Osamu Suzuki passed away on December 25 at the age of 94. During his long tenure at Suzuki, he had been either president, chairman, or CEO of the company since 1978. In February 2021, the company announced that Suzuki would retire in June 2021 and become an adviser.
According to Reuters’ wire service, Suzuki was “an ingenious penny pincher who led Japan’s Suzuki Motor for more than four decades. 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. Suzuki, who often cited golf and work as the keys to his health, finally passed the baton as CEO to his son Toshihiro in 2016 and stayed on as chairman for another five years until age 91, keeping an advisory role until the end.
