Our History
Mitsubishi Motors' history stretches back more than a hundred years, to 1870. That was when a young Japanese entrepreneur, Yataro Iwasaki, who had been working for his feudal lords, the Tosa Clan, decided to strike out on his own and begin a small shipping company, called Tsukumo Shokai.
Three Diamonds
To develop a logo for the company, Iwasaki took his own family crest, which showed three stacked diamonds, and the crest of the Tosa Clan, which showed three oak leaves joined at the stem. The result was the forerunner of today's logo: three diamonds that come together at a central point. In 1875, Iwasaki decided to rename the company after the logo: Three Diamonds, or in Japanese, Mitsubishi. From then on, all the companies that would later grow from that original shipping company would bear the Mitsubishi name. The logo in its final form was registered in 1914.
New fields
Before long, the company was branching out into new fields. From shipping it moved into shipbuilding, and then into heavy industrial engineering, oil and steel production, chemicals, electronics...
From Model A to MME
Mitsubishi's first motor car, the Model A (a copy of the Model T Ford), appeared in 1917, and the protype of its first truck just a year later. In 1928, the Mitsubishi Aircraft Company was founded, producing the Mitsubishi MC-1. The first bus followed in 1932 (the FUSO B-46). Today, there are over 35 separate Mitsubishi companies, producing everything from ships, aircraft and bridges, to oil, gas, plastics and synthetic fibres, and from electronic products and space software to automobiles. In 1970, the division responsible for making motor vehicles was set up as an independent company, Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC). Today, MMC has maufacturing facilities in over 30 countries, and its sales and after-sales organisation serves more than 170 countries. In 2002, Mitsubishi Motors Europe (MME) was founded specifically to coordinate sales in Europe.
From the very beginning, Mitsubishi's combination of creative engineering and entrepreneurial drive has been its hallmark. We continue to build on that tradition today.