Made in America

By Akira Yamamura

Successful entrepreneur and business leader Akira Yamamura tells the true story of his fight to succeed and survive in a global business environment. The story begins with his unusual early family life and his rebellion against the path his father, an influential politician, expected of him, and continues with his enduring setbacks and striving toward creating a billion-dollar hi-tech enterprise. Alone with little money, he went to the United States to study and better himself. There, through many twists and turns, he created a life where he rose through the ranks to lead a rapidly growing international company. This story will inspire and promote the idea of ambition in readers of all ages.

• Language: English
• Publisher: One Peace Ebooks
• Release date: Nov 18, 2021
• ISBN: 9781642731774

Akira Yamamura

Born in Japan in 1944, after graduating from the Faculty of Engineering at Keio University in 1966 he went to study in the US. In 1969, he completed his master's degree at Northeastern University and joined Cambridge Thermionics. He changed his job to Ferrofluidics in 1979 and became the current CEO of Ferrotec in Japan in1980. He led the top manufacturer of magnetic fluid application products. In 1987, he became independent from the U.S. parent company through an MBO. In 1999, the former parent company became a wholly owned subsidiary through a takeover bid, and this continues to this day.

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Made in AMERICA

Text © Akira Yamamura 2021

Date of Publication (Japan): December the 15th, 2017 by PARADE Inc.

Date of Publication (USA): November the 18th, 2021 by Akira Yamamura

This is a work of creative non-fiction.

All the events in this memoir are true to the best of the author’s memory. Some names

and identifying features have been changed to protect the identity of certain parties.

The author in no way represents any company, corporation, or brand mentioned herein.

The views expressed in this memoir are solely those of the author.

All rights reserved. No part of this may be reproduced or transmitted in any form

or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording,

or by storage and retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher.

For information contact the publisher. Every effort has been made to accurately present

the work presented herein. The publisher and authors regret unintentional inaccuracies

or omissions, and do not assume responsibility for the accuracy of the translation

in this book. Neither the publishers nor the artists and authors of the information presented

in herein shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages,

including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential or other damages.

Written by Akira Yamamura

ISBN: 978-1-64273-177-4

To Tristan E. Beplat and Joseph Lyman,

who were both my father figures and mentors

Contents

Introduction

Part 1

CHAPTER 1 My Early Years

The Yamamura Family & My Father Shinpei

My Two Mothers & Siblings

Elementary School

Who Was My Father?

Junior High School－A Youth Spent Gambling on Wings

High School

Keio University

The Yamamura Home in Those Days

My Friends

Benz

George’s

Leaving My Father

Coin Laundry

Graduation Thesis

A Saintly Person

Onward, America

CHAPTER 2 America

Graduate School Life

Kiyoko Crosses the Ocean

Tristan E. Beplat

Cambridge Thermionic Corporation

Yodo-go Hijacking Incident

Joe Lyman, The Master

Days of Research & Development－Memories with Joe

Venture Business Offer

Family Trip Across America

Back to Japan after a Five-Year Absence

Developing the Arsenic Refining Process

Dangerous Facilities

Life in Utah

Our Children

Refining Gallium

Leaving Utah

Return to Cambion

A Sad Triumph

Ferrofluidics

Part 2

CHAPTER 1 Breakthroughs in Japan Market

The Early Days of Ferrofluidics Japan

Road to Domestic Production

CHAPTER 2 Reluctant Independence

Threatening Clouds

A Mysterious Start-up Speed

Reluctant Independence

Stockholders Meeting

The Patent that Got Away

The Story of the Kamaishi Factory

The Story of Crystal-Tech

CHAPTER 3 Path Towards Expansion

Development of New Key Products

China and Me

Encounter with He Xian Han, Exchange Student

CHAPTER 4 Litigation

AVS

Lawsuit

Traitor S

The Road to Settlement

Mr. Bergman, Exposed

CHAPTER 5 Reverse Acquisition

He Xian Han Heads to Hangzhou

The Progressing China Factory

The Road to Listing on the Exchange

Ferrotec Together Again

The Four Presidents

Reunion－Me and Mr. Bergman

Acknowledgements

A Chronological Table of Akira Yamamura

Album

Introduction

M arch 1980.

