Early Efforts
In 1902, about one year after automobiles made their first appearance in Japan, a 21-year old technician named Komanosuke Uchiyama, an employee of the Sorinshokai bicycle dealership in Ginza, produced two trial automobiles. One was a car whose gasoline engine had been brought back from the United States by Shintaro Yoshida, a manager at Sorinshokai, with a chassis and body built by Uchiyama himself.

First Domestic Gasoline Engine Car
In April 1904, Torao Yamaha of Okayama City produced the first domestically manufactured bus, with a steam engine and room for 10 passengers.

In April 1907, the aforementioned Komanosuke Uchiyama produced the Takuri, the first entirely Japanese-made gasoline engine car.

From 1914 to 1917, the Kaishinsha Motor Works operated by Masujiro Hashimoto in Tokyo, while importing, assembling and selling British cars, also manufactured seven units of a two-cylinder, 10-horsepower "all-Japanese" car called Dattogo. Kaishinsha was the first automobile manufacturing business in Japan.

Also in 1914, Mitsubishi Zosen manufactured 22 Mitsubishi Model As, the first mass production cars in Japan. Until this time, the Japanese automobile industry was in its infancy.

Automobiles and the Military
After its experience in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905), the pressing need for transportation on the battlefields turned the military's interest towards automobiles. Commencing its survey of military vehicles in 1907, the military carried out detailed investigations by importing military trucks from Germany and France. In May 1911, it produced the first domestic military truck at the Osaka Artillery Factory under the orders of the Military Agency.

In March 1918, the Military Vehicle Subsidy Law was established. Under this law, the military granted subsidies to automobile manufacturers to produce automobiles to be used by civilians during peaceful times and converted to military use in times of war. This was in effect Japan's first automobile industry policy. There were all together seven automobile manufacturers subject to this law, including the Tokyo Gas & Electric Engineering Co., Ltd. and Kaishinsha.

The Great Kanto Earthquake and the Advance of Two Major U.S.
Manufacturers in Japan The Great Kanto Earthquake, which occurred on September 1, 1923, created an urgent need for motor vehicles to service the inhabitants of the devastated capital. As a temporary measure until Tokyo's transportation network could be fully restored, 800 Ford Model T truck chassis were immediately imported and converted to buses (the so-called Entaro buses) that would continue to serve the city's transport system for a long time thereafter.

Perceiving Japan as a potentially lucrative market, Ford established Ford Motors Japan in Yokohama in February 1925 and began local assembly and sales (from June that year) of Model Ts. GM followed suit, establishing GM Japan in Osaka in January 1927 and commencing local assembly and sales (from April) of Chevrolets.

The advent of these two companies in Japan provided the country with its first opportunity to directly experience modern automobile manufacturing. This included mass production technology, rigorous quality control of subcontracting parts manufacturers, and a system for rapidly establishing a nationwide sales network.