The ZCCA Historian Compendium
By Daniel Banks

Let’s Meet Mr. K!

Most Datsun and Nissan Z car enthusiasts know that Mr. K and his devoted wife since 1937, Mrs. Masako Katayama, have been honored guests at the Z.C.C.A.'s Annual Convention for many years now. It is not to be missed then, if one is writing a biography entitled "Let's Meet Mr. K" for Z Convention readers that many dedicated enthusiasts have already met Mr. and Mrs. K. But a wonderful thing has happened since our last Convention. The brand new Nissan 350Z has been released for 2003. Few of these cars stay long on dealer's floors and Nissan is on track for 40,000 sales in the first calendar year. We are seeing the birth of a "new generation" of cars and their owners. Not to detract for a moment from enthusiasts who have always owned a Z, have one or two or five of them now, and still found the wherewithal to buy a 350Z for their stable, but some newbie's are not otherwise familiar with the story behind the Z. They may not already know about Mr. and Mrs. K. The fun part of writing a biography is acquainting our new enthusiasts and re-acquainting our old, with the reasons why this particular couple of all people associated with our beloved Z's, are met with such affection and respect.

To understand this, it is important to recognize what the Z car represents for so many who enjoy owning one. After all, including those who bought one used, as a historically cumulative group, Z owners almost certainly number over 3,000,000 people by now! History well records that the original 240Z was conceptually created in the mind of Mr. K. while those who actually styled and engineered the car were associates of Mr. K. at Nissan whom he has identified for us. Mr. K, one of Nissan's earliest executives and a man who presented his own unique and provocative history with the company, arrived in Los Angeles on March 23, 1960. Reportedly given no specific orders or guidance, he was assigned by Nissan to perform west coast marketing research. Believing he could build Nissan's Datsun marque in America into a force to be reckoned with, he went far beyond mere research when Nissan took him up on his claim. Nissan Motors Corporation, USA (NMC USA) was founded on September 28, 1960 and Mr. K was shortly promoted to West Coast Vice President. He rose to become the first President of NMC USA in 1965 and stayed in that position for 10 years. Mr. K came to understand key qualities of character in the American population around him. When finally produced to Mr. K.'s specifications, the first 240Z was a perfect fit for the American market. Almost immediately it began to be sold also in Canada, England, European markets, Australia and Japan itself. It sold well at first, and sales really took off after favorable exposure gained by the first models winning big races and road rallies.

The birth of the Z car and passage of just over three decades of time clarifies understanding Mr. K and his Z contribution. It has to do with the relationship between freedom and the role played by this automobile in supporting our enjoyment of it. Those who identify themselves as citizens of the nations mentioned above, when asked to state qualities of their society most precious to them, invariably include freedom. What our peoples mean by the word freedom is defined by our actions and expressions. We express our freedom through unhindered association with our fellow citizens, and by traveling without artificial walls throughout our lands. The Z car, in its own small way, has represented a tool for enjoying activities that define what we mean when we say freedom is such a cherished value. How precious this freedom is appears in the lengths gone to defend it. We bond through freedom shared. We sustain our sense of shared moral obligation to each other's well being through free association and travel. Yes there are ways and means other than an automobile with which to express our freedom. And, yes, there are other automobiles to do it in, if that is the program of the day. But for those of us attending the 2003 16th Annual Z.C.C.A. International Z Car Convention, we know that this week enjoyed in freedom belongs to the Z car. Mr. K. made this possible. When you see him at the Convention you might walk up to him and express your gratitude for his contribution that began over 40 years ago in America. In bringing us the Z car, he gave us one small way to validate our statement that freedom rules our way of life. Few of us claim any similar contribution, even as the respect and affection shown to Mr. K truly belong equally to all such rare individuals.

