Ex-Nissan Chairman Kawamata Dies

Former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Katsuji Kawamata, who built the company into Japan’s second-largest auto maker, has died at age 81.

Kawamata, who stepped down last year as Nissan chairman but continued to serve as a company counselor and vice chairman, died Saturday at Tokyo Women’s Medical College Hospital, a Nissan spokesman said.

The Kyodo News Service reported the cause of death as a ruptured aneurysm in a central artery.

Kawamata was born in Mito, a small city north of Tokyo near the eastern Japanese coast. After 18 years of service with the Industrial Bank of Japan, he joined Nissan as a member of its board in 1947 as the auto maker and the country struggled to rebuild after World War II.

He became executive managing director in 1948 and took on what was later called his role as “restorer” of Nissan, laying the groundwork for its expansion in the 1950s.

Nissan is now the country’s second-largest auto maker behind Toyota, with Honda completing the “Big Three.”

Kawamata was credited with helping settle a 1954 strike by Nissan workers that threatened to bankrupt the company.