Datsun was an automobile marque. The name was created in 1931 by the
DAT Motorcar Co., usually shortened to Nissan , is a multinational automaker headquartered in Japan. It was a core member of the Nissan Group, but has become more independent after its restructuring under Carlos Ghosn ....
for a new car model, spelling it as "
Datson" to indicate its smaller size when compared to the existing, larger DAT car. Later, in 1933 after
Nissan Motor Co., Ltd., usually shortened to Nissan , is a multinational automaker headquartered in Japan. It was a core member of the Nissan Group, but has become more independent after its restructuring under Carlos Ghosn ....
took control of DAT Motorcar Co., the last syllable of Datson was changed to "sun", because "son" also means "loss" (
損) in
Japaneseis a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
, and also to honour the sun depicted in the national flag, hence the name "
Datsun" : . Nissan phased out the Datsun brand in March 1986. The Datsun name is most famous for the sports cars referred to as the
FairladyThe first Datsun Sports model was the 1959 S211. It used a 988 cc C-series straight-4 producing . The S211 was based on the Datsun 211 sedan. Incorporated into the side trim were the side badges, which said "Datsun 1000". It was designed by Yuichi Ohta, who had previously designed the Datsun...
roadsters and later the Fairlady (
240ZThe Z-car is a series of sports cars manufactured by Nissan Motors Ltd.. The original Z was sold in October 1969 in Japan as the Nissan Fairlady Z and was sold in Japan at Nissan Exhibition dealerships that previously sold the Nissan Bluebird. It was exported as the Datsun 240Z. Since 2009 Nissan...
) coupes.
The origins of Datsun
Before the Datsun brand name came into being, an automobile named the DAT car was built in 1914, by the , in the Azabu-Hiroo District in Tokyo. The new car's name was an acronym of the company's partners' surnames:
.
Conflicting information:
What's in a Name? The Change From Datsun to Nissan
By Daniel Banks
"This despite Business Week’s error that Den, Aoyama, and Takeuchi founded Nissan. They did not, of course. Kenjiro Den, Rokuro Aoyama, and Meitaro Takeuchi were 3 financial backers and friends for one of the originators of the Japanese automobile industry, Masujiro Hashimoto, who founded Kaishinsha Jidosha Koto, or “Kaishinsha Motor Car Works” in 1911."
The firm was renamed Kaishinsha Motorcar Co. in 1918, seven years after their establishment and again, in 1925, to DAT Motorcar Co. DAT Motors constructed trucks in addition to the DAT passenger cars. In fact, their output focused on trucks since there was almost no consumer market for passenger cars at the time. Beginning in 1918, the first DAT trucks were assembled for the military market. The low demand from the military market during the 1920s forced DAT to consider merging with other automotive industries. In 1926 the
Tokyo, ; officially , is one of the 47 prefectures of Japan. Tokyo is the capital of Japan, the center of the Greater Tokyo Area, and the largest metropolitan area of Japan. It is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, and the home of the Japanese Imperial Family...
-based DAT Motors merged with the Osaka-based also known as Jitsuyo Motors (established 1919, as a Kubota subsidiary) to become in
Osakais a city in the Kansai region of Japan's main island of Honshu, a designated city under the Local Autonomy Law, the capital city of Osaka Prefecture and also the biggest part of Keihanshin area, which is represented by three major cities of Japan, Kyoto, Osaka and Kobe...
until 1932. (Jitsuyo Jidosha began producing a three-wheeled vehicle with an enclosed cab called the Gorham in 1920, and the following year produced a four-wheeled version. From 1923 to 1925, the company produced light cars and trucks under the name of Lila.)
The DAT corporation had been selling full size cars to Japanese consumers under the DAT name since 1914 (
Madely, pg. 19), but in 1930 the Japanese government created a ministerial ordinance that allowed cars with engines up to 500 cc to be driven without a license. (
TOGO, pg. 11). DAT Automobile Manufacturing began development of a line of 495 cc cars to sell in this new market segment, calling the new small cars "Datson" - meaning "Son of DAT". The name was changed to "Datsun" two years later in 1933.(
Madely, pg. 20)
The first prototype Datson was completed in the summer of 1931.(
Nissan). The production vehicle was called the Datson Type 10, and "approximately ten" of these cars were sold in 1931. (
JSAE). They sold around 150 cars in 1932, now calling the model the Datson Type 11(
JSAE). In 1933 the government rules were revised to permit 750 cc engines, and Datsun increased the size of their microcar engine to the maximum size allowed (
JSAE). These larger displacement cars were called the Datsun Type 12.(
Nissan Heritage)
Datsun in the American market
The use of the
Datsun name in the American market derives from the name Nissan used for its production cars. In fact, the cars produced by Nissan already used the Datsun brand name, a successful brand in Japan since 1932, long before
World War IIWorld War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. Before the entry into the American market in 1958, Nissan did not produce cars under the Nissan brand name, but only trucks. Their in-house designed cars were always branded as
Datsuns. Hence, for Nissan executives it would be only natural to use such a successful name when exporting models to the United States. Only in the 1960s did Nissan begin to brand some automobile models as
Nissans, and these were limited to their high-end models, for example the
CedricThe Nissan Cedric is a large automobile produced by Nissan since 1960. It was developed to provide upscale transportation, competing with the Prince Skyline and Gloria which were later merged into the Nissan family...
luxury-type sedan. In America, the Nissan branch was named "
Nissan Motor Corporation in U.S.A.", and chartered on September 28, 1960, in California. Nissan may have had no problems with using the name Nissan in America, but the small cars the firm exported to America were still named Datsun.
