How a Poor Japanese Boy Created Nissan

[Music] nissan undoubtedly enjoys significant praise and demand from multiple population segments for a long time the company has stood neck and neck with toyota to fight for the trust of the mass market how did it get there find out now masajiro hashimoto was born in 1875 not long after the restoration of the emperor of japan to the throne with a call for rapid industrialization to forcefully bring japan out of its middle ages technological level and surpass the advanced industrialized nations of the west masajiro was born right in a time to be a student interested in engineering not much is known about his early studenthood or his family but he graduated in mechanical engineering from the tokyo institute of technology he entered service as a government employee from then on namely with the ministry of agriculture and commerce where he was likely tasked with the development and management of tractors he was sent by the ministry of the united states for further studies in engineering he spent three years working for a steam engine manufacturer in new york he worked in electrical engineering the production of machine guns and the design of coal mining equipment after moving back to japan one more thing he had the fortune to look at was the automobile and it seems he was hooked as it did not take long for him to gather the funds necessary to establish his own company on july 1st 1911 in tokyo's abazu hiro neighborhood the kwai shinsha motor car works was established the first car's design was started right away that car was known as the d. a. t and it was one of the earliest indigenously made japanese cars in 1918 it was changed to kashinsha motorcar company limited and in 1925 it was renamed once more to d80 jidosha and company limited dat motor car company besides producing passenger cars like the d80 and datsun dat motors also produced trucks due to a nearly non-existent consumer market for passenger cars at the time and disaster relief efforts following the 1923 great kanto earthquake the company produced a significant amount of trucks and the first dat trucks were created for the military market in 1918.

it took dat until 1931 to release a new smaller car known as the datsun type 11 the first datsun which means son of dat owing to its smaller stature the holding company nihan sangyo was founded by yoshisuke ikawa in 1928. the term nissan first appeared in the 1930s as an acronym for nihon senyo on the tokyo stock exchange nissan owned foundries and auto parts companies at the time and this business was a family controlled zebatsu ikawa didn't start making cars until he bought dat motors in 1933 because masujiro hashimoto thought it was wise to sell to such a strong organization thus nissan motor company was founded and it took over the existing technology even keeping the dots a name for some models its yokohama plant's construction was finished in 1935 the yokohama plant produced the first vehicle using an integrated assembly system in 1935. nissan built trucks planes and engines for the imperial japanese army when hostilities between the empire of japan and the republic of china were sparked nissan relocated its corporate headquarters to xing king the capital of the then puppet states of manchuria in november 1937 the company changed its name to manchuria heavy industries development company in december mhid this occurred because the japanese military government began forcefully exerting control over many zebatsus and other companies of the time taking a page from the economics of the national socialists in germany indeed the company would be forced to produce equipment for the armed forces of imperial japan until the end of world war ii the company was only able to resume building cars after the u.

