Description:

80 years ago, concludes a successful Japanese socks manufacturer, the big tire business to enter. What is missing is a catchy name globally. Welcome to the world by Ishibashi-san – or in English: Mr. Stone Bridge.


There must be a mighty leap, as Shojiro Ishibashi in 1906 with just 17 years, takes over the parental Tabi operation. Tabis are then an integral part of Japanese costume: ankle-high socks with a separate big toe, which will enable such workers to be able to climb on scaffolding or rope. The young Shojiro understands the opportunity of his life and turns up the store at: streamlining the product range, shorter working hours with days off – the youngster from the island of Kyushu on the southern tip of Japan will make his company fit for the future.

The rapidly progressive mobilization Ishibashi opened for new advertising opportunities. By 1912 he curves with the car through his home town of Kurume and praises on the side walls of his Tabis under the brand name of Asahi. Shojiro also developed a revolutionary Japanese standards flat sales tactic: The prices of its Tabis are no longer – as usual – measured by their size, the socks cost the Bank equivalent of 20 cents. With one stroke of the Tabis Ishibashi demand as never before, and its brand Asahi is the market leader in Japan.

At the same time begins the now nearly 30-year-old to seek new markets. In labor circles of Japan then simple straw sandals (“Waraji”) grown, which are simply applied after work and must be purchased anew every day. Ishibashis idea: a robust version of Tabis to do with durable rubber soles. 1923 begins the sale, the so-called Jika Tabis are popular not only in labor circles, but also for students. Above all, Shojiro Ishibashi is now in contact with a material that will determine his life from now on: rubber.

Amidst the global economic crisis decided Ishibashi, the first car tires from Japan to bring to market. Quickly an appropriate machinery is organized in the United States, finished in 1930, the first prototype.

What the visionary Ishibashi still missing is a catchy name to the product and the world can settle successfully. From the Japanese syllables of his name Ishi (stone) and Bashi (bridge) forms of the English word entrepreneur and founded in 1931 Bridgestone Bridgestone Tire Company, the first with the tire factory in Kurume. The sale begins with a bold guarantee promise: free replacement in case of a defect.

In the first year the young company had 100 000 austauschen.Trotzdem tires, this undertaking by Ishibashi-san rapidly gaining momentum. As early as 1932 Bridgestone tires from the big U.S. car manufacturers Ford, General Motors and Chrysler are approved, the worldwide trade in flowers to the trade embargo the United States following the Sino-Japanese War (1937) the export can easily break again.

Only after the Second World War, the global tire market is coming back really moving. In 1960, the factory was opened in Tokyo, while a workers’ settlement with its own infrastructure – created – from supermarkets to hospitals. 1962 saw the plant in Nasu,

100 kilometers north of Tokyo, now with 870 employees, the production facility for all Bridgestone motorcycle tires. Per day are baked here 6300 motorcycle tires. Special feature: Each tire is inspected by hand. Only when the inspector is satisfied, he presses his control mark on the side wall.

1973, Ishibashi pulls back from the company management. His legacy to the successor once he reaches to the thoughts that have accompanied his entrepreneurship in the last seven decades: it profitable, develop good products for satisfied customers and maintain a respectful treatment of all workers and employees.