How Exactly Does Toyota Put People on the Balance Sheet as Assets?

Toyota executives are heard to say that “we put people on the balance sheet as assets” but I had taken this figuratively not literally (philosophy rather than accounting practice). At the moment I have no concrete evidence that Toyota puts people on the asset column of their balance sheet. Toyota’s consolidated financial statements are not a great help in this area.
Assets are listed on page 7 as:
– Cash and cash equivalents
– Time deposits
– Marketable securities
– Trade accounts and notes receivable…
– Finance receivables, net
– Other receivables
– Inventories
– Deferred income taxes
– Prepaid expenses and other current assets
– Noncurrent finance receivables, net
– Investments and other assets
– Land
– Buildings
– Machinery and equipment
– Vehicles and equipment on operating leases
– Construction in process
There is no mention of “people” unless it is hidden under “Investments and other assets” which is very possible. These statements are prepared “in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America” also known as GAAP (Generally Accepted Accounting Practices).
GAAP doesn’t do a very good job of showing how assets create wealth today. More and more intangible assets and “intellectual capital” such as patents, copyrights, brand names, and human resources are creating wealth but these are seldom reported as assets. The ability of people to generate wealth by making new things (innovation) and making existing things more effective (kaizen) is certainly worth measuring more accurately.
Perhaps Toyota has their own internal balance sheet to account for their people assets. Now that there seems to be increasing interest on the question of how to put people on the balance sheet as assets, we will do some research into how Toyota does this and report back what we find.

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