>it refers to Tokyo’s To such as in Toshiba.

You mean it refers to "east"?

No, it’s an abbreviation of Tokyo.

Even if To means East - in a compound To often stands for Tokyo.

Same concept in these words:

来日 - Nichi means day, here it stands for Japan.

Here’s an article about it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_abbreviated_and_contr...

More examples: Todai (To for Tokyo), Nissan (Ni for Nippon)

There’s a missing “s” in that URL: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Japanese_abbreviated_and_contr...

Does this apply to Toyota as well?

Nah, that's named after a guy called Toyoda.

日本 = Japan

Toshiba is short for Tokyo Shibaura Electric.

But really it's short for The To in Tokyo Electiric, And the Shiba in Shibaura Manufacturing, two companies that were fused together.

source: https://gogen.info/company/electrical-manufacturer/toshiba/