An article in The Detroit Free Press this month detailed how Toyota was bracing for a possible consumer and political backlash amid rapid growth in the United States. The report, based on an internal Toyota memo, carried a prescient quotation attributed to Seiichi (Sean) Sudo, president of Toyota's North American production group: "Our competitors are jealous of our success."

Fears that Japan is about to gobble up Detroit (Mothra versus Tiger) are causing some to scream conspiracy, serving up reminders of the early-1990s Michael Crichton novel-turned-movie Rising Sun, which hyperventilated about Japanese economic imperialism. (In hindsight, we know how wrong such hype was.)

These days, Japan is back, and Toyota is booming. This story might be called: How Toyota is winning the hearts of America.

In 1986, Toyota announced a new plant in Kentucky. In the same year, it rehired many of the 3,000 laid-off General Motors workers to staff the plant in Fremont, California. Company executives and plant bosses were known to eat in the same cafeteria as the rank and file; that never happened when GM was running the factory.

Toyota escalated the PR offensive. In 1991, it started funding the National Center for Family Literacy and other do-good works — "textbook corporate philanthropy." But Toyota also did something few American corporations would consider: dispatching efficiency gurus to companies such as Viking Range Corp. and Boeing Co. and to local hospitals, according to BusinessWeek. All this was an effort to help make these places work smarter — and build goodwill.

Consumers are willing to pay more for Japanese cars because of the perceived superior quality. Japanese automakers don't have the healthcare and pension liabilities that are weighing down their U.S. rivals. Japanese manufacturers designed energy-efficient hybrid cars that are selling at a decent clip these days, while Detroit continued churning out gas-guzzling SUVs as oil prices rose.

Few automakers today have a more unassailable environmental pedigree than Toyota. (Its closest rival is Honda).

Indeed, with a deft combination of marketing, public relations, and lobbying, Toyota has done a remarkable job over the past 20 years of selling itself as an American company. Knowing what it's up against, Toyota has rolled out a $300 million marketing campaign for the Tundra. The automaker has been putting millions of dollars into efforts aimed at promoting its benefits to American society: in Washington, policymaker-frequented subway stops are plastered with ads extolling Toyota's U.S. employment figures, notes The Detroit Free Press; it is sponsoring livestock shows; and earlier this month, it made its NASCAR debut in Daytona Beach, Florida — the first entry by a Japanese automaker in the popular Nextel Cup racing series. Toyota has a campaign, internally dubbed "Prove It," involving free test drives at Bass Pro Shops, a national chain of outdoor sports shops, and 84 Lumber stores. Some of its TV ads feature a narrator, replete with Texas drawl, promoting the Tundra as "the all-new, built-in-America, Toyota truck."

Now Toyota Motor Corp. is bracing for possible political and consumer backlash caused by its rapid U.S. growth, according to an internal report obtained by the Detroit Free Press.

It's because the extra scrutiny could undo much of the hard work of the past 20 years. "We constantly need to think about the potential backlash against us," Toyota CEO Katsuaki Watanabe told BusinessWeek in an exclusive interview. "It's very important for our company and products to earn citizenship in the U.S. We need to make sure we are accepted."

"With recent market-share gains and sales continuing to increase, we are becoming the de facto leader of the industry — that brings risks and responsibilities," according to a presentation by Seiichi (Sean) Sudo, president of Toyota Engineering & Manufacturing in North America. "Our competitors are jealous of our success."

Although Toyota executives have publicly downplayed the importance of predictions that the Japan-based company will pass GM this year as the world's largest automaker, the Toyota report says the company could face criticism because its U.S. sales are increasing while Detroit's automakers are losing sales and shuttering plants.

Toyota may be the most respected car company in America. Yet to become the biggest-selling carmaker in the U.S., notes BusinessWeek, "it needs to make serious inroads into the heartland, where imports are often considered un-American and the pickup truck rules the road."

Moreover:

The company's relentless expansion is bringing unwanted attention. A series of recalls has hurt Toyota's reputation for quality. Environmentalists complain that the automaker's move into the big-truck market makes it look more and more like the Big Three all the time.

In the internal briefing to other Toyota managers, Sudo cited political and social risks under the heading of "external challenge." According to The Free Press, the report, left unsecured on computers at the company's complex in Georgetown, Kentucky, said Toyota could come under fire for the following:

• Selling vehicles to U.S. customers with high proportions of foreign-made parts. Less than half of all content of Toyota vehicles sold in the United States is made in the United States or Canada.

• Not including enough minority-owned businesses in its supplier base. The Rev. Jesse Jackson, leader of the Rainbow PUSH activist group, has asked Toyota to improve diversity efforts.

• Leaving a vacuum in U.S. communities as GM, Ford, Chrysler and their suppliers shed plants and workers.

Toyota's public image, as well as its ability to operate with few barriers in the U.S., is significant because this is the world's biggest market and a source of huge and profitable growth for Toyota. Its U.S. sales, according to the Detroit paper, rose 12.5 percent last year, and it is expected to have $13 billion in profit this fiscal year.

Toyota passed Ford and the Chrysler Group in global vehicle sales and could pass GM, thanks in large part to its ability to beat Detroit on its home turf. The Camry has been the best-selling car in the U.S. in nine of the past 10 years. Toyota's U.S. market share has doubled since 1996.

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