Kazuo Tashima, Minolta Founder, Dies

Kazuo Tashima, founder and chairman of Minolta Camera Co., has died of kidney failure at a hospital in Kobe, Japan, his family said.

He died Nov. 19, within minutes of his 86th birthday.

In his 54 years as Minolta president, Tashima developed the company into one whose sales last year were $752 million. Tashima was president until 1982, when he became chairman.

Minolta produces the world’s largest-selling single-lens reflex camera. The firm also has an international presence in office automation equipment.

In 1954, Tashima sent a mission to the United States to promote exports of cameras, the first such attempt in the Japanese camera industry.

Tashima, who also was president of the Japan Camera Industry Assn., began his business career in 1928 when he established the Japan-German Camera Co., inviting engineers from Germany to help produce small cameras. In 1937, Tashima reorganized and renamed the company Chiyoda Kogaku Seiko, the predecessor of Minolta, which was formed in 1962.

His eldest son, Hideo, became company president in 1982.