ABOUT FOUNDER

“Put in practice the company’s motto to cherish people and always remember to be thankful to the customers”

- Hajime Kurotsuchi, Founder

Mr. Hajime Kurotsuchi left Oita Commercial High School (now Oita University’s faculty of economics) before graduation when he was conscripted into military service during World War II. After returning from China, where he served in the Imperial Japanese Army, he worked in a wholesale company and other places after the war.

Kurotsuchi founded Daiichi Kotsu’s predecessor company with just five taxis in 1960. Kurotsuchi expanded the business via mergers with other taxi companies across Japan. Operating in Tokyo as well, Daiichi Kotsu now owns the most taxis in Japan, at 8,000.

Kurotsuchi was appointed chair of the company in 2001. He handed back his representative rights to the company in 2015 when he sustained an injury, but he regained them when he became representative director in 2017