Toyota builds – Nissan sells: Nissan must sell headquarters

Nissan is apparently offering its headquarters for sale, according to Automotive News . The 22-story building is located in Tokyo and was built by then-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn in 2009. After Toyota and Honda, Nissan is the third-largest Japanese automaker. Toyota has apparently offered Nissan support and simultaneously announced the construction of its own new headquarters in Tokyo. The financial circumstances of the two manufacturers could hardly be more different.

In 1996, Carlos Ghosn became Executive Vice President of Renault and led the company back to profitability within a year. Renault had also acquired a 44.4 percent stake in Nissan. In 1999, Ghosn joined the Japanese company, which was facing an existential crisis. In 2001, he became CEO of Nissan, successfully restructuring the company. He served as Nissan's CEO until 2019. The Japanese automaker now appears to be experiencing a similar crisis to the one it experienced in the late 1990s.

The decision to put the headquarters up for sale appears to have been made under new Nissan CEO Ivan Espinosa. Espinosa is primarily forced to get Nissan's operating costs under control. A purchase price of $650 million (currently equivalent to approximately €573 million) is being discussed for the headquarters. However, this sum would only be sufficient to relieve pressure on Nissan for a short time. After all, the manufacturer incurred its second-largest loss in the past 25 years, at $4.3 billion (€3.8 billion), in the fourth quarter of 2025.

Nissan is therefore intensively searching for further cost-cutting opportunities. Rumor has it that company officials are not ruling out the closure of three domestic factories and a downsizing of the assembly and testing facility in Tochigi. Nissan itself points out that it is exploring all options for improving business performance – however, company officials have not confirmed or denied the current rumors.

Toyota apparently doesn't want to simply buy the Nissan headquarters and slap a new logo on it. Japan's largest automaker will begin construction of a new headquarters in Tokyo on May 31, 2025. The building will be located in the west exit of the busy Shinagawa Station and is scheduled for completion in 2023. Toyota itself is no longer describing itself as a car manufacturer in connection with the new building, but rather sees itself in the process of transforming into a mobility company.