Word: nissans
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Japan's Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. last year sold 1.5 million cars and trucks in 130 countries under the name Datsun. Now, in a move that has stunned its dealers around the world, the company has decided to phase out the Datsun nameplate by the end of 1983 as part of the company's 50th anniversary celebration. After that, Datsun cars will be called Nissan, just as they now are in Japan...
Mitsubishi made one of Japan's first commercially manufactured cars, called the Model A, back in 1917. Since then, it has fallen behind domestic competitors like Toyota and Nissan, the company that makes Datsuns. The company's struggle to crack the U.S. market dates back to 1971, when Mitsubishi agreed to let Chrysler Corp. become its sole U.S. distributor. "Ten years ago, we were but a babe and Chrysler a big man," recalls Tojo. "Now Chrysler is a big burden for us." As Chrysler's financial problems have worsened, its dealer base has shriveled, and Mitsubishi...
Japanese automakers immediately protested the agreement. Nissan Motor President Takashi Ishihara, whose firm makes Datsuns, said he feared that it would "cast dark shadows on the system of free trade around the world." Toyota President Eiji Toyoda said he was "greatly disappointed...
...working environment of Japanese plants is not fancy. Though they are kept immaculately clean, the buildings are spare and functional, and the machinery is always the most up-to-date. Occasionally workers will try to add some local color. At Nissan's body assembly plant in Zama, near Yokohama, workers have pasted pictures of movie stars like Sayuri Yoshinaga and Kaori Momoi on the new robots that make the cars...
Investment is also directed at constantly modernizing on-line manufacturing techniques. The results are obvious: at Nissan's highly automated assembly plant, 35 workers now aided by industrial robots produce 350 Datsun car bodies every eight hours, seven times the productivity rate of competing U.S. automakers...