Nissan Started With Attitude
Born in 1880, Nissan’s founder Yoshisuke Aikawa’s core belief was: “Dare to do what others don’t.” This daring mindset became Nissan’s DNA. But what actually created this way of thinking was an exciting tale of disguise, near-death and determination. And this was just the start… literally.
Episode one of the #TransformationTuesday series from Nissan Asia & Oceania, aims to bring to life Nissan’s most bold and disruptive historical moments that you may not know.
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About Yoshisuke Aikawa
Yoshisuke Aikawa (1880-1967) the founder of Nissan Motor, was one of the greatest businessmen of the Showa Period (1926-1989) in Japan. He was born in Oouchi village (now the city of Yamaguchi) in Yamaguchi Prefecture on November 6, 1880. He was a true blue blood: His father was the 10th head of the Aikawa Family, a local lord serving the Choshu clan, and his mother was a niece of Kaoru Inoue, a central figure in the powerful Choshu clan.
A member of a powerful family with unrivalled influence in the business world, Aikawa could have chosen anything he fancied for his profession, but while attending a graduate course, he decided to work as a mechanic, receiving a mere 45 pennies a day at Shibaura Seisakusho (now Toshiba). Where he labored without revealing his identity and his academic background.
His determination to go into manufacturing started when he became almost fatally ill while at university. Which formed his desire to engage in work that gave him a sense of being alive and eventually led him to work in manufacturing. There is no doubt that knowing the manufacturing site inside out was a contributing factor to the later success of his production operations. He was also revered for his choice to live a Spartan life, which can be seen from his photographs, with the cropped hair that he wore all his life, much like a samurai.
Later Aikawa went to the U.S. where he secured a job as a mechanic at a malleable cast iron factory belonging to the Gould Coupler Co., working for over a year to learn technologies and techniques.
Curiously enough, that was the year that General Motors was founded. Having encountered the automobile industry, which was unknown territory, Aikawa felt that it had unlimited potential. He chose to return to Japan and founded several companies and purchased others. He started to be recognized by the industry and society for his ability as a dynamic young businessman.
Working in U.S. as a mechanic
Aikawa was quick to become convinced of the future possibilities of cars and the automobile industry, while he insisted that Japan needed to produce superior cars.
In the early 1930s, Aikawa judged that the time was right and organized the establishment of Jidosha Seizou KK in Yokohama on December 26, 1933, founded jointly by Nihon Sangyo. At the first shareholders' meeting, held on May 30, 1934, Jidosha Seizou KK was renamed the Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. as it became a wholly owned subsidiary of Nihon Sangyo. This was the birth of Nissan Motor in both name and reality.
Annual production volume was only 202 units in 1933 when the production facility was located in Osaka, but it jumped to 940 units in 1934 when it moved to Yokohama. In 1935, when a 70-meter conveyor line was completed, integrated manufacturing of the chassis and body started, thanks to which annual production reached 3,800 units. Output increased to 6,163 units in 1936 and 10,227 units in 1937, making Nissan the largest car producer in Asian countries among companies financed with Japanese capital. Nissan also started exporting cars, although the volume was still small.
In this way, Aikawa's ambitious dream came true, and the groundwork was laid for Nissan to make a leap onto the world stage.
Not content with being born into a distinguished family and the positions that his background opened up to him, Yoshisuke Aikawa labored on the front lines of a production site as a mere factory mechanic and worked hard to acquire technical skills. He also devoted himself to the future of the Japanese car industry. Not only as the founder of Nissan Motor but also as a great figure who wrote an important page in the history of the Japanese automobile industry, Yoshisuke Aikawa stands out as one of Japan's greatest men.
Based off the article by Shizuo Takashima