The story
In April 1946, Kanto Auto Works was established in Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, as an independent company known as Kanto Electric Motor Works which focused on repairing cars, assembling electric vehicles and producing bus bodies. In early 1948, it became a Toyota contractor, producing auto bodies. During its early years, the company also assembled cars for Toyota (Toyota SB, Toyota Master, Toyota Crown). The company also diversified into other products such as yachts and prefabricated homes. In 1950, it adopted the Kanto Auto Works name. In 1960, the company became a permanent car assembler through a new Yokosuka plant. Later, the company replaced Yokosuka for car assembly with the Higashi-Fuji (established in 1968) and Iwate (established in 1993) plants.
Kanto Auto Works was a public company until the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake, Toyota announced it would make it a wholly owned subsidiary. On July 1, 2012, Kanto Auto Works and two other Toyota subsidiaries (Central Motors and Toyota Motors Tohoku) were combined into a single company called Toyota Motor East Japan, Inc.
From Wikipedia’s article on Kanto Auto Works, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3