Yoshisuke Aikawa Biography . Aikawa was born in what is now part of Yamaguchi city , Yamaguchi prefecture . His mother was the niece of Meiji period " genrō " Inoue Kaoru . He graduated from the engineering department of Tokyo Imperial University in 1903 and went to work for Shibaura Seisakusho , the forerunner of Toshiba . Although his pay was very low , Aikawa managed to save enough to make a trip to the United States , where he studied malleable cast iron technology . After his return to Japan , with the backing of Inoue Kaoru and other ex - Chōshū politicians in the Diet of Japan , he established the Tobata Foundry in Kitakyūshū in 1909 . The company is now known as Hitachi Kinzoku ( Hitachi Metals Company Ltd ) . In 1928 , Aikawa became president of the Kuhara Mining Company ( present day Nippon Mining & Metals Company ) taking over from his brother - in - law Fusanosuke Kuhara and created a holding company called Nihon Sangyo , or Nissan for short . Kuhara went on to a career in politics , forging ties with future Prime Minister Giichi Tanaka and other political and military leaders , which Aikawa would later use to his advantage . In the stock market boom following the 1931 Manchurian Incident , Aikawa used the opportunity to buy majority shareholdings in 132 subsidiary companies of Nissan to create a new " zaibatsu , " the Nissan Konzerne . The companies included Nissan Motors , Isuzu , NEC Corporation , Nippon Mining Holdings Company , Nissan Chemicals , Hitachi , Nichiyu Corporation , Nichirei Corporation , Nissan Marine Insurance , Nissan Mutual Life Insurance and others . The group included some of the most technologically advanced companies in Japan at the time . In 1937 , at the invitation of his relative Nobusuke Kishi , he moved to Manchukuo and agreed with the Japanese Kwantung Army ' s vision of a syndicalist economy and centralized industrial development plan for Manchukuo . He also moved the headquarters of Nissan to Manchukuo , whereit became the core of the Manchurian Industrial Development Company , a new Manchukuo " zaibatsu " , partly owned by Nissan and the Manchukuo government . In his position as president and chairman Aikawa guided all industrial efforts in Manchukuo , implementing two five - year plans during the 1930s , following some the previous economical and industrial lines envisioned Army ideologist Naoki Hoshino . However , Aikawa differed from Noshino ' s original conception in that he favored a more monopolistic approach , arguing that the economic state of Manchukuo was still too primitive to permit free market capitalism . Aikawa also received bank loans from American steel industrialists to support the Manchukuo economy , which created considerable controversy in the United States with its policy of Non - recognition . However , while his economic views were in line with Imperial Japanese Army policy , his political views were not . Aikawa was a strong opponent of the Tripartite Alliance , and predicted that the forces of the United Kingdom and France would eventually prevail over Nazi Germany should a general war break out . He supported the Fugu Plan , a project to settle Jewish refugees in Manchukuo . In 1942 , at the instigation of the Kwantung Army , Aikawa resigned chairman of the Manchurian Industrial Development Company , and moved back to Japan . After the surrender of Japan , Aikawa was arrested by the American occupation authorities and incarcerated in Sugamo Prison for 20 months as a Class A war crimes suspect . He was freed before his case came to trial , however , during this time , the Nissan " zaibatsu " was dissolved . After his release , Aikawa played a key role in post - war economic reconstruction of Japan , and purchased a commercial bank to organize loans to small companies . He served as president of Teikoku Oil Company and of the Japan Petroleum Exploration Company , and in 1953 , was elected to a seat in the House of Councilors of the Diet of Japan . With the help of Nobusuke Kishi , then prime minister , he achieved his goal in implementing economic - control law and policies as leader of the " Chuseiren " , a pressure group that became the main federation of small and medium sized companies in the 1960s . Aikawa died of acute gall bladder inflammation in 1967 . His grave is at the Tama Cemetery outside Tokyo .