was a
Japanese entrepreneur and
philanthropist who founded
Hitachi
() is a Japanese multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Chiyoda, Tokyo, Japan. It is the parent company of the Hitachi Group (''Hitachi Gurūpu'') and had formed part of the Nissan ''zaibatsu'' and later DKB Group and Fuyo G ...
.
Life
Odaira was born on January 15, 1874, in Ienaka,
Shimotsuga,
Tochigi Prefecture
is a prefecture of Japan located in the Kantō region of Honshu. Tochigi Prefecture has a population of 1,943,886 (1 June 2019) and has a geographic area of 6,408 km2 (2,474 sq mi). Tochigi Prefecture borders Fukushima Prefecture to th ...
(present-day Tsugamachi Kassenba,
Tochigi), the second son of Odaira Sōhachi and Chiyo.
In 1900, he graduated from the
electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is an engineering discipline concerned with the study, design, and application of equipment, devices, and systems which use electricity, electronics, and electromagnetism. It emerged as an identifiable occupation in the l ...
department of
Tokyo Imperial University. Following his graduation, he joined a mining company as an engineer in its power plant. From there, he went on to several electric power companies.
In 1906, he joined the Kuhara Mining Company at its Hitachi copper mine as an engineering section chief. Although his main duties at the mine were to ensure a stable supply of electricity and to maintain the mine's electrical equipment, he and his colleagues began working on the manufacture of a five-horsepower electric motor. This marked the beginning of the development that would become Hitachi, which was founded by Odaira in 1910. However, because it was started as an in-house venture of the Kuhara Mining Company, the owner of Hitachi was
Fusanosuke Kuhara
was an entrepreneur, politician and cabinet minister in the pre-war Empire of Japan.
Biography
Kuhara was born in Hagi, Yamaguchi Prefecture into a family of ''sake'' brewers. His brother was the founder of Nippon Suisan Kaisha and his uncle Fu ...
, the president of the mining company, not Odaira.
Hitachi Ltd. was incorporated as an independent company in 1920. Odaira acted as the managing director of Hitachi from 1910 to 1929 and the president from 1929 to 1947.
In 1947, Odaira was
ordered out of this position by the U.S. occupation authorities. In 1951, this order was lifted, and he returned to the company as chairman emeritus. Almost immediately after his return, he died on October 5, 1951, aged 77.
See also
*
Hitachi Works
References
1874 births
1951 deaths
People from Tochigi Prefecture
Hitachi
Japanese businesspeople
Japanese philanthropists
University of Tokyo alumni
Japanese company founders
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