1948

President Nakamura Almost Expelled

Mr. and Mrs. Biggers (the Chairman of LOF)(Maizuru Plant, 1957)

In January 1948, the Law for the Termination of Zaibatsu Family Control was established. Because the Company was considered to be a Sumitomo zaibatsu affiliated company, president Nakamura was singled out for expulsion.
In response, management and labor union members joined hands and co-signed a petition to have Nakamura stay on as president, while John D. Biggers, president of Libbey-Owens- Ford (LOF), also lobbied the US and Japanese governments to cancel Nakamura’s designation. In September of that year, the government retracted Nakamura’s designation as a zaibatsu-related company director.