The Early Years

Mr. K. was born Yutaka Asoh on September 15, 1909 in a small rural Japanese village at the base of Mount Akiba, mythological home to the God of Fire, in Shizoka Prefecture. He was the second son, an older brother Nobuo, younger brother Suburo and youngest sister Tamiko completing the family. His mother was Satoko Umetani and father Seishi Asoh. The senior Mr. Asoh, Yutaka's father, attended Keio University as would Yutaka. He reportedly so loved the world of business that he never returned to the rural farming community and his father's land holdings, which was to have been his duty as the family's first son. Mr. Asoh had many foreign postings and reportedly took the entire family, very well to do by standards of the day, along with their maids and attendants. His employers included Mitsui Bank, a stint as plant manager at Oji Paper Manufacturing, and in 1915 when Yutaka was 6 years old, a move to Taiwan. Mr. Asoh exhibited his family's heritage of being in love with all new mechanical things, owning such automobiles as an Erskine and Star Durant. Yet it was really his paternal grandfather who finally raised Yutaka until his teenage years. The grandfather was a strict Confucian with vast wealth by the standards of the times and owned a 70 acre estate which included 30 tenant farmers in Saitama Prefecture. Yutaka, having contracted malaria in Taiwan, returned to his grandfather's estate to attend school and stay through 5th grade. He was afforded some of the finest teachers who taught him traditional art and drawing, while also providing insight into sciences. A natural wonderland, he remembers the trips through the countryside to and from elementary and high school each day most fondly and this took him through the middle 1920s.

Yutaka began a preparatory program in an effort to study engineering but did not quite have the required broad interest in science, instead heading to his father's Alma Mater, and the leading economics faculty at Keio University. It was during a summer vacation while preparing for Keio that Yutaka learned from the Osaka Merchant Ship Company that a summer job as ship's clerk and assistant purser was available. The ship, "Londonmaru," departed Japan on July 11, 1929, carrying 20 First Class passengers (along with our young Mr. Asoh) and the all important cargo of raw silk to Victoria and Vancouver, Canada. Sailing up the Puget Sound, the First Class passengers debarked in Seattle and young Yutaka was able to spend time in America while the Londonmaru was loaded with lumber for the return voyage. Some reports indicate he actually spent up to 4 months as a student with many people newly met helping him out of friendship. He was able to drive, variously, a 1928 Studebaker and Dodge truck along the Columbia River highway. He traveled around the Pacific Northwest meeting Americans for the first time and hiking around Mt. Rainier. Of course the times in 1929 were severe and economically depressed. Reportedly Yutaka was never paid the relatively princely sum of $15 (about 30 yen at the time) promised for working that round trip on the Londonmaru. Of far more value is that the trip gave him a sense of self confidence and worldliness. It must have been a grand adventure for a 20 year old!

College Graduation and Employment Gained at Nissan

Upon his return, he pursued his college education and graduated in March 1935 from Keio University. A brief diversion explains what happened next and it concerns the story of Yoshisuke Ayukawa (1880 – 1967), a well connected risk-taking entrepreneur who, as a major figure in the world of early 20th century Japanese business, began a holding company called Nihon Sangyo in March, 1928. Ayukawa funded his various industrial pursuits through capital resources placed in the holding company by investors. In 1933 Nihon Sangyo, which translates as Japan Industries, and whose stock ticker symbol NiSan yields to the more familiar Nissan, had acquired all available shares in a Japanese automobile and truck manufacturer called DAT Automobile Manufacturing. A new factory in Yokohama was under construction to build their cars, called the “Datsun” since 1932. High finance was needed all along by Ayukawa to put this together and one of his most wealthy and powerful financial backers was a man named Fumiko Fujita. Yutaka Katayama is Fumiko Fujita’s nephew and this fact combined with his love of automobiles gained him a letter of employment upon graduation from Keio at Nissan dated April 1, 1935. The first Datsun rolled off the assembly line in Yokohama on April 12, 1935 and Mr. K. was there!

