Toyoroku Ando

Profile
Tenure
1948 – 1965
Years in office
17.0 years
Name in Japanese
安藤豊禄
Title at appointment
President
Performance in office
Tenure

Tenure

Background

He was born in 1897 in Shigeoka village, Ono district, Oita Prefecture, where his father Hideyoshi served as village head. After graduating from the Department of Applied Chemistry, Faculty of Engineering, Tokyo Imperial University, he joined Onoda Cement and was posted to its Pyongyang branch in Korea. He studied in Germany at the Technical University of Berlin, and on his return installed a new Swiss-made kiln when building the No. 3 plant. He spent 25 years in Korea and was detained there after the war ended.

Education: Tokyo Imperial University, Faculty of Engineering, Applied Chemistry (now University of Tokyo, Faculty of Engineering) (1921)

Selection

He was repatriated to Maizuru on July 3, 1947, and that September returned to Onoda after receiving a telegram saying, "You won't be purged, so please come back." Nearly all the profitable plants had been lost, more than 1,000 employees had returned from overseas, and the remaining plants were running at only a fraction of capacity. Under a promise made with President Kano in spring 1945, Ando was to have been put forward as President, but on Kano's advice that "becoming President now risks drawing the U.S. military's scrutiny," he was appointed Senior Managing Director and Representative Director at the board meeting of November 1, 1947. The presidency was left vacant.

Initiatives

Drawing on his experience in Korea, he judged that the Korean War, which began in June 1950, would last two or three years, and moved ahead with expanding and upgrading plants. After inspecting the Tsunemi and Yawata plants in northern Kyushu, which had been slated for closure, he declared they would stay open and reversed the decision. In August 1951 he moved head office operations to the Tekko Building in Marunouchi, Tokyo, making it the de facto Tokyo headquarters, and bought 4,000 tsubo of former U.S. Far East Air Forces land in Harumi as a sales base. Under the GHQ deconcentration measures, the cement business escaped being broken up.

Career

Career

Taiheiyo Cement

Date Position
1948 President
1965 Stepped down as President
References 1

References (Japanese primary sources)