Corporate choice favoured “Datsun”, so as to distance the parent factory Nissan’s association by
AmericansThe United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
with Japanese military manufacture. In fact Nissan's involvement in Japan's military industries was substantial. The company's car production at the Yokohama plant shifted towards military needs just a few years after the first passenger cars rolled off the assembly line, on April 11, 1935. By 1939 Nissan's operations had moved to
ManchuriaManchuria is a historical name given to a large geographic region in northeast Asia. Depending on the definition of its extent, Manchuria usually falls entirely within the People's Republic of China, or is sometimes divided between China and Russia. The region is commonly referred to as Northeast...
, then under Japanese occupation, where its founder and President, Yoshisuke Ayukawa, established the Manchurian Motor Company to manufacture military trucks.
Ayukawa, a well connected and aggressive risk taker, also made himself a principal partner of the Japanese Colonial Government of
ManchukuoManchukuo or Manshū-koku was a puppet state in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia, governed under a form of constitutional monarchy. The region was the historical homeland of the Manchus, who founded the Qing Empire in China...
. Ultimately, Nissan Heavy Industries emerged near the end of the war as an important player in Japan’s war machinery. After the war ended,
Soviet UnionThe Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
seized all of Nissan’s Manchuria assets, while the Occupation Forces made use of over half of the
Yokohamais the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
plant.
General MacArthurGeneral of the Army Douglas MacArthur was an American general and field marshal of the Philippine Army. He was a Chief of Staff of the United States Army during the 1930s and played a prominent role in the Pacific theater during World War II. He received the Medal of Honor for his service in the...
had Ayukawa imprisoned for 21 months as a
war criminalWar crimes are serious violations of the laws applicable in armed conflict giving rise to individual criminal responsibility...
. After release he was forbidden from returning to any corporate or public office until 1951. He was never allowed back into Nissan, which returned to passenger car manufacture in 1947 and to its original name of Nissan Motor Company Ltd. in 1949.
American service personnelThe United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. They consist of the Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Air Force, and Coast Guard.The United States has a strong tradition of civilian control of the military...
in their teens or early twenties during the Second World War would be in prime car-buying age by 1960, if only to find an
economicalAn economic system is the combination of the various agencies, entities that provide the economic structure that defines the social community. These agencies are joined by lines of trade and exchange along which goods, money etc. are continuously flowing. An example of such a system for a closed...
, small second car for their growing family needs.
Yutaka KatayamaYutaka Katayama , also known as Mr K, is a former Japanese automotive executive who was employed by Nissan and served as the first president of Nissan Motor Corporation U.S.A...
, (Mr. "K") former president of Nissan's American operations, would have had his personal second world war experiences in mind supporting the name Datsun. Katayama's visit to Nissan’s Manchuria truck factory in 1939, made him realise the appalling conditions of the assembly lines, leading him to abandon the firm. In 1945, near the end of the war, Katayama was ordered to return to the Manchurian plant, however he rebuffed these calls and refused to return.
KatayamaYutaka Katayama , also known as Mr K, is a former Japanese automotive executive who was employed by Nissan and served as the first president of Nissan Motor Corporation U.S.A...
desired to build and sell passenger cars to people, not to the military; for him it was the name "
Datsun" that survived the war with its purity intact, not "
Nissan". This obviously led Katayama to have problems with the corporate management. The discouragement felt by Katayama as regards his prospects at Nissan, led to his going on the verge of resigning, when Datsun’s
1958 Australian Mobilgas victoriesMobil Economy Run was an event that took place every year from 1936 to 1968. It was designed to provide real fuel efficiency numbers during a coast to coast test on real roads and with regular traffic and weather conditions...
vaunted him, as leader of the winning Datsun teams, to national prominence in a
Japan bent on regaining international statusPost-Occupation Japan is a phrase used to describe the period in the history of Japan which started at the end of the Allied occupation in 1952.During this period, Japan re-established itself as a global economic and political power....
.