Of course, Japanese auto manufacturing in these early days was quite a struggle. The Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923 centered near Tokyo destroyed much of the public transportation infrastructure. The calamity created an immediate need for individual small trucks and automobiles. Ford shipped many Model T trucks to Japan, and was then joined by General Motors and Chrysler in building transplant factories there. During the period 1925 to 1935 these American transplant factories built 208,967 vehicles (108,509 were Fords, 89,047 were GM, and 11,411 were Chryslers). In result, 98 out of every 100 cars in Japan were American marques by 1930. In comparison, during the same 10 year period all Japanese manufacturers produced only 12,127 cars. Most wealthy Japanese bought American. In consequence, much of Japanese marque production became taxi cabs or practical vehicles such as pickups and trucks, a market in which their manufacturers could find buyers. Upon entering employment at Nissan, the story goes, Mr. K.’s relatives were quite chagrined. An Aunt announced that Yutaka, after all his fine education, had decided to become a taxi driver.

A Fine Honeymoon in the Datsun Roadster of 1937

Ayukawa had been involved in automobiles for quite some time prior to starting up a Datsun factory in Yokohama. Tobata Casting, the factory he founded in 1910, had parts manufacturing contracts for both General Motors and Ford. He envisioned making around 5,000 Datsuns a year when the Yokohama factory opened in 1935, with hopes of building up to 15,000 vehicles a year. It was important to his goals to prove that this could be done. Ayukawa was still a relatively young man who sensed a clear shot at building Japanese cars without other domestic competition. It was said few, if any, of the much older people who ran the three big zaibatsu of Mitsui, Sumitomo, or Mitsubishi even owned an automobile. These zaibatsu could have been Ayukawa’s competitors should they so choose. Yet, roads were bad to non-existent, the capital expenditures needed to build factories for what was a rich man’s object of affection and amusement were intimidating, and the American transplants were building from knock off sets in the 5 figures every year anyway. For a while things looked good at Datsun in the middle 1930s and we have the 1937 story that when Yutaka Asoh wed Masako Katayama and took her family name, he bought a 1937 Datsun Roadster to drive her around the resort areas of Mt. Fuji on their honeymoon. And, yes, even back then the Datsun was affectionately called a “Datto,” which implies the swiftness of a hare in flight. Japanese sensibilities apparently run not to the garish or extravagant in hood ornaments. Rather, see our Compendium cover photograph of an original leaping hare hood ornament on this special Datsun Roadster and visualize a smaller version of the Little Deuce Coupe (the 1932 Ford Coupe with rumble seat shares the look of the Datsun). It had a 722cc 4-cylinder 16HP engine that got 50 miles to the gallon!

The Lost Decade

Sadly, Datsuns were only to be manufactured a few short years before rising militarism, the Sino-Japanese war of 1937, and the Manchukuo campaign began arguing for trucks. Ayukawa was the same age as the young militarists, said to bond well with them, and managed to make Nissan a part of the militarism, for better or worse. The other zaibatsu leadership was reportedly far older. Some of them protested the actions of militarists and were assassinated in consequence. Nissan moved to Manchukuo in 1937 and became Director of the Manchuria Industrial Development Corporation. Mr. K was ordered to report to the Manchurian factory at Hantong in 1939 to be responsible for building materials. He went like many, hoping to peacefully help build “odorakudo,” a Japanese word that means “righteous way paradise.” What he found was anything but harmony among the various peoples. He transferred back to Japan after two years, and refused orders given to him in 1945 to return, crediting that decision with his survival of the war. By that time Nissan’s zaibatsu comprised over 75 different companies, most of which had been involved in war material and many were in shambles. General MacArthur had Ayukawa jailed for 21 months as a war criminal. Charges against him ultimately amounted to only making profit from war materiel and he was cleared as a war criminal and released in August 1947. However, Ayukawa was never allowed back into Nissan.

