With the kind correction of Mr Akira Takizawa (Taki)

History :

Japan’s entry into modernity came later than in Western countries, following the Meiji restoration in November 1867. Until 1867, the Tokugawa Shogunate ruled the country by a feudal system controlled by the Samurai. The forced opening of Japan abroad allowed Western influences to slowly penetrate the country and created a separation between the Samurai attached to ancient traditions and those who wanted an evolution towards the opening of the country and the end of the Shogunate system. The emperor then appeared as an alternative and following many conflicts, the Shogun Tokugawa Yoshinobu resigned on November 19, 1867 to return power to Emperor Meiji (called Mutsuhito during his lifetime) who was then only 16 years old. After some final fights, the victorious emperor settled in Edo then renamed Tokyo (City of the East) in 1869.

Japan then caught up in an accelerated manner in the commercial, industrial and financial fields in particular. The Samurai having lost their former privileges but also having received an above-average education were looking for other forms of development, it was in these sectors that they found a form of revenge. The rapid development brought the concentration of power in conglomerates called Zaibatsu. These monopolies (four at the start: Sumitomo, Mitsui, Mitsubishi, Yasuda) controlled vertically by a family, based on a bank which financed industrial subsidiaries had close ties with the power and could greatly influence the policy of Japan. Without industrial or technological experience, these large groups turned to Western countries to acquire equipment, technology and therefore experience. It was essentially England and the United States which were its principal suppliers. Fond of western novelties (fashion, cinema, rail, tram, bicycle, etc.), Japan had already imported more than a thousand cars in 1910, despite some local attempts that were doomed to fail (Yamawa Torao engineers (steam car, 1904), Yoshida Shintaro and Uchiyama Comano (10 Takuri cars, 1907-1910) and Masujiro Hashimoto (Haysin Xia, 1911).

At the turn of the century, Japan’s foreign policy became expansionary, and victories succeeded one another: the first Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) gave it control of Korea, the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905) brought it part of Manchuria, and also led to an early awareness of the usefulness of motorization for the army with the creation of a committee for the evaluation of military vehicles. The signing on June 25, 1912 in St Petersburg of a secret Russo-Japanese convention divided Inner Mongolia into two zones of influence: Eastern (Japanese) and Western (Russian). Exploitation of this immense territory without modern communication routes will also speed up the process. Finally, it was the First World War which amplified the phenomenon by showing the absolute necessity for an army to be motorized. It was then that the Zaibatsu began investing in the automotive industry.

The Japanese motorization originated from the firm Tokyo Ishikawajima Shipbuilding & Engineering Co., Ltd., created in 1889, for shipbuilding, and the firm Tokyo Gas and Electric Industrial Co. created in 1885 for the production of gas and electricity.

Tokyo Ishikawajima Shipbuilding & Engineering Co., Ltd.:

In 1916, Ishikawajima started research on automobile to enter the automobile maufacturing and built a factory in Tokyo.

In 1917, after comparing with Fiat, Ishikawajima started a collaboration with the British firm Wolseley and the factory received spare parts from England to assemble the first cars.

In 1918, an agreement was made with Wolseley Motors to market the brand’s models in East Asia. Indeed, Japanese engineers were largely trained in England, Wolseley was one of the main English automobile companies and a Wolseley branch was already opened in 1916 in Canada geographically close to Japan. After a few years everything was ready to start production.

In 1922, the factory produced the first car entirely manufactured in Japan called A9 mainly for the Imperial Japanese Army (IJA).

In 1924 the first Wolseley type CP 1.5t truck was produced under the Japanese name type A. Equipped with a 4 cyl. CP type 3,1 l. , 26 hp gasoline engine, the truck was qualified as a military protection vehicle after the military vehicle subsidy law to counter the offensive of foreign automobile brands during the reconstruction period after the Great Kanto Earthquake.

The difficult collaboration between Ishikawajima and Wolseley due to the end of the First World War and the ensuing economic difficulties in Europe were offset by military and civil demand: indeed, on September 1, 1923, a terrible earthquake and associated tsunami occurred which left 174,000 dead and 542,000 missing. The rail network largely destroyed, a stimulus program allowed the accelerated increase in automobile production. In 1925, Ford (Yokohama) and General Motors (Chevrolet in Osaka) also produced vehicles in Japan. To give an idea of ​​Japanese automobile production, from 1926 to 1927, the production of Japanese cars in the Tokyo factory went from 245 to 302 cars, while the Ford and GM factories produced 7,000 and 5,600 cars, respectively. In 1928, Type A trucks remained the only mass produced and locally produced trucks … with an annual production of only one hundred.

In 1927, Ishikawajima stopped the collaboration with Wolseley after 550 vehicles built and began manufacturing purely domestic cars under the name Sumida. The name was chosen through a public competition after the river which flows near the factory. In 1928, the Sumida 1,5 ton type L truck was the first produced, followed by The Sumida 1 ton, type M No.1 bus equipped with a japanese A4 gasoline engine and later the Sumida 2 ton, type P truck equipped with a japanese A6 gasoline engine.

in 1929, the Ishikawajima automobile branch took its independance through a new firm: Ishikawajima Automobile manufacturing Co., Ltd. also called Ishkawajima Automobile works.

Tokyo Gas and Electric Industrial Co.:

Created in 1885 as tokyo Gas Industry and originally involved in Gas industry and appliances, it was renammed Tokyo Gas Electric Industry in 1913 after manufacturing electric appliances. In 1917, for tests with the army, TGE produced five 4-ton army-type trucks ordered by the Osaka arsenal. With a 24 km / h speed, 30 hp, 4 cyl, 4,4 l. gasoline engine originally designed based on the US Republic brand truck, these trucks were the forerunners of all Japanese trucks.

At the same time, TGE also produced 20 TGE type A trucks between 1918 and 1922 (same engine) which were the first to benefit from the law on assistance for military vehicles (subsidies for vehicles which satisfied the requirements of the army: cross a slope of 20% and be able to drive 100km for 7 days). The TGE type A evolved into TGE type B till TGE type N with special purpose vehicles. In 1931, in commemoration of the purchase of the TGE type MP truck by the Ministry of the imperial Household, the vehicles name was changed for Chiyoda in honor of the chiyoda castle. First was the Chiyoda P truck.

Merger:

In March 1933, Ishikawajima Automobile Works merged with DAT Automobile manufacturing Co. to form Jidosha Kogyo Co., Ltd.

On April 9, 1937, Jidosha merged with TGE (Gas Den) to form Tokyo Automobile Industry Co., Ltd. Today Isuzu motors defines this day as the anniversary of its founding. In 1942, Hino Heavy Industries Co., Ltd. (now Hino motors) was founded and separated from Tokyo Automobile Industry Co. (at that time the name was changed to Diesel Automobile Industry Co.). Hino and Isuzu are the same family but Hino originated from the TGE engineers unlike Isuzu, which originated from Ishikawajima engineers.