Mitsubishi (三菱自動車工業株式会社) |
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History
The following section is an excerpt from Wikipedia's Mitsubishi page on 2 January 2017, text available via the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
The Mitsubishi Group (三菱グループ Mitsubishi Gurūpu, also known as the Mitsubishi Group of Companies or Mitsubishi Companies, and informally as the Mitsubishi Keiretsu) is a group of autonomous Japanese multinational companies in a variety of industries. Its total revenue is about 10 percent of Japan's GDP.
It is historically descended from the Mitsubishi zaibatsu, a unified company which existed from 1870 to 1947 and was disbanded during the occupation of Japan following World War II. The former constituents of the company continue to share the Mitsubishi brand, trademark, and legacy. Although the group companies participate in limited business cooperation, most famously through monthly "Friday Conference" executive meetings, they are formally independent and are not under common control. The three main companies in the group are The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ (the largest bank in Japan), Mitsubishi Corporation (a general trading company) and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (a diversified manufacturing company).
The following section is an excerpt from Wikipedia's Mitsubishi page on 2 January 2017, text available via the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (Japanese: 三菱自動車工業株式会社 Hepburn: Mitsubishi Jidōsha Kōgyō KK) is a multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Minato, Tokyo, Japan. In 2011, Mitsubishi Motors was the sixth biggest Japanese automaker and the sixteenth biggest worldwide by production. From October 2016 onwards, Mitsubishi is one-third (34%) owned by Nissan, and thus a part of the Renault-Nissan Alliance.
Besides being part of the Renault-Nissan Alliance, it is also a part of Mitsubishi keiretsu, formerly the biggest industrial group in Japan, through the corporation's minority 20% stake in Mitsubishi Motors, and the company was originally formed in 1970 from the automotive division of Mitsubishi Heavy Industries.
Mitsubishi Fuso Truck and Bus Corporation was formerly a part of Mitsubishi Motors, but is now separate from Mitsubishi Motors, which builds commercial grade trucks, buses and heavy construction equipment, and is owned by Daimler AG (though Mitsubishi continues to own a small stake).
Mitsubishi's automotive origins date back to 1917, when the Mitsubishi Shipbuilding Co., Ltd. introduced the Mitsubishi Model A, Japan's first series-production automobile. An entirely hand-built seven-seater sedan based on the Fiat Tipo 3, it proved expensive compared to its American and European mass-produced rivals, and was discontinued in 1921 after only 22 had been built.
In 1934, Mitsubishi Shipbuilding was merged with the Mitsubishi Aircraft Co., a company established in 1920 to manufacture aircraft engines and other parts. The unified company was known as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries (MHI), and was the largest private company in Japan. MHI concentrated on manufacturing aircraft, ships, railroad cars and machinery, but in 1937 developed the PX33, a prototype sedan for military use. It was the first Japanese-built passenger car with full-time four-wheel drive, a technology the company would return to almost fifty years later in its quest for motorsport and sales success.
Immediately following the end of the Second World War, the company returned to manufacturing vehicles. Fuso bus production resumed, while a small three-wheeled cargo vehicle called the Mizushima and a scooter called the Silver Pigeon were also developed. However, the zaibatsu (Japan's family-controlled industrial conglomerates) were ordered to be dismantled by the Allied powers in 1950, and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries was split into three regional companies, each with an involvement in motor vehicle development: West Japan Heavy-Industries, Central Japan Heavy-Industries, and East Japan Heavy-Industries.
East Japan Heavy-Industries began importing the Henry J, an inexpensive American sedan built by Kaiser Motors, in knockdown kit (CKD) form in 1951, and continued to bring them to Japan for the remainder of the car's three-year production run. The same year, Central Japan Heavy-Industries concluded a similar contract with Willys (now owned by Kaiser) for CKD-assembled Jeep CJ-3Bs. This deal proved more durable, with licensed Mitsubishi Jeeps in production until 1998, thirty years after Willys themselves had replaced the model.
By the beginning of the 1960s Japan's economy was gearing up; wages were rising and the idea of family motoring was taking off. Central Japan Heavy-Industries, now known as Shin Mitsubishi Heavy-Industries, had already re-established an automotive department in its headquarters in 1953. Now it was ready to introduce the Mitsubishi 500, a mass market sedan, to meet the new demand from consumers. It followed this in 1962 with the Minica kei car and the Colt 1000, the first of its Colt line of family cars, in 1963. In 1964, Mitsubishi introduced its largest passenger sedan, the Mitsubishi Debonair as a luxury car primarily for the Japanese market, and was used by senior Mitsubishi executives as a company car.
West Japan Heavy-Industries (now renamed Mitsubishi Shipbuilding & Engineering) and East Japan Heavy-Industries (now Mitsubishi Nihon Heavy-Industries) had also expanded their automotive departments in the 1950s, and the three were re-integrated as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries in 1964. Within three years its output was over 75,000 vehicles annually. Following the successful introduction of the first Galant in 1969 and similar growth with its commercial vehicle division, it was decided that the company should create a single operation to focus on the automotive industry. Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) was formed on April 22, 1970 as a wholly owned subsidiary of MHI under the leadership of Tomio Kubo, a successful engineer from the aircraft division.
The logo of three red diamonds, shared with over forty other companies within the keiretsu, predates Mitsubishi Motors itself by almost a century. It was chosen by Iwasaki Yatarō, the founder of Mitsubishi, as it was suggestive of the emblem of the Tosa Clan who first employed him, and because his own family crest was three rhombuses stacked atop each other. The name Mitsubishi is a compound of mitsu ("three") and hishi (literally, "water chestnut", often used in Japanese to denote a diamond or rhombus).
| Date | Media or Collection Name & Details | Files |
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| 21 April 2016 | Japan Investigates Mitsubishi for Fuel Test Cheating VOA News |  Article Page - 2.4MB - 1:24 |
| Date | Document Name & Details | Documents |
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| 3 July 2012 | Method of and Device for Controlling Pressure in Accumulation Chamber of Accumulation Fuel Injection Apparatus United States Patent US 8,210,155 B2 Yuji Ohta and Tomohide Yamada for Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Ltd. |  PDF - 97KB - 12 pages |
