Birth of the Kyosan-go

In 1931, our company successfully tested a prototype for a small half-ton truck called the Kyosan-go. The truck had a water-cooled, singlecylinder 500 cc engine.

The Kyosan Automobile Company was founded that year and sales of the Kyosan-go was started as well. Next year, in 1932, a new improved three-quarter ton truck was developed, equipped with a V-type, two cylinder 750 cc engine, The decision to mass produce it was made. Incidentally, it was in 1935, when Nissan commercialize a passenger car and Toyota had completed a prototype car.

Mass Production and Growth

At one point, 150 kyosan-go cars were produced per month. The Kyosan Automobile Company was able to operate as an independent business. In March 1937, several automobile makers participated in a test drive up the Mt. Fuji (to the 6th stage or 2450m above the sea level). Only a modified four-wheel drive Kyosan-go reached the 6th stage, revealing its excellent performance.

In 1934, Toyoda Automatic Loom Works Co. Ltd. started research into automobiles (which later resulted in the Toyota Motor Company). In 1937, three companies the Kyosan Automobile Company, the Toyota Motor Company, and the Taiyo Company, pooled their resources to form a new company. The Kyosan Automobile Company became the Keiho Automobile Co. Ltd.

Manufacturing ceased during wartime.

Our company worked to expand its business, Due to, however, preparations for war, materials were scarce, and production became incteasingly difficult.
Production stopped in August 1938. From the production start, over seven years from 1931 to 1938, 2050 cars had been produced.

Kyosan Factory and the Kyosan-go

Our company was founded in 1917 as a producer of electric medical equipment under the company name of Tokyo Electric Manufacturing Co, Ltd. Then we went into manufacturing signal equipment, mainly electric signals for railways, and train traffic control systems.
In the meantime, Japan Ford Automobile Co, ltd. was established in Yokohama in 1925, and assembly of automobiles started. In 1928 we started to supply them with parts and accessories such as tail lamps, mufflers, electric horns, fuel gauges, fuel pumps, and distributors. This, too, become a foundation of Kyosan-go manufacturing.