Kenichi Yamamoto (engineer)
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was a Japanese
mechanical engineer Mechanical may refer to: Machine * Machine (mechanical), a system of mechanisms that shape the actuator input to achieve a specific application of output forces and movement * Mechanical calculator, a device used to perform the basic operations of ...
and
business executive A business executive is a person responsible for running an organization, although the exact nature of the role varies depending on the organization. Executives run companies or government agencies. They create plans to help their organizations g ...
. He supervised the development of the Mazda Wankel rotary combustion engine, and served as
Mazda , commonly referred to as simply Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima, Japan. In 2015, Mazda produced 1.5 million vehicles for global sales, the majority of which (nearly one m ...
's President (1984–1987) and Chairman (1987–1992).


Early life

Yamamoto was born in
Kumamoto Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture of Japan located on the island of Kyūshū. Kumamoto Prefecture has a population of 1,748,134 () and has a geographic area of . Kumamoto Prefecture borders Fukuoka Prefecture to the north, Ōita Prefecture to ...
on 16 September 1922, and subsequently moved to
Hiroshima is the capital of Hiroshima Prefecture in Japan. , the city had an estimated population of 1,199,391. The gross domestic product (GDP) in Greater Hiroshima, Hiroshima Urban Employment Area, was US$61.3 billion as of 2010. Kazumi Matsui h ...
with his family. In 1944, he graduated with a mechanical engineering degree from the
Tokyo Imperial University , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...
(now
University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project by ...
). He served in the
Imperial Japanese Navy The Imperial Japanese Navy (IJN; Kyūjitai: Shinjitai: ' 'Navy of the Greater Japanese Empire', or ''Nippon Kaigun'', 'Japanese Navy') was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1868 to 1945, when it was dissolved following Japan's surrender ...
during
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
. The
Bombing of Hiroshima The United States detonated two atomic bombs over the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki on 6 and 9 August 1945, respectively. The two bombings killed between 129,000 and 226,000 people, most of whom were civilians, and remain the on ...
destroyed his family's home and killed his sister. After the end of the war, he moved to Hiroshima to support his parents.


Career

In 1946, Yamamoto joined
Toyo Kogyo , commonly referred to as simply Mazda, is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Fuchū, Hiroshima, Japan. In 2015, Mazda produced 1.5 million vehicles for global sales, the majority of which (nearly one mi ...
(later Mazda) as an
assembly line An assembly line is a manufacturing process (often called a ''progressive assembly'') in which parts (usually interchangeable parts) are added as the semi-finished assembly moves from workstation to workstation where the parts are added in seq ...
worker. Initially, he worked at the company's factory outside Hiroshima, which produced transmissions for three-wheeled trucks. A year and a half after joining the company, he moved to
engine An engine or motor is a machine designed to convert one or more forms of energy into mechanical energy. Available energy sources include potential energy (e.g. energy of the Earth's gravitational field as exploited in hydroelectric power gen ...
design, and rose to a supervisor role. At the age of 25, he designed the company's first
overhead valve engine An overhead valve (OHV) engine, sometimes called a ''pushrod engine'', is a piston engine whose valves are located in the cylinder head above the combustion chamber. This contrasts with earlier flathead engines, where the valves were located bel ...
.


