The Story of Mitsubishi - Samurai to Automotive

Mitsubishi is the third most popular automotive brand in Japan after Toyota and Honda. One of their most popular car models will be the Mitsubishi Lancer. One might ask how did this company ever establish?

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It might be one of the oldest companies that originated from the era of the Tokugawa shogunate. It all happened during the shift from the Tokugawa shogunate and the Meiji emperor when one samurai named Yataro Iwasaki believed that it was time Japanese products go into the international market.

To make things a reality, Yataro worked together with a trading company and the biggest samurai group at the time called Tosa Clan. The company was involved in the transportation of commodities such as camphor, weaponry, and battleships.

The improvement of the performance of the company led by Yataro has caused the Tosa Clan to migrate to Osaka. Things got worse when the Meiji Emperor decided to ban the Tosa Clan. This situation has caused two of the strongest Tosa Clan members to establish Tsukumo Shokai, a shipping company.

Later on in 1873, Yataro has taken over the company and quickly renamed it Mitsubishi Shokai. In the coming years, the name was changed again to Mitsubishi Jokisen Kaisha.

As a shipping company, Mitsubishi was responsible to bring Japan's Imperial army to Taiwan and Satsuma to take down the rebels. From this time on, the company was a huge success as it was raking in huge profits and even 73% of the Japanese steamboats were owned by Mitsubishi.

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To keep things relevant, this company has started to venture into other types of businesses. Some of them include mining, post, and financial services. Things were turning out big time for Mitsubishi especially its business in the mining industry.

The profit gained was used by Mitsubishi to buy many ship facilities from the Japanese government. Not long after that, the company became one of the leading shipping companies in the world.

The company started making cars in 1917 with the release of Model A. It is considered the first company ever built by Japan featuring 7 seats.

Credit: University Mitsubishi

However, the release of Model A was forced to be stopped following the huge price in comparison with other cars in Europe and North America. Only 22 units of Model A were produced before it was stopped in 1922.

Their vision of producing more cars did not just stop there as Mitsubishi Shipbuilding and Mitsubishi Aircraft Co combined together to form Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. Despite the company solely focusing on making airplanes, ships, and heavy types of machinery, the company has not forgotten to develop PX33 which is a prototype for military use.

During the Second World War, the company was forced to focus more on the production of military aircraft like the Mitsubishi A6M. After the end of the World War, Mitsubishi returns back to producing landed vehicles. The company starts producing a 3-wheel motorcar as well as a scooter called the Silver Pigeon.

Credit: Mitsubishi Motors

However, the United Allies ordered that Mitsubishi will be split into several branches to avoid being a monopoly. Mitsubishi was split into three branches East, West, and Central Japan Heavy-Industries. These three branches were still producing cars.

In the year 1950, this company produced a new type of car which is the Mitsubishi 500 model, and surprisingly the demand for the car was through the roof. It was followed by the Minica Kei model which managed to sustain until 2011 before being replaced by other models.

2 years after that, Mitsubishi launched the Mitsubishi Debonair model which is considered to be the posh type of car mainly for the rich market in Japan. In order to export their cars to the international market, Mitsubishi has partnerships with other overseas companies.

Credit: JNC

Therefore, Mitsubishi sold a 15% stake in the company to Chrysler. The agreement has allowed Chrysler to sell the Galant model in the United States market but it will be known as Dodge Colt. There was a slight disagreement between Chrysler and Mitsubishi as Chrysler claimed that Mitsubishi dominated the international market.

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In the end, Chrysler sold all Mitsubishi stakes to Australia, and Mitsubishi Motors Australia Ltd. was established. This company has penetrated into the US market by using Mitsubishi brands like the Tredia, Cordia, and Starion models.

To this date, Mitsubishi has become one of the main contenders for the world's automotive industry. This can be proven when the company's Sports Utility Vehicles(SUV) was selling like hot pancakes in Britain.

Credit: Alliance

Not just that, but the partnership between Mitsubishi together with Renault, and Nissan has given many benefits to the company through sharing of technologies. The company Mitsubishi has still become relevant until this day.

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