japanese cars have no history.... (Read 183 times)

[Al Ramone]

How many of you on here have heard that?

i had it today from someone and got quite frustrated by the comment.

trouble is, although i know that the japanese were producing cars in the early 1900's i don't really know much about it

i thought that DAT was producing cars that were made using austin plans?

but other then that i really don't have much of a clue

so. can anyone give me/us a history lesson?

[mash]

I can't always remember a whole lot off the top of my head but yes there were a number of fledging companies in the early 20th Century making cars in Japan which many of the major manufacturers grew out of. Mitsubishi produced their first proper car in 1917 for example which I think was loosely based on a FIAT design. The first true Japanese car was the Takuri of 1907.

The first DAT was produced in 1916 and the 1930s Datsun/Austin connection is a common misconception. The first small cars from Datsun are similar in apearance and layout to Austin Sevens but then so are many 7 and 8hp cars from that era! The example in Beaulieau was imported by Herbert Austin to check on copyright infringement but that's as far as it goes. In fact the cars Nissan built under licence in the 1930s were actually American Graham-Paiges. It wasn't until the 1950s that Austins were built by Nissan and led to the 310 Bluebird and J-series engine.

I think most of the car makers floundered in the early years because there was no demand for private cars due to the poor road system and probably the political situation in the country. Many of the big makers started from roots in heavy industry and I imagine much of the pre-WW2 output was commercial vehicles and machinery rather than cars. Toyoda certainly did not make any cars that were available to anyone other than the very rich or government until the 1950s and Mazda's first car in the 1940s was obviously interrupted by the conflict.

It's true to say that the car industry in Japan did not take off until the post-war period but local circumstances were different to many countries. Most cars before this were taxis instead of being privately owned.

If you can find a copy, this book published in the mid-1980s is an excellent reference. Sometimes they turn up quite cheaply:



And this is a fantastic look at the early history of Nissan/Datsun:

[RatDat]

Nissan never had any connection to Austin until 1952, when they began assembly of Austin A40s and later A50 Cambridges in Japan. That tie-up lasted until 1959 after which they retained use of the BMC B series engine for some years.

The only other early foreign tie-up was with Graham Paige as Mash alluded to. Nissan bought the entire production rights for the Crusader model from Graham Paige in 1936 of what became the Nissan Type 70 in 1937.

I suppose you could also say the very first car assembled by the companys distant predecessor in 1911 was part foreign too as it was built on a Swift of Coventry chassis.

As for reading material... these are worth finding...

Michael Cusumano's book is pretty comprehensive...


John Rae's book does cover some early history but is largely a history of Nissan Motor in USA. Worthwhile tracking it down though...


There's lots of japanese language books on the subject, but obviously they are of limited use unless you can read Japanese, however, there's a couple of Car Graphic publications that are well worth finding as they contain a wealth of onfo just in the pictures and data. one of them is this one which is excellent...