Ōkouchi Masatoshi

Ōkouchi Masatoshi

Ōkouchi Masatoshi ( Japanese 大 河内 正 敏 ; born December 6, 1878 in Tōkyō ; died August 29, 1952 there ) was a Japanese scientist and entrepreneur.

Live and act

Ōkouchi Masatoshi was born as the son of the last Prince residing at Yoshida Castle ( Mikawa Province ) in Tōkyō. He graduated from Tōkyō University in 1903 . He became a member of his faculty and continued his education in Germany and Austria from 1908 to 1911. After his return he became a professor. In 1914 he received his doctorate in natural science. During that time he turned to politics and in 1918 was elected to the upper house of parliament.

Ōkouchi was a co-founder of the Institute for Physical and Chemical Research (理 化学 研究所, Rikagaku kenkyūjo), Riken for short. He worked as its director from 1921 to 1946. In 1927 he founded the "Riken Industries" (理 化学 興業 株式会社, Rikagaku kōgyō kabushiki kaisha), a commercial offshoot to market the research results. Supported by military orders, the company expanded into the metal, mechanical engineering and chemical sectors in the 1930s. By 1945 the facility had grown into a group of more than 60 companies. In 1942 Ōkouchi gave up the presidency of the Riken and took over the management of the "Industrial Machinery Control Association". He also acted as an advisor to the government on the award of production contracts.

After the end of the Pacific War , Ōkouchi was closed from all public offices until 1951.

Ōkouchi is best known for organizing the "science industry". In order to modernize Japanese industry, he advocated further technical training, creative corporate management and the rapid application of research results from physics and chemistry. His publications include “General Theory of Industrial Management” (工業 経 営 総 論, Kōgyō keie sōron) from 1936, “Japan, the land that can” (持 て る 国 日本, Moteru kuni Nihon), 1939 and “Schmecken” (味 覚, Mikaku) 1947.

literature

• S. Noma (Ed.): Ōkōchi Masatoshi . In: Japan. An Illustrated Encyclopedia. Kodansha, 1993. ISBN 4-06-205938-X , p. 1143.

Web links

Commons : Masatoshi Ōkōchi  - collection of images, videos and audio files

• Biographies Ōkōchi Masatoshi in the Kotobank, Japanese

Japanese name: As is common in Japan, the family name comes before the first name in this article . Thus Ōkōchi is the family name, Masatoshi the first name.