Toyota's Woven City opens to tourists

Toyota’s Woven City is finally becoming a place regular people can actually visit — not just a glossy concept shown at CES. That is the real shift here. Toyota officially launched the site in September 2025, started moving in its first residents, and said general visitors will be welcomed in fiscal 2026. So the story is not that Woven City suddenly exists. It is that Toyota is starting to treat this futuristic district near Mount Fuji as something closer to a public-facing living lab. (global.toyota) ### What is Woven City, exactly? It is a purpose-built neighborhood in Susono, Shizuoka Prefecture, on the former Higashi-Fuji plant site. Toyota calls it a “test course for mobility,” which is a useful phrase because it tells you what this is not. It is not a normal city trying to run schools, politics, nightlife, and all the(global.toyota)Toyota and its partners can test how people, vehicles, sensors, robots, software, and infrastructure behave together. (woven-city.global) ### Why are tourists part of the plan? Because Woven City was always meant to include “Weavers” — Toyota’s term for both residents and visitors. The visitors are not just spectators. Toyota’s pitch is that they try things, move through the space, and generate feedback that helps shape products and services. In other words, tourism here overlap(woven-city.global)s also a data point. (global.toyota) ### So has it opened already? Yes and no. Woven City officially launched on September 25, 2025. Residents had already begun moving in that month, and Toyota said Phase 1 is expected to accommodate about 300 residents. But broader access for general visitors was pushed into fiscal 2026. That means the site is operational before(global.toyota)urist attraction with fixed ticket lines. (global.toyota) ### What would visitors actually see? The short answer is mobility tech in context. Toyota has described spaces where Weavers use products and services across the city, including the Kakezan Invention Hub, underground streets, and shared courtyards. More recently, Toyota and Woven by Toyota showed off AI systems meant to read (global.toyota)ental data, and coordinate safety across vehicles, signals, and pedestrians. So the appeal is not one robot on a pedestal. It is the whole street acting like a prototype. (woven-city.global) ### Why does Toyota keep saying “mobility” instead of “cars”? Because this project is Toyota trying to prove it is more than an automaker. Akio Toyoda has been framing Woven City as a place to test the movement of people, goods, information, and energy. That is why the project mixes low-emission transport, software, AI, infrast(woven-city.global)rhood where it can test the stack all at once instead of shipping isolated gadgets. (global.toyota) ### Who is building things there? Toyota and Woven by Toyota are the anchors, but the city is designed for outside “Inventors” too — startups, research groups, companies, and other partners. Toyota said 20 inventors were involved at launch, and four more companies joined in April 2026 alongside the opening of the Woven City In(global.toyota)form, not just a corporate showroom. (global.toyota) ### Is this a smart city or a theme park? Closer to a smart-city pilot, but with the visitor logic of a showroom. The catch is that Toyota keeps calling Woven City “ever-evolving” and “unfinished,” which is honest but important. Visitors should expect a curated research environment, not a polished sci-fi downtown. The attracti(global.toyota). (woven-city.global) ### Bottom line Woven City matters less as a destination and more as a signal. Toyota has spent years talking about a future where cars, streets, software, and buildings work as one system. Letting visitors in during fiscal 2026 is the moment that idea starts facing the public, not just partners and press. (global.toyota)