“When Toyota sneezed, we caught pneumonia”
Detroit isn’t the only city suffering along with the auto industry’s misfortunes. In Japan, the once booming Toyota City is in a deep slump. With a population of 423,000, this company town is entirely reliant on Toyota Motor, and as jobs there have dried up, the local unemployment office in Toyota City has been overflowing with 1,000 job seekers a day. “When Toyota sneezed, we caught pneumonia,” one city official tells the New York Times. “We never imagined this would happen to the world’s No. 1 company.”