Abstract
Ogura Oil had long been dominated by Tsunekichi Ogura, the founder and dictatorial leader before he died in 1934, so that no salaried managers could be promoted to the top management post. Nobuhei Nakahara, a chemical engineer of that company graduated from the Tokyo Imperial University, played a major role in solving conflicts within Ogura family and Ogura Oil immediately after Tsunekichi's death and opened his way to the top management. In this process he cooperated with Tamaki Makita, the former senior executive director of Mitsui Mining and a brother in law of Fusazo Ogura, who could become the president of Ogura Oil by the help of Makita and Nakahara. Fusazo, Makita and Nakahara formed the top management of new Ogura. In 1939, Nakahara shifted to the new oil refining company, Toa Nenryo Kogyo which was established by the joint-share holdings of eight oil refining companies including Ogura Oil. This new company was born from the strong desire of the military to guarantee the supply of the high quality gasoline for the wartime purpose. Nakahara's move to the new company was also the product of military.
But while working as the top executive of Toa Nenryo, Nakahara continued to have interest in Ogura Oil. When Ogura Oil met the management crisis in 1941 because of the failure of president Fusazo, Nakahara cooperated with Makita to rescue Fusazo and Ogura Oil by merging it with Nippon Oil.
