Silicon Valley talent war has Toyota seeking techies at home

Tokyo

WHEN it comes to recruiting tech talent, Toyota Motor Corp is anything but subtle.

The Japanese automaker recently launched a marketing campaign targeting information technology specialists and software engineers along Tokyo's suburban Nambu railway line, where the research centres of Japan's signature tech giants are clustered.

"We want engineers from Nambu Line area more than from Silicon Valley," declares one poster at Mukaigawara station, where one of the exits is designated exclusively for NEC Corp employees.

Toyota's talent raid is unusual in a country where lifetime employment is still the norm at many big companies. "It's very unique for a Japanese company as well-known as Toyota to blatan…