Genshichi Asahara
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
In 1931 he joined Tobata Imono, the predecessor of Nissan. He became President in 1942 and stepped down in 1944, so his appointment in 1951 was his second presidency at the company. A career engineer who had seen everything from the prewar founding years through the wartime conversion to military production and the postwar requisition, he was entrusted by Nissan with postwar reconstruction without bringing anyone in from outside.
Selection
In 1951 he succeeded Taichi Minoura as President. The company had only just listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange that January, its plants were still requisitioned by the U.S. military, and production was stagnant amid extreme shortages of materials and food. Since the first postwar Datsun rolled off the line at the Yoshiwara plant in August 1947, restoring mass production had remained an unfinished task. Returning an engineer to the presidency appears to have resulted from looking inside the company for someone to rebuild production itself.
Initiatives
In December 1952 the company concluded a technical alliance with Britain's Austin. The approach progressed from assembling parts to domestic production, and the technology accumulated there later underpinned in-house development. In 1953 a labor dispute broke out over wage demands, and the company granted the union authority extending to plant management, productivity improvement and rationalization. After this concession, labor-management relations became so cooperative that they were described as "collusive." Most of the requisitioned plants were released in 1955, and net sales grew from ¥14.2 billion in the fiscal year ended March 1955 to ¥30.9 billion in FY ended March 1957.
Career
Career
RIKEN
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| Chief, Researcher |
Nissan Motor
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| 1931 | 戸畑鋳物に入社（1933年に日産自動車へ） (translation pending) |
| 1942 | President |
| 1944 | Stepped down as President |
| 1951 | President |
| Nov 1957 | Stepped down as President |
| Nov 1957 | Stepped down as President |