Supervisor role

Around 1961, the company's president appointed Yamamoto as the supervisor of a team tasked with producing a commercial model of the
Wankel engine The Wankel engine (, ) is a type of internal combustion engine using an Eccentric (mechanism), eccentric rotary combustion engine, rotary design to convert pressure into rotating motion. It was invented by German engineer Felix Wankel, and desi ...
(a rotary combustion engine) invented by the German engineer
Felix Wankel Felix Heinrich Wankel (; 13 August 1902 – 9 October 1988) was a German mechanical engineer and inventor after whom the Wankel engine was named. Early life Wankel was born in 1902 in Lahr in what was then the Grand Duchy of Baden in the Upper R ...
and licensed to Mazda. Yamamoto's team of 47 engineers were nicknamed "
47 Ronin 47, 47 or forty-seven may refer to: *47 (number) *47 BC * AD 47 *1947 * 2047 *'47 (brand), an American clothing brand * ''47'' (magazine), an American publication * 47 (song), a song by Sidhu Moose Wala *47, a song by New Found Glory from the alb ...
" for their loyalty and perseverance to the company. At that time, Japan's Ministry of International Trade and Industry was pressurizing smaller automobile manufacturers like Toyo Kogyo to merge with the larger companies (
Toyota is a Japanese multinational automotive manufacturer headquartered in Toyota City, Aichi, Japan. It was founded by Kiichiro Toyoda and incorporated on . Toyota is one of the largest automobile manufacturers in the world, producing about 10 ...
,
Nissan , trade name, trading as Nissan Motor Corporation and often shortened to Nissan, is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automobile manufacturer headquartered in Nishi-ku, Yokohama, Japan. The company sells ...
and Isuzu) to become more competitive. The success of an improved engine would allow Toyo Kogyo to remain independent. Yamamoto's team produced the
Mazda Wankel engine The Mazda Wankel engines are a family of Wankel rotary combustion car engines produced by Mazda. Wankel engines were invented in the early 1950s by Felix Wankel, a German engineer. Over the years, displacement has been increased and turboch ...
which powered the
Mazda Cosmo The is an automobile which was produced by Mazda from 1967 until 1995. Throughout its history, the Cosmo served as a "halo" vehicle for Mazda, with the first Cosmo successfully launching the Mazda Wankel engine. The final generation of Cosmo ser ...
introduced at the Tokyo Motor Show in 1963. Subsequently, the engine was mass-produced and featured in the company's vehicles. However, its high
fuel consumption A fuel is any material that can be made to react with other substances so that it releases energy as thermal energy or to be used for work. The concept was originally applied solely to those materials capable of releasing chemical energy but ...
led to declining sales and near-bankruptcy for the company during the oil crisis of early 1970s. In 1974, Yamamoto was appointed to lead a project to come up with fuel-saving innovations. He decided not to abandon the Mazda Wankel engine project, insisting that it differentiated the company from its competitors. The project produced an engine with significant improvement in fuel economy. The engine was featured in the immensely successful
Mazda RX-7 The Mazda RX-7 is a front-engine, rear-wheel-drive, rotary engine-powered sports car that was manufactured and marketed by Mazda from 1978 until 2002 across three generations, all of which made use of a compact, lightweight Wankel rotary engine. ...
model, which Yamamoto helped design. He also supervised the design teams for
Mazda 626 __NOTOC__ Year 626 ( DCXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. The denomination 626 for this year has been used since the early medieval period, when the Anno Domini calendar e ...
and Mazda GLC/323: the three models played an important role in the company's financial turnaround.


Management and executive roles

Subsequently, Yamamoto rose to management cadre and became the company's head of research and development. In 1978, motoring journalist Bob Hall suggested that the company build a cheap two-seater roadster. In 1981, Hall, who now worked as product planner for the company in Southern California, once again pitched his idea to Yamamoto. Later, Yamamoto approved the idea, and the initiative resulted in the successful MX-5 Miata model. On 30 November 1984, Yamamoto became the President of the company (now called Mazda). He recommended the company's board to approve mass production of MX-5 Miata. He expanded Mazda's presence in the United States, starting with the
Flat Rock Assembly Plant Flat Rock Assembly Plant, formerly known as Ford's Michigan Casting Center (MCC) (1972–1981), Mazda Motor Manufacturing USA (1987–1992) and AutoAlliance International (1992–2012), is a Ford Motor Company assembly plant located at Drive ...
in Michigan, in 1985. In 1987, Yamamoto became the company's Chairman, and served in that capacity until he stepped down in 1992. He died on 20 December 2017 in
Kanagawa Prefecture is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Kanagawa Prefecture is the second-most populous prefecture of Japan at 9,221,129 (1 April 2022) and third-densest at . Its geographic area of makes it fifth-smallest. Kana ...
at the age of 95.


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Yamamoto, Kenichi 1922 births 2017 deaths Japanese mechanical engineers Japanese business executives Mazda People from Kumamoto Prefecture University of Tokyo alumni 20th-century Japanese businesspeople 20th-century Japanese engineers Imperial Japanese Navy personnel of World War II