Taizo Hachiya
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
Born in Hiroshima Prefecture in 1906, he graduated from the Faculty of Engineering at Osaka Imperial University in 1932, joined Yura Senryo, and moved to Osame Sulfuric Acid in 1935. As head of that company's research laboratory he paved the way for commercializing phthalic anhydride through the air oxidation of naphthalene, spinning it off in August 1941 as Osame Gosei Kagaku Kogyo with capital of ¥180,000. He became Director and Plant Manager at its founding, Managing Director in 1943, and earned a doctorate in engineering in 1948. His path took him straight from catalyst research into running the business.
Selection
In 1949 Gohei Osame, who had founded Osame Sulfuric Acid, stepped down and Taizo Hachiya became President. In April of that year the company changed its name to Nippon Shokubai Kagaku Kogyo. In the five years before he took office, a plant explosion at the Suita Plant in March 1944 had killed workers, and in June 1945 an air raid destroyed the head office, which moved to Suita. The change came after the company nonetheless chose to rebuild rather than withdraw, and the top post appears to have passed from the side that supplied capital to the side that supplied technology.
Initiatives
In November 1952, demand for PVC uses shrank and the company fell into a half-year loss, getting through its cash crunch with a capital injection from Fuji Iron & Steel, which supplied its naphthalene feedstock. In June 1959 it invested ¥980 million, more than twice its capital of ¥480 million, to join Nippon Petrochemicals' Kawasaki complex and began producing ethylene oxide. It built the Himeji Plant in October 1960 and the Kawasaki No. 2 Plant in March 1967, leaving a path to extend the vapor-phase oxidation catalyst technology honed on phthalic anhydride to acrylic acid. He died suddenly in office in March 1970.
Career
Career
Osame Sulfuric Acid Industries
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| 1937 | 附属研究所長 (translation pending) |
Nippon Shokubai
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| Apr 1949 | President |
| Apr 1970 | Stepped down as President |