In 1903, Japan's first commercial bus service began running in Kyoto, while far away in North Carolina, the Wright brothers achieved humanity's first powered flight.
Born that same year in the Iwami region of Shimane Prefecture, Iwatani Naoji entered the agricultural school in Oda at the age of 12. There, Darwin's theory of evolution taught him the harsh realities of the survival of the fittest, and he etched in his mind the principle that would later become his company's philosophy: “Become a person needed by society, as those needed by society can prosper.” It remained his guiding principle for the rest of his life.
He lived for a century.
He was both a witness to history and one who bore testimony to it.
At 15, after graduating from the agricultural school, he witnessed in Kobe the arson attacks sparked by the Rice Riots that had begun in Toyama, and at 20 he lived through the Great Kanto Earthquake in Yokohama (99,000 dead and 43,500 missing).
Naoji founded his business at 27. But even as his dream of a company built on selling oxygen gas grew, militarism was engulfing Japan, with the Manchurian Incident followed by the Shanghai Incident.
Amid all this, in 1934 (Showa 9), the Muroto Typhoon struck, destroying or washing away some 40,000 homes. Naoji did not escape its damage either.
Then came the Pacific War, which began with the attack on Pearl Harbor.
Doing business across Shanghai, Tianjin and Osaka meant risking his life.
Narrowly escaping death, he returned to Osaka, where he saw the end of the war.
Though burned out twice in the Osaka air raids, which destroyed 130,000 homes, Naoji rebuilt, and in 1953 (Showa 28) he became the first in Japan to sell propane gas as a household fuel on a nationwide scale.
At the root of it all was a selfless, altruistic spirit.
His dream of contributing to human society through the gas energy business came true when gas burned as the Olympic flame in the cauldron at the Tokyo Olympics (1964), and when he watched the launches of the first H-I and H-II rockets, Japan's first domestically developed rockets, in 1986 and 1994. The Olympic flame was fueled by Marui Propane, a name he himself had coined, and the liquid hydrogen fuel for the H-I and H-II rockets was supplied by the Iwatani Group.
Witnessing those historic moments, Naoji is said to have wept with emotion, saying, “It makes me as happy as watching my own child grow up.”
His efforts to spread propane gas as a household fuel likewise came from compassion for others: the wish to free women from the soot of the kitchen hearth. His work toward the practical use of hydrogen gas, too, was true to Iwatani's slogan: “Creation of a more comfortable space on the Earth is what Iwatani wishes and strives for.” He recognized earlier than anyone that hydrogen was a dream energy, free of pollution. He knew that his business and his very self were one.
Taking the broad view of energy and the environment, he lived through a century, never giving up in the face of hardship and always looking toward the future beyond. Perhaps the only one who kept pace with him was his own shadow.
Now, at last, the times are beginning to catch up with him.
In July 2005, Iwatani Naoji quietly came to the end of his life. The dream he left behind has become a universal philosophy of circulation for all humankind, and it speaks to us, living today, in many ways.