The figure of a young man appeared at the Narita Airport arrival gate on a flight from America. I would have certainly recognized his shape out of the corner of my eye, as he pulled along a small luggage cart and walked briskly to the lobby, among all the other travelers in the area. He was not a big man, but he was muscular with a stocky upper body. He had a mustache that gave him a gentlemanly appearance, but appeared to have a pained look on his face from his gait and overall facial expression.

He exited the airport.

March. A refreshing blue sky. The greenery of the mountains off in the distance was stunning.

He had studied abroad in the United States on a one-way ticket, a 15-year odyssey. Though he was only able to return to Japan twice for a few days during his time in America, he could kick back and relax in his native country. All of which led to the formation of his business. It was just at the time he wanted to return to Japan.

Well, that was the moment.

One step at a time.

The landscape of his hometown stiffened his resolve.

That man was me, Akira Yamamura.

Part 1

CHAPTER 1

My Early Years

I was staring at the passing landscape from the train window. Narita Airport, the portal to Japan’s skies, located in my hometown of Chiba Prefecture, intrigued me.

I first left Japan in 1967 (the 42nd year of the Showa Era), from Haneda Airport in Tokyo, returning in 1972 (Showa 47). At that time, there was as yet no airport in Narita. Narita Airport opened in May 1978 (Showa 53).

In 1979, I first had the opportunity to land at Narita Airport on a return trip from a conference I attended in Hakone in May of that year. But what was this gateway to the skies of Japan realized in my hometown in Chiba? I will describe my feelings in－depth in terms of the relationship between myself and the outside world.

There is also something else I must mention. My recollections of my father. His name was Shinjiro Yamamura the 10th. He was the first person elected to the Lower House of the National Diet in the first election held after the Second World War, becoming a politician who rose to through the ranks to join the Cabinet of the Administration of Prime Minister Ikeda.

I will describe how I knew my father had the idea of building an airport in Narita during his lifetime. There was an urgency to construct a new airport in the early 1960s. Haneda Airport’s capacity had reached its limits during Japan’s rapid postwar recovery. Many influential political leaders in Japan had taken up this cause, yet discussions had stalled. While my father had passed away in 1964 (Showa 39), I wondered what he would have said if he had known that the airport was completed in Narita. I thought of my father when I returned home and saw my hometown.

I longed for my childhood memories. There is still this overwhelming smell in the air from the latter half of the late 1940s. I remember one perfectly clear midafternoon.

A cool breeze was blowing at the edge of the garden. I was still but a boy reading a book next to the open sliding screen doors.

Let me tell you something about my boyhood when I was in the 3rd grade in elementary school. Historically, Sawara City (now Katori City) in Chiba Prefecture flourished as a riverside community. The streets were lined with old merchant shops, and it still has the feeling of olden days Little Edo. The Yamamura home itself was the largest in the neighborhood. The main house was old, and there was a storehouse on the property. When I gazed out from the main house, the broad overhanging moss seemed to cast a deep shadow on the garden, making the sunshine appear even more dazzling. The sunlight and tranquility made it a perfect place for reading.

I enjoyed playing outside, just like the other children in the neighborhood. Yet I also liked the time I had to read books on my own. Some of my classmates said that my books were too boring, which was a mistake from my point of view. I didn‘t even know how to enjoy books.

My main enjoyment was reading adventure novels. I was dazzled by exploring an unknown world depicted in Jules Verne’s 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and Journey to the Center of the Earth. I also liked the legendary works of Musashi Miyamoto, the Chronicles of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, and Hidari Jingorō. My love of books is one of empathy for the characters. I was often scolded by my grandmother when I had somewhat more adult-themed books with me.

The maids at home used to see me only reading books, and maybe they thought there was this other, more courageous Akira. I was somehow different from the other children. Was it that I was adored by all at my mom’s family home where I lived until I was three years old? Could it be that I was reading books as an escape from loneliness?