Opportunities and Events Shape the 1950s

An event in the life of 1950s Nissan would determine much of the course of Japanese automobile industry labor, and strongly bear on Mr. K’s future with the company. It occurred in 1953 in consequence of General MacArthur’s GHQ in Occupied Japan originally sanctioning labor unions and represented a showdown between those seeking a national auto labor union on the UAW model versus what is now called enterprise unions of employees limited only to the single company at which they work. The enterprise union model won the battle and remains the model to this day. A brief examination of the events helps understand Mr. K’s world a half century ago and where he would place himself in it. As we will see, Mr. K consistently crossed swords with the centers of power at Nissan. In one of several chapters detailing Mr. K [David Halberstam, The Reckoning; 1986 William Morrow and Company. See Chapter 16 “The First Victory,” and Chapter 25 “The Liberation of Yutaka Katayama”] Halberstam writes about his relationship to auto unions. “In his perfect world, there would be no unions. Managers would deal with their workers in a traditional, honorable Japanese manner that reflected well on both labor and management and that accorded both sides dignity and honor…” Mr. K remained true to his grandfather’s Confucian heritage. Fulfilling the obligation to work diligently, labor is to be reliably met by management with respect as line employees are inherently treated without abuse, threat, or coercion. Management bears the duty to be alert and responsive to workers needs. All is in harmony. This Confucian model stands in marked contrast to the UAW model for handling the relationship between labor and management. The UAW arose during a time when working conditions were poor. Management, if threatened, became hostile to labor and subverted law to retain dominance. UAW efforts in the 1980s and 1990s to unionize auto labor in Japanese transplant factories of the American south were not successful. During that time the UAW believed the high quality work environments in these factories and favorable wage rate enjoyed by Americans in the Japanese owned transplants came in consequence of the UAW threat waiting just outside the door. Superior productivity was claimed as simply line speed-up, a faulty if standard argument.

The enterprise union alternative that prevails throughout all Japan resulted from the series of labor strikes in 1953 at Nissan. Mr. K was there as a participant. Early on Mr. K vocally opposed the idea of a union, ranking its legalization by MacArthur’s GHQ right up there with women’s suffrage and the imposition of “management consultants” as assaults on core Japanese values (Halberstam; 1986). The 1953 Nissan strike revolves around a 1938 new hire at Nissan who graduated that year from the Tokyo University law faculty named Tetsuo Masuda (1913 – 1964). During the later 1940s and early 1950s Masuda achieved considerable success in gaining wage hikes and organizing workers at auto factories throughout Japan, doing this through the “Zenji” which he ran from 1950 to 1953 (“Zenji” was the All Japan Automobile Industry Labor Union formed in 1947). By 1953, his effort to render Zenji the dominant union at a time when rising deficits, concluding Korean war subsidies, and the carrying of excessive employees argued for constraint, was to run headlong into a final battle with management. To read the various accounts, Masuda was at his zenith. He is portrayed as a charismatic and potent speaker who could win the crowds and was utterly and incorruptibly devoted to the idea of a national union. He possessed the character and personality for extreme verbal conflict and was well on his way to gaining the needed support of all labor. While inherently far leftist, no connection between Masuda and the internationalist communist movements especially feared by management was ever revealed. Nonetheless, the “Nikkeiren” (the labor policy board of Japanese industrialists) strongly opposed union demands. In truth, except for those American orders for jeeps, trucks, and parts contracts associated with the Korean War, Nissan was financially insolvent at this time. They had over 8,000 employees but needed only 6,000. Management had to get the financial situation under control. The key figure in defeating Masuda’s Zenji was a 1947 transferee to Nissan from the Industrial Bank of Japan (IBJ) named Katsuji Kawamata (1905 – 1986), specifically assigned by the IBJ to straighten out Nissan’s finances. His success paved the way to his becoming President of Nissan in 1957, a post he held nearly 20 years. Described as an intimidating, arrogant, and brusque fellow before whom mere office help would bow all the way to the floor, Kawamata arrived at Nissan never having driven a car, buying his first only in 1955. He was extraordinarily astute and attentive when dealing with financial matters though, a fact observed when during discussions of purely automobile related issues at board meetings an apparently sleeping Kawamata would snap alert when conversation changed to finance.

