If we look at the data for 1932, the year before Nissan Motor started operations, the total car supply in Japan was 16,000 units, of which domestic models accounted for a mere 5.5% (880 units). Ford Japan was to build up an annual production capacity of 20,000 cars, while GM Japan was close behind with 16,000. In 1924 Ford started operations in Japan, followed by General Motors (GM) in the following year. Nevertheless, there was still a long way to go before mass production of these domestic cars would be possible, so in the period that spans the end of the Taisho period (1912-1926) and the start of Showa (1926-1989) the Japanese car market was monopolized by American imports.
Yamaha of Okayama developed the Yamaha Steam Automobile in 1907, the Tokyo Jidosha Seisakusho announced the Taklee in 1914, Kwaishinsha produced the DAT and in 1921, the Hakuyosha Company launched the Automo. This was just 12 years after Daimler produced the world’s first 4-wheel automobile powered by a gasoline engine (1886).Įxcited by the possibilities of this new mode of transport, some Japanese immediately set to work on their own prototype cars. It is reported that the car in question was a Panhard Levassor imported from France, and that it traveled from Tsukiji to Ueno in Tokyo. The very first time that an automobile was driven in Japan was in 1898. Car production in Japan in the Taisho and early Showa periods
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