The maids, as maids do, tried their best to take care of me. And every once in a while, they would say to me, Akira, wouldn’t it be great to have two moms. Little did they realize these words would strike my heart. Undoubtedly, my birth mother was the one I missed, yet I never felt distant from her where I lived. It was the home of a merchant family, which meant that people were continually coming and going, so the adults were always busy. The children were very well-behaved, reading books and never causing trouble, and it was lots of fun. And then there was me who had his head buried in books flipping page after page.

The Yamamura Family & My Father Shinpei

But what was the Yamamura family like originally? I should first try to describe the history of the Yamamura family before describing who I am.

The Yamamura family were involved in the rice business since the Edo Period. The family owned large tracts of land in the northern part of Chiba Prefecture, and at its peak, were scattered across an area as far as Choshi City near Kashiwa. The family leased land to tenant farmers, sold fertilizer, and purchased harvested rice. There was a custom of referring to the Yamamura landlord as Shinjiro from generation to generation. The name of the merchant coveys how long the Yamamura family business had been in operation.

My father, the 10th generation Shinjiro Yamamura, was of particular significance.

My father’s name was Shinpei. He was born in 1908 (Year 41 of the Meiji Era). He decided to enter the First Higher School (now Tokyo University) when he turned 18 years old. Yet, his father, Shinjiro the 9th, was against this decision, saying, Why does the son of a merchant take up such foolish studies.

The 9th generation of Shinjiro hailed from Kyoto, had married a local woman also from Kyoto, and was next in line for the family name. He had to go to Sawara due to his expected business abilities and success as the landlord. It was what a person expected to head a merchant family was supposed to do.

Yet this expectation sparked the rebellious spirit in Shinpei. He plotted his escape from Japan to flee from his father’s captivity. He boarded a ship from Kyushu bound for the continent and wound up at Shimonoseki. However, he was caught by his mother, who had been tracking him, and eventually found himself sadly having to return home. Yet, this was only a prelude to what this man who could do all this would eventually do.

The 9th landlord died in 1929 (Year 4 of the Showa Era). Shinpei was ultimately declared the 10th landlord, Shinjiro Yamamura, of the Yamamura family. At the age of twenty-five he established the Yamamura Sangyo Corporation in 1933 (Showa 8). Many in Chiba were unemployed and in need after the Great Depression. He called on the affected people to join him in starting a baking business. He put 10 million yen into the business as startup capital, which was equivalent to over 1 billion yen in currency value during the Heisei Era (1989-2019). The business did well. It was able to provide lunches to schools in Sawara, succeeding even during the depression. Shinpei also involved himself in the finance industry, becoming a lender to tenant farmers struggling to secure financing by using the land as collateral.

Shinpei established Sannei Bussan as a futures trading company after the war in 1958 (Showa 33). He was always interested in the rice futures market and so founded a company, which was also very successful. Behind the success was the inherent value of the land.

The location of the Yamamura family was in a riverside area where they produced early crop rice. When considering the area’s condition over an entire year, one can imagine what the harvest results in other areas were, where rice was grown later in the season. Acquiring advanced information leads to success down the road.

Shinpei demonstrated unmatched skills in the business arena. But the way he lived his life indicated he would not be satisfied with business success alone. Once a person views the world through business, that person will desire to lead the world in a better way. Shinpei was interested in politics before the war and had served as a legislator in the Prefectural Assembly in Chiba Prefecture. He handed off the running of the company to his mother. His mother was smart, strong, and very strict. She is the same grandmother that would take to scolding me later.

He hurled himself into national politics from his position in the Prefectural Assembly when the first general elections, since the end of the war were announced in 1947 (Showa 22), becoming one of the top vote-getters in the election throughout all of Japan and was elected to the Lower House of the Diet. He was 39 years old at that time. Most of those who voted for him were the tenant farmers who knew him from the past. He attended the Diet in triumphal fashion as a result. He stood at the center of Japan’s political world.

