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The story
Toyota has reportedly decided to ask its parts-supplying subcontractors to cut prices starting in October 2026. At the same time, there are reports that Toyota will actually raise the price of the steel it sells to those same subcontractors, and a 5ch thread kicked off with people asking “what’s the actual justification for the price cut?” That quickly gave way to a string of firsthand accounts claiming Toyota’s procurement staff don’t just demand cuts — they help suppliers with process-improvement proposals and even capital investment to make the savings possible. Commenters also compared Toyota’s negotiating style with Honda’s and Nissan’s, and opinion split between those calling it plain old subcontractor bullying and those pushing back on that framing.
Note: the steel Toyota sells to its subcontractors will be marked up.
Toyota raises wholesale steel prices
Toyota to request parts price cuts from supplier makers starting in October
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Read the original article
What people said
What's the logic behind being able to lower prices?
Price hike: "Show me the evidence."
Price cut: "Just improve and cut the price. Evidence? Don't need it."
There's plenty of wasted cost out there.
Like making them bring in all their own supplies, or use their own toilet paper.
The guys who think BYD is the enemy should just make the parts for free themselves.
Kioxia's just a memory chip maker lol
Good products getting cheaper is great news for consumers.
Because Toyota isn't sacrificing anything itself — it's just bullying the weaker party.
Cars themselves basically never get cheaper though.
Lately it's nothing but price hikes on minor changes that barely change anything.
Spend too much time on trashy internet content and that's the only kind of shallow thinking you'll be capable of. Watch out.
Where's the trickle-down…? 😭
It's not a record profit level.
Profits have actually fallen for two straight periods because of tariff impact and rising material costs.
Toyota's made even less progress than that "just a memory chip maker."
Car technology hasn't changed at all between 20 years ago and now.
It's completely stagnant.
Even stock traders don't have that much faith in Kioxia.
Memory prices are going to crash again eventually.
At the end of the day it's just the subcontractor that got squeezed on price by Apple.
People say this a lot, but is it actually true?
That just makes them actual slaves though.
Not sure what there is to be proud of about being a Toyota subcontractor…
For some reason a Toyota employee sat in on the negotiation between my company and our supplier, armed the argument to the teeth, and talked the supplier down on price.
In the end our profit margin actually went up even after the price cut.
That's just a subcontractor bullying its OWN subcontractor.
Being a Toyota subcontractor is something to be proud of — like 90% of them are above the median income.
Aren't you confusing "subsidiary" with "subcontractor"?
Insurance is a "phantom industry" (kyogyo — doesn't produce anything tangible), so it's hard to know where to even aim.
Besides, most people here probably have basically nothing to do with insurance in their daily lives lol
Though there's also internet right-wingers (netouyo) hyping Toyota up as a counter-reaction.
It's simple jealousy, that's all.
Meanwhile, procurement staff at other companies who copy this apparently just parrot the same price-cut demand over and over without understanding why it works.
It's basically: "We'll provide this much funding and second this many staff to you, so install this much new equipment to boost efficiency."
And once you install it, they guarantee orders for a set period in return.
This kind of negotiation happens down to the second-tier subcontractors (magouke) too.
By the time you get to third- and fourth-tier subcontractors it might get rough, though.
So they basically consult for them.
What bugs me is they make the subcontractor buy the steel.
Not paying storage costs and not holding inventory yourself — that feels like cheating to me.
It's hilarious watching people who don't understand this system criticize the price-cut requests.
They can only criticize because all they know is simple retail buying and selling.
Sure, this might be win-win for both Toyota and the subcontractor that takes the deal, but I still feel like the method itself is kind of underhanded.
This is exactly why every automaker besides Toyota is basically dead on its feet.
Toyota
The price-cut pressure is the harshest, but their dedicated cost-reduction department basically consults with you, and if you're lucky they'll even handle the equipment investment for you.
Honda
The purchasing department pressures you with "why does it cost this much," but they don't actually understand anything, so it's easy — feed them a vague explanation and they'll believe it, since they're mostly clueless.
Nissan
Engineers actually show up to the price negotiations, so if you try to bluff they'll often catch it, which makes it a pain.
That's roughly how it is.
So Toyota really is the most capable one, huh?
It's sad that Nissan — the most legitimate/by-the-book one — ended up the way it did.
Background and key points of this discussion
Demands for price cuts from subcontractors are a recurring flashpoint in an area the Japan Fair Trade Commission has long kept an eye on for “subcontractor bullying,” and the focus of this report was the asymmetry of Toyota raising the wholesale price of the steel it sells while simultaneously lowering what it pays for parts. Where the thread split was over whether the price cuts actually come bundled with improvement proposals and capital-investment support: firsthand accounts produced both a defense (“it’s convincing because Toyota pairs the cut with real proposals”) and a rebuttal (“in the end it’s still the subcontractor eating the cost”). Commenters also described differences in procurement style across automakers — Honda applies pressure without rigorously questioning the pricing rationale, while Nissan has engineers sit in on negotiations to scrutinize the numbers. Worth noting for readers: a “Toyota subcontractor” and a “Toyota subsidiary” are different in terms of treatment and status, and some commenters in the thread pointed out that the two were being mixed up.
*This article is compiled from excerpts and a summary of the 5ch (Nandemo Jikkyou G) thread “Toyota Asks Subcontractors for Price Cuts.”
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