History

As one of the oldest companies in the Japanese automotive industry, Isuzu traces its beginnings to 1916, the year Tokyo Ishikawajima Shipbuilding and Engineering Co., and Tokyo Gas and Electric Industrial Co. initiated plans for automobile production. In 1922, Japan's first domestically produced automobile, a Wolseley model A-9 is completed. In 1934, a Ministry of Trade and Industry standard model car was launched and named the "Isuzu" after the ISUZU River in the ISE Shrine area. This is the origin of the company name, which was changed to today's "Isuzu Motors Limited" in 1949. After World War II, development and production of commercial vehicles occurred at a feverish pace in Japan. There was great demand for Isuzu trucks to carry all kinds of materials, products and foodstuffs, and they played a major role in postwar reconstruction. Isuzu's passion for truck production is firmly rooted in this period. Since that time, an endless variety of models from light-duty trucks to heavy-duty trucks and buses have rolled off Isuzu production lines, with each vehicle being put to hard use in support of economic growth.