The media called the members of the Liberal Party, which he and seven other members founded in 1953 (Showa 28), the Eight Samurai. At that time, there was a movie playing called The Seven Samurai by the famous film director Akira Kurosawa which was popular. Shinjiro Yamamura was one of those eight. The other powerhouse members were Bukichi Miki, Ichiro Kono, Masanosuke Ikeda, Takechiyo Matsuda, Umekichi Nakamura, Kaku Ando and Toh Matsunaga. He later held important positions in the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), including serving as the Head of the Administrative Management Agency in the cabinet of former Prime Minister Ikeda.

Shinpei demonstrated the ability to turn politics into a business endeavor sandwiched between the wars. These activities were not just because the Yamamura family and its long-standing businesses supported him. There was a time where the Yamamura family itself was besieged and suffered. The single most tremendous shock would be the agricultural reforms, which immediately followed the war’s end. The foundation of the Yamamura family, which prospered for generations on account of its rice business, was its land.

In 1945 (Showa 20), GHQ initiated agricultural reforms that sold these valuable lands at prices that effectively gave them away. When I was in kindergarten, I remember the scene at our home, as it was being carved into pieces－my strict grandmother lamenting along with my mother in front of a pile of thick black accounting notebooks. It was the day when the order for land reform came down.

Though the land selloff was essentially a giveaway, the Yamamura family was still in possession of significant wealth. Yet the families who had for a long time made a fortune from the land and its tenant farmers, did not seem to manifest their decline openly at these land losses.

The Yamamura family survived the postwar reconstruction period because of its strong foundation built on its long-established businesses and Shinpei’s courageous mother. It might be that Shinpei was able to pivot into the political world because he lived in his mother’s shadow. He admired his mother for being a brave woman. She had a gift in business to the extent that she was called the Heroine of the Kanto Region.

My Two Mothers & Siblings

My life is the one given by the Yamamura family. I was the third child in a family of two boys and three girls. I was the oldest boy. I was born on April 1, 1944. Yet my actual date of birth is November 18, 1943 (Showa 18). I only learned of this fact much later.

I was born towards the end of the war, and it ended around the time I remember taking my first steps. I have a photo taken of me when I was around three in 1946 (Showa 21). It reminds me of the time I wore a US Marine cap. In those days, the children would yell out Give me chocolate to Chiba’s US occupation forces. I remember the terrible food situation and that everyone was starving─even the great Yamamura family struggled.

I was raised in a separate home until I was three years old when I moved to Sawara. It was my father’s opinion that this home was right for raising boys. It was already difficult for me to be living separately from my actual mother from such a tender age.

The Sawara household was a large merchant family, with many people coming and going and everyone being so busy. By moving into this busy home for my mother, who was already raising a family, I was essentially a three-year-old kid being dropped suddenly into the vortex as her fifth son. But she cared for me as her very own and never treated me any differently from her children.

There were four boys at home. I had been in a home where I was the oldest boy among four other brothers and sisters, but here I was the last of five boys. This situation led to the maids saying, It must be great to have two moms. I was feeling quite sad over being separated from my actual mother. Even to this day, that did not mean that I hated my mother in Sawara.

My mother in this home was a wonderful person with a beautiful young heart. My father only came home during the Lantern Festival in August and during elections. She always fulfilled her role as a mother, as the wife of a Yamamura, and never spoke ill of him. I witnessed my mother’s profile every day. She always reflected beauty and tenderness that testified to a sort of nostalgic Japanese motherhood. But my overbearing grandmother was strict with my mother. I only once saw my mother having been scolded harshly by her quietly sobbing on the second floor.

Speaking of memories of my mother: My mother took me to a movie about the tragic motherhood of Aiko Mimasu, which was popular in those days, as I had a free ticket to see it. It is a memory that weighs heavily on me. It reflected my situation as it was a story about a mother and child separated by war. I am not sure what my mother, who was next to me, thought of it.

My father took me to see my birth mother once every two years. It was a small homecoming of sorts. The road back home to Sawara after reuniting for a brief time with my birth mother was always a sad occasion. My oldest brother Naoyoshi, born in 1933 (Showa 8), was strictly raised. He was to be the 11th Shinjiro Yamamura landlord.

