On Tuesday, Tamiya Inc. announced the passing of its chairman and former president, Shunsaku Tamiya. The man who helped turn the plastic model company into a globally recognized brand died on July 18, aged 90. A private funeral service has already been held in accordance with his wishes. The company added that it will release information about potential memorial events in the coming days.
Tributes came pouring in from around the world following the announcement. Among those to pay their respects was Takashi Namba, the mayor of Shizuoka city, where Tamiya was born. “I would like to express my deepest sadness and heartfelt condolences,” said Namba. “He developed the company into a global brand for plastic models and was the driving force behind making Shizuoka city a ‘city of models.’ I truly respect him.”
Remembering Shunsaku Tamiya
Born in 1934, Tamiya started making model cars at a young age and was instantly hooked. “You can’t understand how excited I was to see the model I made running. I was in the fifth grade of elementary school when the war ended. I made the motor myself using dry batteries and I was so satisfied when I hooked it up and started swinging it,” said Tamiya at a Shizuoka hobby show last year.
Tamiya joined the family-run business, then known as Tamiya Shoji LLC, in 1958 after graduating from Waseda University. Appointed head of the product planning division two years later, he initially focused on wooden designs, before Tamiya shifted to plastic model manufacturing. The company started to attract global attention in 1968, when it participated in the Nuremberg Toy Fair in Germany for the first time.
Taking over from his father as company president in 1978, Tamiya helped turn the family business into one of the world’s most well-known model kit companies. Some of Tamiya’s most famous products include its first electric-powered radio controlled (RC) car, the Porsche 934 Turbo model, released two years before he became president, and the fast Mini 4WD racers, introduced in 1982.
Nobuo Tamiya, the husband of Shunsaku’s granddaughter, took over as president last year.
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