The Founder, Konosuke Matsushita
We are taking on the challenge of expanding into the automobile industry, which was the dream of Panasonic’s founder, Konosuke Matsushita.
Panasonic Automotive Systems Corporation will realize the dream of Konosuke Matsushita, in a way that is uniquely Panasonic.
Our founder sincerely and continually aspired to contribute to the development of society, and bring happiness to people's lives.
With this management philosophy of Panasonic in our hearts and minds, we will continue “Connecting our hearts to the Journey” for each of our customers around the world, and play a role in realizing a sustainable mobility society.
Actually, even before the war, I believed that after bicycles, automobiles will be the next vehicle to be developed, and I harbored a secret desire to manufacture automobiles. After the war, companies were no longer bound by the chains of the designation on large family-owned conglomerates known as zaibatsu; it was finally the time to get down to real business. This was also when domestic car manufacturing was still not at a mass production level. It was then that we started earnestly researching automobile manufacturing. This had always only been a personal desire of mine.
So perhaps that is why, in the end, we didn’t do it. There were too many tasks that required our immediate attention. Also, if we were to manufacture automobiles, it would require us to virtually abandon Matsushita Electric; that was a bit too much of a risk to take. We believed now was the time to really devote ourselves to our business of electrical appliances.
“Michi wa Asu ni (The Way is Tomorrow)”
Author: Konosuke Matsushita
Publisher: The Mainichi Newspapers