Naoyoshi was in junior high school when the war came to an end. The harsh prewar education system changed entirely from the militarism before the war to the democracy that emerged. Yet, the way of thinking about things ground into him during his youth did not necessarily lead him to change quickly. Naoyoshi was a high school student, but had a characteristic stoicism, which gave him a prewar air. He wore high clogs, a school cap, and a hand towel on his waist as his uniform. He looked like the sort of the man’s depicted in paintings. He went to a boxing gym as he yearned to be a physically strong man.

However, he was taken to task by our strict grandmother, who said, Stop acting like a fool who wants to punch people, which made him quite reluctant. Although, rather than quit, he kept on going in secret. Boxing led him to become the champion in Chiba Prefecture and, ironically, when covered in the newspapers, led to our grandmother taking notice and showering praise upon him. Naoyoshi proved himself through this single act to be both decisive and relentless in his pursuits.

In any event, Naoyoshi had an explosive personality, and my older brothers were always on the receiving end of his fists as if they had targets painted on them. Yet, he never raised his hands to me. Maybe it occurred to him that I was someone else’s child, or maybe it was that he would have been prevented by our tough-as-nails grandmother saying something like, Do not harm that child. He attended my high school graduation in place of my father. He was the first to congratulate me when I got married, so he was not a person who only resorted to violence. But he certainly had a ferocious temper.

Naoyoshi entered Gakushuin University on the advice of our father. He became school friends with others of noble birth. Naoyoshi’s character was so intense that it was not a good match with his circle. He got into a fight with a Yakuza member who was harassing his friend, who he then injured, and subsequently taken to the police station in Hibiya, Tokyo.

Naoyoshi was quite drunk when my father arrived at the police station. Besides reeking of alcohol, he had a strong sense of right and wrong－but this made him an annoyance. Our father was a politician at the time, so this would not have reflected well on him as both a politician and as a parent. I have my doubts, however, to what extent, Naoyoshi reflected on these things. Even so, Naoyoshi held a deep dislike of our father. Our father spent more time at another home he had in Nishi-Chiba, so he only came home to us during elections or for the summer Lantern Festival. Naoyoshi felt sorry for our mother in his youthful heart and treated our mother as unique. Whether due to low grades or the total mismatch with his personality, he inevitably dropped out of Gakushuin University.

One reason I can speculate is that his instructor warned him, you should wear your shoes in the way a man of such nobility would. An obvious inference to who Naoyoshi’s family was, and the fact that he was a classmate of future Emperor Akihito (Heisei era, 1989-2019). Naoyoshi continued to wear his school uniform and his clogs, convinced That is how Japanese boys ought to be. He should have just cast aside the pride of being a Japanese boy, as being both impossible and inappropriate even if his classmates were with the heir apparent to the Japanese Imperial Throne.

Naoyoshi’s youth was, therefore, one of forging straight ahead into a free-for-all. However, there will come a day when a person with such focused principles will be in demand. He eventually succeeded our father and became the 11th Shinjiro Yamamura and a member of the National Diet in 1964 (Showa 39) at the age of 31. In Japan and globally, he became well-known during the Yodo-go Hijacking Incident that occurred in 1970. He volunteered as a substitute for the hostages and went to North Korea for negotiations that did not easily emulate patriotism and daring. This image of him seeking out the very place where he sought to die is like that of a modern-day Samurai.

Yet, I might be getting a little ahead of myself. Let us return to when I was in elementary school.

Elementary School

My curiosities emerged during elementary school. Chiba had a sprawling countryside, excellent environment, and I got along with all the children in the area.

I really enjoyed reading books and playing outside. I used to run around with the children in the neighborhood, sometimes getting covered in mud. There were no barriers between children from wealthy households or tenant farmers playing with each other. Indeed, there was so much poverty after the war. Children went home dirty, tanned, and smelly in the same clothes they had worn outside. But innocent, carefree children don’t fret over such things. There was this society of children, with a kind of ringleader and his underlings playing all day until darkness fell. My grandmother used to read me the riot act if I got home well past the time I should have.

I spent my days at Sawara Elementary School. There were 3,000 students from my school district. The nearby schools had burned to the ground during the war.

I had all kinds of friends. There was Sugiura, a rather large kid, who remained a good friend of mine for years to come. He was always