KatayamaYutaka Katayama , also known as Mr K, is a former Japanese automotive executive who was employed by Nissan and served as the first president of Nissan Motor Corporation U.S.A...
was made Vice President of the Nissan North American company in 1960, and as long as he was involved in decision making, both as North American Vice President from 1960 to 1965, and then President of Nissan Motor Company – USA from 1965 to 1975, the cars were sold as Datsuns. “What we need to do is improve our car’s
efficiencyEfficient energy use, sometimes simply called energy efficiency, is the goal of efforts to reduce the amount of energy required to provide products and services. For example, insulating a home allows a building to use less heating and cooling energy to achieve and maintain a comfortable temperature...
gradually and creep up slowly before others notice. Then, before Detroit realizes it, we will have become an excellent car maker, and the customers will think so too. If we work hard to sell our own cars, we won’t be bothered by whatever the other manufacturers do. If all we do is worry about the other cars in the race, we will definitely lose.”
Rebranding
In Japan, there appears to have been what probably constituted a long held 'official' company
biasBias is an inclination to present or hold a partial perspective at the expense of alternatives. Bias can come in many forms.-In judgement and decision making:...
against use of the name “Datsun”. At the time, Kawamata was a veteran of Nissan, in the last year of his presidency, a powerful figure whose experience in the firm exceeded two decades. His rise to its leadership position occurred in 1957 in part because of his handling of the critical Nissan workers' strike that began May 25, 1953, and ran for 100 days. During his tenure as President, Kawamata stated that he "regretted that his company did not imprint its corporate name on cars, the way Toyota does. ‘Looking back, we wish we had started using Nissan on all of our cars,’ he says. ‘But Datsun was a pet name for the cars when we started
exportThe term export is derived from the conceptual meaning as to ship the goods and services out of the port of a country. The seller of such goods and services is referred to as an "exporter" who is based in the country of export whereas the overseas based buyer is referred to as an "importer"...
ing.’ ”
Ultimately, the decision was made to stop using the brand name
Datsun worldwide, in order to strengthen the company name
Nissan.
“The decision to change the name Datsun to Nissan in the U.S. was announced in the fall of 1981. The rationale was that the name change would help the pursuit of a
global strategyGlobal strategy as defined in business terms is an organization's strategic guide to globalization. A sound global strategy should address these questions: what must be the extent of market presence in the world's major markets? How to build the necessary global presence? What must be AND the...
. A single name worldwide would increase the possibility that advertising campaigns, brochures, and promotional materials could be used across countries and simplify product design and manufacturing. Further, potential buyers would be exposed to the name and product when traveling to other countries. Industry observers, however, speculated that the most important motivation was that a name change would help Nissan market stocks and bonds in the U.S. They also presumed substantial ego involvement, since the absence of the Nissan name in the U.S. surely rankled Nissan executives who had seen Toyota and
Hondais a Japanese public multinational corporation primarily known as a manufacturer of automobiles and motorcycles.Honda has been the world's largest motorcycle manufacturer since 1959, as well as the world's largest manufacturer of internal combustion engines measured by volume, producing more than...
become household words.”
Ultimately, the name change campaign lasted for a three year period from 1982 to 1984 (Datsun badged vehicles had been progressively fitted with small "Nissan" and "Datsun by Nissan" badges from the late 1970s onward) until the Nissan name was given prominence in 1983 - although in some export markets vehicles continued to wear both the Datsun and Nissan badges until 1986. The name change had cost Nissan a figure in the region of US$500 million. Operational costs included the changing of signs at 1,100 Datsun dealerships, and amounted to US$30 million. Another US$200 million were spent during the 1982 to 1986 advertising campaigns, where the
“Datsun, We Are Driven!” campaign yielded to
“The Name is Nissan” campaign. (The latter campaign was used for some years beyond 1985.) Another US$50 million was spent on Datsun advertisements that were paid for but stopped or never used. Five years after the name change program was over,
Datsun still remained more familiar than
Nissan.
DATSUN Truck
In 2001,
Nissan, usually shortened to Nissan , is a multinational automaker headquartered in Japan. It was a core member of the Nissan Group, but has become more independent after its restructuring under Carlos Ghosn ....
marketed its
D22Nissan Navara is the name for the D22 and D40 generations of Nissan pickup trucks sold in Asia while in the North, Central and South America and the Philippines it is sold as Nissan Frontier. The line was started in 1998, and its immediate predecessor is the D21 Nissan Hardbody truck...
pick-up model in Japan with the name
Datsun, this time however the use of the brand name was wholly restricted to this one specific model name. Production of this model was between May 2001 and October 2002
See also
- Datsun Sports
The first Datsun Sports model was the 1959 S211. It used a 988 cc C-series straight-4 producing . The S211 was based on the Datsun 211 sedan. Incorporated into the side trim were the side badges, which said "Datsun 1000". It was designed by Yuichi Ohta, who had previously designed the Datsun...
- Nissan Motor Co., Ltd.
, usually shortened to Nissan , is a multinational automaker headquartered in Japan. It was a core member of the Nissan Group, but has become more independent after its restructuring under Carlos Ghosn ....
- Laurence Hartnett
- Yutaka Katayama
Yutaka Katayama , also known as Mr K, is a former Japanese automotive executive who was employed by Nissan and served as the first president of Nissan Motor Corporation U.S.A...
- Sports Car International Top Sports Cars
External links