Masando Hashimoto and the Luxury of Doing What You Love

Listening. That’s what Masando Hashimoto, president of Toyota Motor Philippines Corporation (TMP), sees as something he can improve upon. Or rather, in the Japanese spirit of kaizen, constantly improve upon. He tries to listen, and he feels it is what he also needs to do more as his life and his roles have changed.

And we got a good look at how his life has changed. It was painted on his racing helmet.

Hashimoto’s new helmet is, like many other racecar drivers’ helmets, a documentation of his journey. Not necessarily of his corporate journey, though. That is there, of course. There is the GR Racing logo, but there is also a stylized airplane. One of his goals as a young man was to run a foreign operation of the Toyota Group, so the airplane image was a natural part of the job in today’s world.

So was the GR logo. Gazoo Racing has become a key part of what makes today’s Toyota today’s Toyota. It forms one of the defined strengths of the huge global group. There is Daihatsu, which has its own special direction and identity. Then there is Lexus.

The discussion was taking place beside what many consider the most wonderfully musical road-dedicated supercarSupercarA high-performance sports car with exceptional speed, advanced engineering, and striking design, produced in low volumes by marques such as Ferrari, Lamborghini, and McLaren. Supercars sit near the top ofGo to Supercar Glossary ever created, the Lexus LFA. While Lexus now means a unique combination of mechanical reliability and intelligent luxury, it has also always had its racing shoe on the accelerator of some pretty fun cars that went on to become collectibles and icons.

Then there is Century, the pinnacle of Japanese luxuryLuxuryA lifestyle defined by exceptional quality, craftsmanship, exclusivity, and sophistication, encompassing the finest products, services, and experiences that represent the highest standards of refinement and excellence.Go to Luxury Glossary automobilia that has decided to make itself better known to the rest of the world. What this does, Hashimoto says, is allow Lexus to spread its wings. At the last Japan Mobility Show, he pointed out, Lexus had a one-person automated concept vehicle and a six-wheeled, very sumptuous people mover. It also showed something with wings and propellers.

And another boat.

Hashimoto reminded us that Toyota Chief Branding Officer Simon Humphries used one word for Lexus: “Discovery.” For Hashimoto, that means bringing together the joy of driving and the joy of relaxing while expanding mobility beyond cars.

So all of the Toyota and travel imagery on a helmet isn’t really a surprise. The surprise is, he has a helmet.

Hashimoto drives racecars.

He wasn’t always a racer. When asked what he did before the time he had to arrange for Akio Toyoda, Toyota’s global chairman, to gleefully go drifting in Manila for an early Gazoo Racing event, he said cycling. Road bikes.

Toyoda himself had raced incognito as “Morizo,” a name he adopted at a time when there was considerable resistance, including within Toyota, to someone in his position taking part in such a dangerous sport.

I asked if Hashimoto was competitive, if that day with Toyoda had lit a fire in him. He said he competed sometimes, but not really. He seemed more to just like the personal challenge and the peace that came with biking.

Yes, a bike appears on his helmet.

He is a family man, and we often talk about his wife and kids, whom we see at events and at the racetracks, and who are becoming rather accomplished drivers themselves. There is a racing kart on Hashimoto’s helmet as well. His son’s kart.

Hashimoto never karted. He was never really that into motorsports, not from the personal position at least. He understood the importance, of course. It was crystallized for him personally when Toyoda came to Manila in 2023 for the GR Festival.

Hashimoto had the considerable responsibility of bringing Toyoda to Manila and dealing with all the moving parts that entailed, before even getting to the actual racing and driving. He describes that time as an emotional event, that everything was fascinating and exciting. The sound, the smoke, the movement of the cars on the track. All of this led Hashimoto to get behind a racecar wheel himself in 2024, at the age of 46.

“Scared, of course,” he admits. “But I wanted to do that.”

The time with Toyoda was the key. It changed everything, he says. Before that, his car was what he used to get around and to bring his bike or himself and his family places. The car was mobility. Transport. He would do some swimming, cycling, running, triathlons sometimes.

“Now it’s the opposite,” he says, smiling. “The car is everything, it is everything about the emotion.”

You can tell how racing, and being exposed to the commitment to racing, has changed him. But it isn’t just a red-mist racing-is-all thing. It’s more of a “we are all in this together” thing.

“Gemba” is another Japanese word he explained. It is where the real work happens. Real work happens not in the boardroom or meeting room, he says. It happens when he speaks with and listens to dealers and customers and suppliers and, increasingly, racers and racing garages.

He says he spends at least two days a week out asking questions and listening carefully. “That is how we all make better decisions together and improve together,” he says. This was something he understood before, of course, as it is so ingrained into Toyota culture.

Now, though, racing has given it even more breadth and depth. Because he saw it in Toyoda, because he saw it in how “Morizo” would affect those around him and lead them, and how everyone has to work together for the goal.

“I love racing, but racing makes me humble,” he explains. “It teaches me gratitude, discipline, preparation and teamwork. It is not an individual sport. When I hold the steering wheel I understand what is happening across the whole paddock. My coach, engineers, mechanics, all are fighting for the same result…. Nobody calls me sir or president. We just help each other and fight as one team.”

“For me, the race is Gemba,” he says. “That’s the reason I keep going back there.”

This article originally appeared in Robb Report Philippines’ Best of the Best issue, October 2026.