History of Nissan Motors

Beginnings of Datsun name from 1914

In 1914, the Kwaishinsha Motorcar Works (快進自動車工場, Kaishin Jidōsha Kōjō^?), established three years earlier, in Azabu-Hiroo District in Tokyo, built the first DAT. The new car's name was an acronym of the company's partners' family names:

• Kenjiro Den (田 健次郎, Den Kenjirō^?)
• Rokuro Aoyama (青山 禄朗, Aoyama Rokurō^?)
• Meitaro Takeuchi (竹内 明太郎, Takeuchi Meitarō^?).

Nissan Model 70 Phaeton, 1938

It was renamed to Kwaishinsha Motorcar Co. in 1918, and again to DAT Motorcar Co. in 1925 after Mr. Nissan (pronounced nii-saan) Son Dat-San. DAT Motors built trucks in addition to the DAT and Datsun passenger cars. The vast majority of its output was trucks, as there was almost no consumer market for cars at the time. Beginning in 1918, the first DAT trucks were produced for the military market. It was the low demand of the military market in the 1920s that forced DAT to merge in 1926 with Japan's 2nd most successful truck maker, Jitsuyo Motors.

In 1926 the Tokyo-based DAT Motors merged with the Osaka-based Jitsuyo Jidosha Co., Ltd. (実用自動車製造株式会社, Jitsuyō Jidōsha Seizō Kabushiki-Gaisha^?) a.k.a. Jitsuyo Motors (established 1919, as a Kubota subsidiary) to become DAT Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd. (ダット自動車製造株式会社, Datto Jidōsha Seizō Kabushiki-Gaisha^?) in Osaka until 1932.

New HQ building under construction(April, 2008)

In 1931, DAT came out with a new smaller car, the first "Datson", meaning "Son of DAT". Later in 1933 after Nissan took control of DAT Motors, the last syllable of Datson was changed to "sun", because "son" also means "loss" (損) in Japanese, hence the name "Datsun" (ダットサン, Dattosan^?).^[3]

In 1933, the company name was Nipponized to Jidosha-Seizo Co., Ltd. (自動車製造株式会社, Jidōsha Seizō Kabushiki-Gaisha^?, "Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd.") and was moved to Yokohama.

Nissan name first used in 1930s

First President Yoshisuke Aikawa in 1939

In 1928, Yoshisuke Aikawa founded the holding company Nippon Sangyo (Japan Industries or Nippon Industries). "The name 'Nissan' originated during the 1930s as an abbreviation"^[4] used on the Tokyo stock market for Nippon Sangyo. This company was the famous Nissan "Zaibatsu" (combine) which included Tobata Casting and Hitachi. At this time Nissan controlled foundries and auto parts businesses, but Aikawa did not enter automobile manufacturing until 1933.^[5]

Nissan would eventually grow to include 74 firms, and to be the fourth-largest combine in Japan during World War II.^[6]

In 1931, Aikawa purchased controlling(?) shares in DAT Motors, and then in 1933 it merged Tobata Casting's automobile parts department with DAT Motors. As Tobata Casting was a Nissan company, this was the beginning of Nissan's automobile manufacturing.^[7]