s occupation of japan had rescinded the ban on automobile manufacturing in 1949 this decision was wise as nissan grew to become a major vehicle manufacturer for the us army during the korean war on the other hand significant levels of anti-communist sentiment existed in japan following the end of the korean war nissan's workforce was organized by a powerful and militant union and the company was having financial issues so when it came time for wage negotiations the company adopted a tough stance several hundred workers were fired as a result of the lockout shioji ichiro served as one of the union's leaders as it was established ishiro received a scholarship from the american government to attend harvard university he put forth the idea of saving two thousand jobs in exchange for wage reductions ichiro's suggestion was incorporated into a new labor agreement that placed a focus on productivity the company's initial perceived defeat quickly turned into its greatest strength paving the way for the quick development of cars with designs licensed from british automaker austin which helped the company stay afloat nissan used the austin patents to create more advanced versions of its own contemporary engine designs than what they could originally provide nissan's new highly advanced four-cylinder overhead cam ohc nissan l engine which was unmistakably a nissan creation was unveiled in 1967. nissan gained respect in the global sedan market thanks to the new datsun 510 which was powered by this engine this was quickly followed up with the nissan 240z a six-cylinder sports car with a striking design the 24-0z caused an instant sensation and propelled nissan to the top of the automotive world nissan and the prince motor company merged in 1966 expanding nissan's line of upscale vehicles to include the skyline and gloria the nissan name soon replaced the prince name on succeeding skylines and gloria's nissan prince shop a nissan dealership in japan used the word prince later generations of the skyline would go on to earn wide acclaim as one of the best sports cars of all time following the 1973 oil crisis buyers began gravitating towards premium small economy cars all over the world but especially in the lucrative u. s market the company constructed new factories in mexico australia new zealand taiwan the united states and south africa to satisfy the rising demand for the new nissan sunny nissan had long been the most popular japanese brand in europe by the early 1980s nissan considered building a plant in europe to get around export tariffs and delivery fees to its customers in europe nissan made an effort to turn the greek plant into a single facility that produced vehicles for all of europe in the end the company chose the uk specifically the english city of sunderland they would go on to build quality sports cars such as the 300 zx newer generations of the skyline the 240sx and silvia all of these cars would be well received as icons of the up-and-coming tuner car culture co-starring with its competitors from toyota and mitsubishi these were very good cars offering thrilling performance at affordable costs [Music] nissan established a factory in brazil to usher in the 21st century through its subsidiary nissan motor india private limited nissan expanded operations into india in 2005.

the company invested 990 million dollars in chennai to build a manufacturing facility that served the indian market as well as serve as a hub for small car exports to europe along with its global alliance partner renault but it had entered the 2000s as an ailing company that had to do a merger with the french automotive giant renault to survive and have renault executive carlos gohn as its ceo from 2001 nissan has recovered under ceo gone's nissan revival plan nrp which many prominent economists consider to be one of the most spectacular corporate turnarounds in history nissan has achieved record profits under the nrp and both its nissan and infinity model lineups have been dramatically revitalized for the company's turnaround in the midst of a faltering japanese economy gone had received rapturous praise in japan japanese manga and popular culture frequently featured gon and the nissan turnaround it got to the point where the japanese government recognized his contributions to revitalizing nissan and gave him the japan medal with blue ribbon in 2004 it was during this time that nissan would produce its most well respected and beloved performance car yet the nissan gtr but the good times were not to last gone announced in february 2017 that he would leave his position as ceo of nissan on april 1 2017 but would continue to serve as the company's chairman he was succeeded as ceo by hiroto-sakawa his previous assistant following his arrest for allegedly under-reporting his income to japanese financial authorities on november 19 2018 gone was ousted as chairman gone was detained for 108 days before being released on bail however after 29 days he was back in custody on fresh charges instead of holding his scheduled news conference gone's attorneys released a video of him making the claim that the 2018-19 nissan scandal is independent proof of value destruction and corporate mismanagement on the part of nissan facing near certain imprisonment due to japan's extreme judicial system carlos gone enlisted the help of a former u. s special forces operative and smuggled himself out of japan in a cargo container to lebanon where he holds a passport to this day he fiercely maintains his innocence and his solid reputation from years of work at renault michelin and autovez alongside shady particulars of the way large japanese companies think and conduct business he does admittedly have a solid case but anyway he was out of nissan for good and of course the entire scandal deeply hurt sales figures nissan announced at the end of july 2019 that it would fire twelve thousand five hundred workers over the following three years due to a ninety five percent decline in net income from the previous year then ceo hiroto saikawa confirmed that the majority of those layoffs would affect plant employees nissan later announced in may 2020 that it would reduce its production capacity by 20 as a result of the kova 19 pandemic the company made the announcement that it would stop producing cars in south korea in closed factories in indonesia and spain in the middle of 2020 over this time a 421 million loss was reported under the leadership of makoto yoshida now nissan has reorganized on selling workhorse models such as the leaf tilda micra and sunny alongside this the company has also brought back the z nameplate for a spectacular new sports car by 2030 nissan claims that it will have developed 23 new electric vehicles 15 of which will be all electric by the end of the decade the company wants its nissan and infinity brands to have a 50 electrification mix nissan intends to move more slowly in the us with an ev sales share goal of just 40 by 2040.