PM sits in Toyota’s first passenger car during factory visit

Prime Minister Tarique Rahman on Thursday sat in a replica of Toyota’s first production passenger car during a visit to the Japanese automaker’s Motomachi factory in Nagoya, during his four-day official visit to Japan.

The prime minister, accompanied by his wife Zubaida Rahman, visited the factory at 10:30am (local time), where Toyota officials invited them to sit in the historic vehicle, said PM’s Deputy Press Secretary Md Suzauddhowla (Sujan Mahmud).

The vehicle was the Toyota Model AA, Toyota’s first production passenger car, manufactured in 1936 following the Toyota Model A1 prototype developed by the Toyota family in 1935. A replica of the Model AA is preserved in Japan’s Toyota museum collection.

During Tarique Rahman’s visit to Japan from 26 to 29 October at the invitation of Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, the two countries signed six bilateral cooperation instruments and secured pledges for two yen-loan projects worth a combined 46.56 billion yen, equivalent to around $295.5 million.

Seventeen memorandums of understanding were also signed between private-sector entities.

The visit included high-level talks on trade, investment, energy, infrastructure and technology, as Bangladesh and Japan seek to deepen economic cooperation following the signing of their first-ever Economic Partnership Agreement in February 2026.