Isao Matsuda
Profile
Performance in office
Tenure
Tenure
Background
He was born in March 1896 to a farming family in Takuma, Sanuki (now Takuma-cho, Mitoyo District, Kagawa Prefecture). He entered Kagawa Prefectural Mitoyo Middle School in 1909, studied at Keio and graduated in 1919. He joined Mitsukoshi soon after, and in the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, when all employees were placed on emergency leave, he was ordered to stay home as a recently hired employee. After serving as deputy manager of the Keijo (Seoul) and Osaka branches, he became Sendai branch manager at New Year 1940, later returned to Keijo as branch manager, and saw the store requisitioned by the US military at the war's end. His career was built on branch management rather than the sales floor.
Selection
Returning from Keijo to the head office at the end of 1945, he offered to resign over the treatment of the Keijo branch staff, but President Eiichiro Iwase refused, promised to take all of them into the head office, and appointed Matsuda deputy manager of the main store. In the postwar Mitsukoshi labor dispute he was, as Representative Director, effectively in charge of labor relations and personnel, and the dispute was settled in 1960. He became a Director in 1947 and President in 1963. He was promoted from a line of practical work: restoring stores and cleaning up labor relations.
Initiatives
After becoming President, he completed the expansion and renovation of the Sendai branch in November 1963, the Shinjuku branch in May 1966 and the Ginza and Takamatsu branches in 1968, finishing the restoration of branches burned in the war and moving on to multi-store expansion. For the 1968 autumn reopening of the Ginza branch he installed Shigeru Okada, then deputy manager of the main store, as branch manager and put fashion for young customers front and center. The same year the company introduced a computer with an OCR unit, mechanizing slip processing. Net sales grew from ¥61.3 billion in the fiscal year ended February 1963 to ¥230.9 billion in the FY ended February 1972.
Career
Career
Mitsukoshi
| Date | Position |
|---|---|
| 1947 | Director |
| 1963 | Representative Director, President |
References 2
References (Japanese primary sources)
- 私の履歴書 経済人14「松田伊三雄」（日本経済新聞社、1980年）
- 会社年鑑（日本経済新聞社）役員欄