100 Stories1931 The Establishment of Asahi Kasei and the Nobeoka Ammonia Fiber

On 21 May, 1931, Nobeoka Plant, Nippon Chisso Hiryo was transferred, and Nobeoka Ammonia Fiber was established with a capital of 10 million yen. Shitagau Noguchi was inaugurated as the new company’s president. This is the story of establishing the current Asahi Kasei. There was a plan behind this establishment that anticipated the future of Asahi Kasei.

Chosen Chisso Hiryo and Nippon Chisso Kayaku were already established at this point as subsidiary companies of Nippon Chisso Hiryo, which owned all their shares. Moreover, the majority of the shares were owned by Asahi Fabric and Japan Bemberg Fiber.

By separating the Nobeoka Plant, Nippon Chisso Hiryo will turn the main unit into a holding company, leaving out the Minamata Plant, which is the oldest one. Then, it will disperse the other plants into multiple subsidiaries, so that from the outside, it maintains an image of a corporate group called Nicchitsu Konzern.

It was already arranged that soon after Nobeoka Ammonia Fiber’s independence, the company will be merged with Japan Bemberg Fiber to establish a comprehensive chemical company in the Nobeoka district. The three companies, including Asahi Fabric, took the form of the merger in the procedures after that. Therefore, legally, this company is a predecessor of Asahi Kasei.

To be specific, it was determined that the Nobeoka Plant and its power plant will be divided, a new company will be established with a capital of 20 million yen, then Japan Bemberg will be merged in accordance with the method and conditions mentioned in the attachment. The attachment “Nobeoka Ammonia Company, Order of Establishment and Increase of Capital” stated that the first step is for Nippon Chisso Hiryo to appraise Nobeoka Plant at 10 million yen, then pay an in-kind investment and establish a new company.

The procedures state that the second step is to appraise the power generation plants and power transmission equipment at 10 million yen and pay an in-kind investment, then increase the capital to 20 million yen. It was stated that the reason each of the Nobeoka Plant and the power plants/transmission lines was appraised at 10 million yen was both the construction costs and the costs without the depreciation.

At the same time, another discussed attachment Japan Bemberg and Chisso Nobeoka Plant Merger Method and conditions” suggested a different order. It stated that the first step was establishing a new company, then merging the new company and Japan Bemberg However, for the Japan Bemberg merger to become a prerequisite, obtaining prior consent was required from Bemberg in Germany.

That is because if the company in Germany refuses the merger, the general commercialization of the Nobeoka Plant will no longer be feasible, and the division of the Nobeoka Plant will become meaningless. In reality, however, the company in Germany confirmed that Japan Bemberg Fiber had the same characteristics before and after the merger and approved on the condition of being involved in management, and Japan agreed to this condition.

Nobeoka Ammonia Fiber was established on 21 May 1931. Shitagau Noguchi, the founder of Asahi Kasei and at the time, executive director of Nippon Chisso Hiryo, was inaugurated as the new company’s president. Although the production equipment that this company had was only inorganic chemicals and fertilizers, and although the original plan was to name it Nobeoka Ammonia, the fact that the word “fiber” was added to the actual company name emphasizes the future merger with Japan Bemberg Fiber.

The merger of the three companies formed a rayon industry-leading company and was a significant step toward forming the current Asahi Kasei. Nobeoka Ammonia Fiber, which played an important role, was established as a part of the big picture in anticipation of a future merger.