Car Company Puts the Skids on Woke

In recent years, some major Australian companies have jumped on the progressive bandwagon alienating customers while they’re at it. Qantas, in their infinite wisdom, decided to support the divisive Indigenous Voice to Parliament campaign by painting Yes23 logos on their planes. Prime Minister Albanese simply tweeted, “The Spirit of Australia says Yes.” Qantas decided to dip their toes in the deep end of the pool, but then fell in, with the Voice referendum resoundingly failing, and CEO Alan Joyce departing this train wreck (plane wreck?) early. Why an airline decided to get involved in a constitutional amendment in the first place, is beyond me.

Australia’s largest supermarket chain Woolworths (among others) also decided to alienate many of their customers by choosing not to stock Australia Day merchandise, ostensibly due to a “decline in demand”, but simultaneously due to “cultural sensitivity”. Celebrating Australia Day in the country of Australia is a seemingly mortal sin, or at least, so our corporate masters tell us.

But a Japanese automotive manufacturer has decided that enough is enough of this unbridled support for divisive, progressive issues. Toyota, the world’s largest automotive manufacturer, has put the skids on its DEI initiatives due to a growing backlash. “Toyota Waves The White LGBTQ Flag, Cuts DEI Initiatives.” According to Bloomberg, the automaker will “refocus DEI programs and halt sponsorship of LGBTQ events, citing a highly politicized discussion.” They told their employees they will end participation in notable rankings by LGBT advocacy groups and other corporate culture surveys. And they will “narrow their community activities to align with STEM education and workforce readiness,” the company told its 50,000 US employees and 1,500 dealers in a memo. Who would have thought that focusing on things that help your company would be beneficial to your company? Staying neutral about social and political issues is probably a wise idea. If you start taking sides, you start alienating your customers, the customers you rely on.

While they’re at it, Toyota have also decided to cut ties with the sometimes controversial Olympics. Chairman Akio Toyoda confirmed the company will not renew its 10-year contract with the Olympics and Paralympics following the Paris Games. It seems wokeness can have financial consequences. This comes after Panasonic, one of the world’s largest electronics companies, also Japanese, also ended it’s 37-year contract as top Olympics sponsor, with no reason given. Mysteriously, the world’s largest tyre manufacturer, also Japanese, Bridgestone, have also recently pulled their sponsorship from the Olympics. I just don’t understand what particularly happened at the Paris Olympics that made all these Japanese companies pull their funding.

The Toyota chairman also commented on the fate of the electric vehicle market stating earlier this year, “Full EV Transition Isn't The Answer”, and “expressed his belief that battery electric vehicles will reach a maximum market share of 30 percent. Customers, not regulations or politics should make the decision on what path to rely on,” he said. Ah, what does he know? He’s only the chairman of the world’s largest automotive manufacturer.

None of this should be too surprising, I suppose. Politically, Japan is notoriously conservative. Since its foundation, the ruling Liberal Democratic Party, a major conservative and Japanese nationalist party, has been in power almost continuously since 1955, asserting the belief that the Japanese are a monolithic nation with a single immutable culture.

So do you agree with Toyota and the rest? Is it time to put the brakes on woke?

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Allégro by Emmit Fenn