Premise: The city retains its spotless streets, immaculate shops and nonexistent crime rate. Since the slowdown, only one manufacturing company has gone bankrupt, says the city's Chamber of Commerce and Industry, because Toyota spread out orders among many of the more than 400 auto parts factories in the city, to keep them afloat through hard times. Nonetheless, Toyota's downturn has rippled through the city's economy, idling many smaller auto-related suppliers, which also cut payrolls, mainly by refusing to renew the contracts of short-term workers. After losing their jobs, many of the city's 16,400 foreign residents, mostly ethnic Japanese from Brazil and Latin America, packed up and left, residents and city officials said.
Hypothesis: Toyota's is the town's market driver.