Daiichi Sankyo predecessor company, Sankyo Co., Ltd. (Sankyo), was initially established to import and sell Taka-Diastase, a gastrointestinal drug developed in the United States by Dr. Jokichi Takamine, in Japan. The company was named “Sankyo,” with the two characters that make it up meaning “three” and “cooperation,” because it was founded as a joint venture between three business persons: Matasaku Shiobara, who sold the drug; his friend Shotaro Nishimura, who introduced Shiobara to Taka-Diastase; and another friend, Genjiro Fukui. See the complete story of the founding of Sankyo Shoten here.
Meanwhile, Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. (Daiichi) began its business with the domestic production of the antisyphilitic agent Salvarsan (registered name: Arsemin), which at the time relied heavily on imported products. The company was initially called “Arsemin Shokai” but later became “Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.” when it was converted to a public joint-stock company. Unfortunately, there is no record of how or why this name was chosen. The name “Daiichi, ” generally meaning “first” or “foremost” in Japanese, is not intended to mean that it was the first pharmaceutical company in Japan or that it was founded by one person; in fact, there were actually eight people involved in its actual founding.
Shozaemon Keimatsu, the key figure in the company's launch, works tirelessly to gather investors
Arsemin Shokai, the predecessor of Daiichi, was founded in 1915 under a “silent partnership.” A silent partnership is a form of contract in which members make an investment on behalf of the company and receive a share of the profits in proportion to their investment ratio.
Following the success of the newly developed product, Neo-Neo-Arsemin, Arsemin Shokai became a “limited partnership” company the following year in 1916. The business grew steadily and soon, with a desire to increase production and a firm belief in the growing value of domestically produced Salvarsan, the company began drawing up plans to change its structure to a “public joint-stock company.”
Under these circumstances, Shozaemon Keimatsu, who had once succeeded in the trial production of Arsemin and had been the catalyst for establishing Arsemin Shokai, selected the management team and again approached those who had helped found the company for investment. Unfortunately, due to various circumstances, the earlier investors could not help this time. However, Mr. Keimatsu did not give up.
With the help of Tsunekichi Sakakibara a group of eight founders come together
Daiichi Pharmaceutical's first president,
Tsunekichi Sakakibara
The person who came up with a solution to overcome the situation was Tsunekichi Sakakibara, a pharmacist and the owner of Tuyo Company. Keimatsu was close to Sakakibara, both personally and professionally, and had previously asked him for help in commercializing Arsemin and building a factory for Arsemin Shokai on land owned by Tuyol Company. He entrusted Sakakibara with the role of advisor and asked him to recommend a financially influential businessperson. Sakakibara's friend, Mataemon Tazawa, a dye merchant, and his colleague, Seinosuke Shibata, agreed to participate. At that time, dyes were used in larger quantities than pharmaceuticals and were imported in bulk, meaning it was large-scale business. Furthermore, given that the business was also related to medicine, it would be fair to say that these individuals were a wise choice.
Eventually, the following eight individuals joined as founders, including Mineo Yotsukura, who had been the general manager of Arsemin Shokai.
・ Seinosuke Shibata (later became the first president of Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.)
・ Jusha Tsumura (founder of Tsumura Juntendo, a company which manufactured and sold Japanese traditional medicines
・ Kyubei Shimada
・ Mataemon Tazawa
・ Ishimatsu Hoshino
・ Eizaburo Katsu
・ Mineo Yotsukura
・ Tsunekichi Sakakibara
The company then drafted its Articles of Incorporation to “manufacture and sell pharmaceutical and industrial chemicals for physical and chemical use, manufacture and sell various machines for medical and physical–chemical use, and incidental businesses related to the aforementioned purposes.”
From the outset, Arsemin Shokai had been committed to the ideal of “creating academically authoritative high-quality pharmaceuticals directly linked to modern medicine.” The new Daiichi Pharmaceutical's Articles of Incorporation summarized this inherited aspiration to create domestically produced, high-quality pharmaceutical products.
In January 1918, Seinosuke Shibata was appointed president, Mineo Yotsukura as managing director, Jusha Tsumura and Ishimatsu Hoshino as directors, and Tsunekichi Sakakibara and Mataemon Tazawa as auditors. All 26 shareholders, including Keimatsu, who became an advisor, were assembled, and the limited partnership company was dissolved; thus, Daiichi Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. was established as the successor to all the manufacturing and commercialization rights that had been held by Arsemin Shokai.
Although the path to the creation of Daiichi Pharmaceutical was not always smooth, the passion of the many people who made it a reality united under the leadership of Keimatsu and his friend Sakakibara lives on in Daiichi Sankyo to this day.