Daniel Leussink
Yokohama, Japan (Reuters) - When Nissan's Oppama factory opened in 1961, it was one of Japan's earliest large automobile factories and a symbol of the company's global ambitions. After 64 years and millions of cars, the legendary plant may now be closed as Nissan falls deeper into crisis.
New CEO Ivan Espinosa announced cost cuts this month, including plans to abandon 15% of the global workforce and close seven factories around the world. Nissan has been hit by a drop in sales in the U.S. and China, with Nissan facing debt repayments and scrambling to upgrade its aging vehicle lineup.
The Japanese automaker has yet to say which of its 17 plants will be closed. Reuters reported this month that oppama in Yokota, a port city south of Tokyo, is considered another smaller plant in Japan. Factory in South Africa, India, Argentina and Mexico may also be closed, Reuters reported.
"No big companies are left," said Yokohama resident Kunito Watanabe for a long time. Watanabe said he works for a small truck company and his business relies on the Oppama factory. "As long as they drive here, we'll do it. But if it stops, my company will be closed."
The closure of Nissan's "Oppama" (Nissan's "Oppama" (Nissan) is almost an incalculable blow to its 3,900 employees and their families, Yokoyama City and Japan itself.
Once the world leaders from chips to TVs and stereos, Japan no longer dominated electronics and semiconductors, making it more dependent on the increasingly threatening automotive industry by Tesla and Chinese electric car manufacturers.
Nissan's willingness to lay off employees at home is the latest sign that the lifelong employment social contract that ruled Japan's post-war era is slowly being revealed.
Naval Airport
The Oppama factory is built at the former Japanese Naval Airport, which is equivalent to about 200 football fields, including a research center, a test driving course and a transportation center. It is the birthplace of Nissan's first mass-market EV, which was launched in 2010.
The car's production is the world's best-selling model of electric car over the years until Tesla eclipses, and has since moved it to Tochigi, a refurbished factory that is not considered for closure.
Oppama once made the Bluebird, once one of Nissan's most famous cars and was sold in the United States as the Altima. Now, it makes smaller notes and Aura models. Local officials say Nissan is Yokoyama's top employer and one of the city's main taxpayers, making it an important part of the city's life of 370,000 people.
The factory represents Yokohama's post-war transition to the civilian economy. According to its parent company, the U.S. Navy still owns bases in the city, while Sumitomo Heavy Industries has a factory in the shipbuilding division, although it has stopped accepting new orders.
"As Nissan grow and develop, the surrounding areas have also developed," said Kenji Muramatsu, Yokohama Municipal Official. "The entire town is basically built at the Oppama factory."
Muramasu recalled that during the boom in the early 1990s, new cars flowed out of production lines and the streets around Hengshan were blocked by vehicles from Nissen employees.
Today, the area around the local train station is a mix of slightly dilapidated and closed low-rise buildings that are planned to be demolished for reconstruction.
During the heyday of Nissan, Yokoyama was known as one of several "auto cities" in Japan. It is also home to a Toyota Group Company factory that closed in 2000 and another Nissan factory in 2010. Usually, when a Japanese factory is closed, workers will be reassigned to other factories. Nissan is now offering early retirement to certain employees.
Tough times
An Oppama worker who spoke with Reuters on anonymous condition said Nissan has been asking volunteers to retire early packages, focusing on executive roles rather than employees on the production line.
If the factory is closed, those who keep their jobs may face the difficult choice of being separated from their families or uprooting their families from Yokoyama.
Kaoru Takahashi worked at the factory for the first time when he was a teenager over 40 years ago. In her twenties, she did another job, removing the rust spots from the car's body during production.
She no longer works there, but said she knows the people who do it.
“I feel so sad for workers with family and children who buy a house and have a mortgage,” she said.
"Subcontractors will also be hard," she added. The crumbling service workers rely on the livelihoods of factories: garbage collectors, cafeteria workers, cleaners.
Akio Kamataki, 72, runs a bustling tachinomiya "Tachinomiya" (stand-standing bar) near the station. It has been operating in the same location since 1925, first as a ceramic store and later a grocery store. Kamataki likes to joke that it is older than Nissan.
He said, “The Oppama factory is the pride of the locals.” "I still buy Nissan cars and I love them. I haven't driven other brands lately, but I love Nissan's brakes - the way they react."
He said that the plant would be mentioned in primary school textbooks decades ago.
Kamataki is expected to be permanently closed in March due to reconstruction projects around the station area. But the project has since been postponed.
"Now I want to know which one will close first," he said with a smile. “Nissan Plant or my bar.”
(Reported by Daniel Leussink; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Kate Maybery)