Kawamata quietly arranged a finance package to allow for Nissan’s survival in the event of a long strike and, through the Nikkeiren, he arranged that his two main competitors, Toyota and Isuzu, would not act to grab market share. Then he locked out Masuda while tacitly promoting a fellow named Masaru Miyake who set about establishing an alternate, company sponsored union. Miyake had been a Zero fighter pilot in the war, leaning towards the practical and rational. As Halberstam details, Miyake was authentically opposed to Masuda and the Zenji because he saw it as a denial of freedom both for workers and management otherwise intent on trying to competitively build automobiles. Promoting his company, or enterprise, union as a management backed alternative to labor strife and losing one’s job, Miyake gained ground. Masuda ordered unlimited strikes at Nissan on July 16, 1953. Kawamata locked him out on August 5. The Miyake enterprise union was fully formed by the end of August, had 3000 members by the end of September, and by the end of 1953 the Masuda union movement was over. Masuda had been fired by Nissan on August 20, 1953, and the Zenji was dissolved by 1954.

What is important in all this is that the explicit outcome of the 1953 Nissan strike yielded the labor relationships to management in Japanese automobile industry centered on the enterprise union model to this date. In Japan, each manufacturer has their own company union, as do their parts manufacturers, dealers, and carriers. These company unions join together into a group called a Union Federation centered around the marque. An industry wide confederation, known as the Confederation of Japan Automobile Worker’s (the JAW) “serves as the confederated body for such federations of enterprise-based unions.” (From the www.jaw.or.jp website). Suffice in the limited space here to recognize that Japanese enterprise unions matter and appear to significantly impact on behalf of labor in dealing with management. However, it is likely true that because their individual unions are based within the marques, the Japanese model exhibits behavior inherently different than the American UAW, in no small part evident in reduced aggression in labor actions, salary, and work rules. It is arguable that the greater flexibility offered management by Japanese labor since 1954 has been significant in the rise to global dominance they enjoy today, though the totality of reasons are certainly far more complex.

During the strikes that sporadically shut down Nissan in the later half of 1953, Mr. K was middle level management and broke the Masuda lines to bring food and news to those working inside. Yet after the dust and debris settled he steadfastly refused to join the Miyake union, even when repeatedly asked by Miyake himself. Therein lay the key to the 1953 Nissan strikes and Mr. K’s career. One could not so oppose Kawamata and Miyake and expect to go anywhere at Nissan. Indeed, many who refused were farmed out to lesser Nissan affiliates or took their leave of the company. Even though his friends and associates approached Mr. K saying he should do something good for Katayama for once and join the union, instead of thinking about his convictions and Nissan, he long held off joining. What he saw was a situation where the best assignments went to those well connected in the Miyake enterprise union which spontaneously corrupted promotion in patronage and cronyism. Particularly egregious to Katayama was that union board members became aware of company direction well before middle level managers such as himself, who would presumably be responsible for carrying directives out. Finally and grudgingly, Mr. K joined, but by that time he wasn’t considered very highly in the scheme of things, a situation that thwarted him for the next 20 years.

Mr. K’s Achievements of the 1950s

Despite all this, there were at least three lasting achievements that Mr. K might wish to claim for the decade of the 1950s, his last decade at Nissan in Japan before coming to America. These included the creation of a “People’s Car” called the Flying Feather which fulfilled his lifelong dream to create a car for the common man, and the design of the event logo used at the first Tokyo Motor Show in 1954. Indeed, Mr. K was a major voice behind getting that 1954 show off the ground. Later, he would lead the team of racers driving a pair of Datsun 210’s in the 1958 Mobil Gas endurance race in Australia. Their important success resulted in Mr. K spending a full year touring Japan promoting Datsun.

The times in Japan were harsh during the late 1940s and early 1950s. Remaining devoted to automobiles, Mr. K set about developing an inexpensive car that the average citizen could afford. It has also been said that Mr. K was seeking respite from the rising union ugliness at a foundering Nissan during this time. In an interview given to JapanCar Magazine (unknown date), Mr. K relates having been with a friend overlooking Yokohama Harbor. This must have been late in the 1940s. Watching the seagulls, Mr. K observed how efficient they were in flight and how little they seemed to consume when eating scraps or fish. He wondered if such a concept could apply to an automobile and from this grew the initial drawings for what became the Flying Feather and likely also its name. The friend was Ryuchi Tomiya, an early Nissan employee who was responsible for Datsun interior design. By 1951 one of a number of prototypes of the Flying Feather had been built “in-house” at Nissan. Actually, Nissan had little desire to build such an ultra light car, while “in-house” construction really meant “in” the second floor of a building. Reportedly a window had to be cut to get the finished prototype hoisted out as it would not otherwise fit through the building’s doors or passageways. By 1954 and 1955 a company called Suminoe Engineering Works, which held contracts to build Datsun interiors, actually made 150 to 200 Flying Feathers (reference sources differ as to the total number built) from those original prototypes designed and built to Mr. K’s specifications.

