Yoshinari Kawai
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
He was born in Toyama Prefecture in 1886. He graduated from the political science department of Tokyo Imperial University in July 1911 and became an official of the Ministry of Agriculture and Commerce that year. He served as a lecturer at Tokyo Imperial University from August 1920, Senior Managing Director of Nikka Life Insurance from January 1931 and deputy mayor of Tokyo City in 1942, then Vice Minister of Agriculture and Forestry in 1945 and, in 1946, a member of the House of Peers and Minister of Health and Welfare. His career lay not on the machinery shop floor but in government and insurance finance; his tie to Komatsu was that, as an agriculture ministry official, he had encouraged it to build farm tractors.
Selection
In July 1947, following an occupation forces order halting gasoline supplies, the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry cancelled all its informal tractor orders, wiping out the mainstay product that made up over 60% of total output. The labor dispute grew into a hundred-day struggle spoken of alongside Toho's as "Toho in the east, Komatsu in the west." Feeling a moral responsibility for having encouraged the tractor production as a ministry official, Yoshinari Kawai, at the urging of Chairman Chikara Nakamura, secured the prospect of a ¥30 million loan from the Reconstruction Finance Bank and settled the dispute. He initially declined, citing his lack of experience in heavy industry, but accepted after a request from the bank as well, and became president at an extraordinary shareholders' meeting on December 23, 1947.
Initiatives
After taking office he pushed through a workforce reduction of about 700 people, and in May 1949 listed the company's shares on the Tokyo and Osaka stock exchanges. From that same year the company ramped up production of artillery shells for the U.S. military, and in October 1952 it opened the Osaka Plant on the former Hirakata Works of the Osaka Army Arsenal acquired from the government. Shells swelled to 72% of sales, but when special procurement demand dwindled after the Korean War armistice, the Osaka Plant was fully converted to bulldozer production in May 1956. In August 1961 he set up the Maru-A Countermeasures Headquarters to prepare for capital liberalization and Caterpillar's arrival, and in July 1964 handed the presidency to Ryoichi Kawai and became chairman.
Career
Career
Komatsu
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| 1947 | President |
| Jul 1964 | Stepped down as President |
| 1964 | Chairman |
References 3
References (Japanese primary sources)
- 日本企業要覧 1963年版
- 小松製作所五十年の歩み : 略史（小松製作所, 1971年）
- 経済春秋社『企業の歴史 : 明治百年』「コマツ」（経済春秋社, 1968年）