01
The Three Dumpling Section Managers
In the development of the ninth-generation Mark II, chief engineer Hiroshi Ohashi had three assistants under him, and the people around them called them the "three dumpling section managers." The eldest, Kenichiro Fuse, handled the Mark II, the middle one, Osamu Sadakata, the Verossa, and the youngest, Tomohara, the Mark II Blit. The product planning department had no environment that taught you from scratch the way the design departments did, so the only way was to watch and absorb everything yourself. What his mentor Ohashi taught was to hold his own standard (yardstick) and the importance of cost planning. Even for the height of the Blit's open back door, he was drilled to have a yardstick of his own for the best position, and Tomohara drove all kinds of wagons from Japan and abroad, opening and closing the doors again and again to sharpen it.
