Osamu Suzuki, who led Japanese automaker into India, dies

OSAMU SUZUKI, an ingenious pennypincher who led Japan's Suzuki Motor for more than four decades and played a key role in turning India into a flourishing auto market, has died aged 94.

- CHANG-RAN KIM

He died on Christmas Day of lymphoma, said the company, which he steered ambitiously, during his time as either chief executive or chairman, out of its primary market of minivehicles.

The inexpensive, boxy, 660-cc cars specific to Japan benefited from generous tax breaks, but demanded a stringent reining-in of costs that proved to be a key part of the automaker's DNA.

Even so, Suzuki's thriftiness was legendary: he would order factory ceilings lowered to save on air-conditioning and fly economy class on airplanes even at an advanced age.

"Forever," or "until the day I die," were signature humorous responses with which he parried queries about how long he would stay at the company, on which he retained a tight grip into his 70s and 80s.

Born Osamu Matsuda, Suzuki took his wife's family name through adoption in a practice common among Japanese families lacking a male heir.

The former banker joined the company founded by her grandfather in 1958 and worked upwards through the ranks to become president two decades later.

In the 1970s, he saved the company from the brink of collapse by convincing Toyota Motor to supply engines that met new emissions regulations, but which Suzuki Motor had yet to develop.

More success followed with the 1979 launch of the Alto minivehicle, which became a massive hit, boosting the automaker's bargaining power when it tied up with General Motors in 1981.