Kaishinsha

Kaishinsha ( Japanese 快 進 社 English Kwaishinsha ) was Japan's first domestic automobile manufacturer and the predecessor of Datsun .

History up to the founding of Nissan in 1934

• On July 1, 1911, the 37-year-old technician Hashimoto Masujirō Kaishinsha Jidōsha Kōjō ( 快 進 社 自 働 車 工場 , "Kaishinsha-Automobilwerk", English Kaishinsha Motorcar Works ) founded his own plant in the Azabu-Hiroo district in Shibuya in the Toyotama district ( later: Tokyo , today: Shibuya ), Tokyo . The brother of the then Prime Minister, a diplomat at the time, was one of the proponents and promoters of Hashimoto and introduced him to the businessmen Den Kenjirō ( 田 健 次郎 ), Aoyama Rokurō ( 青山 禄 朗 ) and Takeuchi Meitarō ( 竹 内 明 太郎 ). These provided the financial basis for the construction and operation of the plant.
• In 1914, Hashimoto presented a 3-seater roadster with a 2-cylinder petrol engine and 10 hp at the Tokyo Taisho Expo . This reached a top speed of 32 km / h. The vehicle was named DAT after the last names of the company's financiers. The DAT was the first car from domestic automobile production, including the engine.
• In 1918, a larger plant was built in Nagasaki in North Toshima County (later: Tokyo , today: Toshima ), Tokyo , and Kaishinsha Motorcar Works became the joint stock company KK Kaishinsha ( 株式会社 快 進 社 Kabushiki kaisha Kaishinsha ) with ¥ 600,000 yen share capital. The new DAT 41 model was produced here. This roadster and sedan had a 4-cylinder petrol engine with 15 hp and started electrically instead of with a hand crank. At the same time, due to the decreasing demand for passenger cars, trucks (trucks or pickups) based on the DAT 41 were produced, which were mainly ordered by the Japanese military.
• 1923 was due to the global recession after the First World War and after the Kanto Earthquake a capital reduction to 60,000 yen.
• In 1926 there was a merger between KK Kaishinsha and the Osaka- based Jitsuyō Jidōsha Seizō KK (English Jitsuyo Jidosha Co., Ltd. or Jitsuyo Motors , which was founded in 1919 as a subsidiary of Kubota ).

The common name was now DAT Jidōsha Seizō KK ( ダ ッ ト 自動 車 製造 株式会社 , English DAT Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd. ) based in Osaka. Jitsuyō Jidōsha had begun in 1920 with the production of a three-wheeled vehicle with a closed cabin, which was developed by William R. Gorham . From 1923 to 1925 Jitsuyō Jidōsha had also produced cars and trucks under the name Lila.

• In 1930, the Japanese government issued a ministerial ordinance that allowed cars with engines up to 500 cm³ to be driven without a license . As a result, DAT Jidōsha Seizō began developing a passenger car with a 495 cm³ engine in order to sell it in the new market segment under the project name "Son of DAT", which eventually became the name Datson . The name Datson was based on English and should mean "son of DAT", since DAT has only produced luxury and larger vehicles so far. The first prototype Datson was completed in the summer of 1930 and the production vehicle was called the Datson 10 . Unfortunately, “son” in Japanese also stands for “disadvantage” or “loss” in some dialects and one feared a bad omen. This happened in 1931 when a typhoon destroyed the factory where the Datson 10 was assembled. After the rebuilding of the plant, it was decided to rename the plant to Datsun , whereby “sun” comes from English and is an allusion to Japan as the land of the rising sun. The model series was revised and came on the market as Datsun 11 .
• In the same year, Aikawa Yoshisukes took over the automotive supplier Tobata Imono KK , headquartered in Tobata in the Onga district (today: Kitakyūshū ) in Fukuoka , which has also supplied DAT so far, the DAT Jidōsha Seizō .
• In 1928 the company holding company Nihon Sangyō was created, whose shares were listed on the Japanese stock exchange under the symbol Ni-San . The owner was Yoshisuke Aikawa who also owned the Tobata Imono company.
• In 1933 came the merger between Tobata Imono and Nihon Sangyo and on 26 December, the company was under the name Jidosha Seizo KK ( 自動車製造株式会社 , which can be roughly translated as with automobile manufacturers), with a capital of 10 million yen new founded. Datsun was to produce vehicles for mass demand in the future, while the upper-priced segment was to be served under a new brand name.
• In 1934, Jidōsha Seizō was renamed to the still valid name Nissan Jidōsha KK

Web links

• Ascent of Hashimoto. Japan Automobile Hall of Fame
• History of Nissan
• Pictures and history of the Lila and DAT models
• Miki Shop Datsun

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Datsun on Motor-Klassik ( Memento of the original from August 26, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ The Complete Encyclopedia of Motor Vehicles 1885 to the Present . Edited by GN Georgano 1968, EP Dutton and Company; New York, NY
3. ↑ Decree of the Japanese government 1930 (PDF)
4. ↑ Datson 1931 ( Memento of the original from January 6, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 

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