There is an interesting story behind these “People’s Cars” told in a book entitled: “The Origin of Competitive Strength” (Springer Press, 1998) written by Akira Kawahara (1924 - ). Kawahara served in the Automotive Section of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) during the period 1947 – 1957, promoting the auto industry. Then he became employed at Toyota and served a very long career, ending in 1986. In his book, Kawahara provides first hand insights into the success of Toyota and formative events in Japanese auto industry history.

MITI established the People’s Car program and Kawahara claims to have been its creator. He had contact with both Mr. K and Ryuchi Tomiya after their prototype had been built but at the time Tomiya was getting nowhere selling the car to MITI. Kawahara tried to remedy this by writing “A Concept for a New People’s Car,” as an article for the trade magazine, Ryusenkei, in February, 1953. From this start, Kawahara states he went on to promote the idea in various venues, using European trends in cars such as the Volkswagen Beetle, Fiat 500, Renault 4CV and Citroen 2CV in favorable comparison. Finally, in March 1955 he was tasked by MITI to write a “General Plan for Promoting a Car for the People.” Kawahara claims that this plan “helped give shape to the passenger car industry.” The idea was to get manufacturers to compete in designing a car that met various specifications for price, size, engine displacement, carrying capacity, and fuel economy. The successful competitor would find strong MITI support.

In retrospect, the strict design goals likely presented insurmountable challenges and MITI dropped the program. Reception to the MITI plan by manufacturers was strongly negative. What is interesting is that Genshichi Asahara, then President of Nissan, is on record making a statement that appears again and again in automotive literature, but attributed as an identification of mistakes by Big 3 leadership regarding small cars. According to Kawahara, the Nissan president would privately admit that the People’s Car was a good idea, yet in public stated: “Not only is it impossible to build a car at such a low price, but it isn’t even necessary. If someone wants a low-priced car, they can buy a used one” (Kawahara, page 15). From this statement by someone whose company would prove the reverse, perhaps we gain greater insight into why Big 3 leadership failed to promote small passenger cars, leading by the late 1960s to such opportunity for companies like Kawahara’s Toyota, or Kawamata’s Nissan in America. These guys are under a lot of pressure to make something profitable. Japanese management thought strategically yet nonetheless didn’t want to start any farther down the ladder where miniscule profit margins equate in the basic, or “People’s Car,” designs than anyone else. It would become their niche to conquer though and served as foundation for the future.

At the time odds were long against Mr. K’s conviction in a People’s Car. We see in Mr. K’s determined promotion of the Flying Feather another example of this unique auto industry executive at loggerheads with his colleagues for reasons he believed were right. As Kawahara states, it was Nissan’s Genshichi Asahara himself, also then acting as Chairman of the Japan Automobile Manufacturers Association who “filed a formal objection to the plan, and MITI decided that its implementation was premature.” Thus ended support for cars like the Flying Feather. Suminoe Engineering Works, having lost its contract for Datsun interiors, went bankrupt due to the costs of manufacturing Flying Feathers.

The Logo for the First All-Japan (Tokyo) Motor Show

These photos depict Mr. K’s original Tokyo Motor Show event logo. The upper left photograph is the huge rendering at the very first show in 1954. In 1966 the logo appeared on the event lapel pins. You can see Mr. K’s logo to the left of “Tokyo Motor Show.” This was the 15th Show held in 1969 and the 240Z made its debut! (Shows were not always held annually, hence 1966 was 13th, yet 1969 was 15th.)