro started the production of automobiles.

The business initiated by Shoichiro, known as Toyota Housing Corp., is now a key unit of Prime Life Technologies Corp., a joint venture between Toyota, Panasonic Holdings Corp, and Mitsui & Co. It has played a major role as Toyota tries to build next-generation cities that integrate electrified cars with housing (including the Woven City project).

Influential

Toyoda served as the head of the Keidanren, the powerful Japan Business Federation, the country’s biggest business lobby, for four years through 1998, grappling with reinvigorating a stagnant Japanese economy and carrying out administrative and financial reforms.

Even after leaving the board in 2009, Shoichiro Toyoda continued to have a heavy influence over the company,  He had been honorary chairman since 1999. A native of Nagoya, he contributed to developing the city’s economy, serving as chairman of the organization that hosted the 2005 World Exposition in Aichi Prefecture, central Japan. Shoichiro Toyoda was inducted into the Automotive Hall of Fame in the United States in 2007.

The Toyota company plans to hold a farewell gathering later, although details have not been decided. His son and current president (since 13 years), Akio Toyoda (66), announced recently he would promote Koji Sato, the 53-year-old head of the auto group’s Lexus brand operation, to succeed him in April, with Akio Toyoda to become chairman.