Shunsaku Tamiya, Who Brought Perfection to Plastic Models, Dies at 90

New York Times

25-07-2025

Shunsaku Tamiya transformed his father's former sawmill into a leading manufacturer of plastic model kits, with a passion for detail that once led him to buy and disassemble a Porsche to make a perfect miniature version. He died on July 18 of undisclosed causes, at age 90.
For more than four decades, Mr. Tamiya led the company that bore his family's name, turning it into one of the world's largest makers of build-it-yourself plastic model kits of racecars and military vehicles. Since producing its first such kit in 1960, of the Japanese World War II battleship Yamato, Tamiya Co. has become a globally known brand that also produces remote-controlled cars.
Under the leadership of Mr. Tamiya, who replaced his father as the company's president, Tamiya won popularity worldwide for making kits that excelled in quality and historical detail. In 1967, one of its miniature models so faithfully reproduced a Formula 1 racing car, down to the location of a starter battery beneath the driver's seat, that the maker of the original vehicle, Honda Motor, wondered if he had access to trade secrets but decided to let it pass.
His pursuit of accuracy also once took him to the embassy of the Soviet Union in Tokyo, where he sought details about Warsaw Pact tanks. This drew the attention of Japan's public security bureau, which placed him under surveillance for a time.
Mr. Tamiya was serving as the company's chairman at the time of his death. According to the company, he still enjoyed standing at the entrance to an annual trade show near Tamiya's headquarters in Shizuoka, a city south of Tokyo, to watch the children come in.
'He turned our city of Shizuoka into a world center of plastic models,' Shizuoka's mayor, Takashi Namba, told reporters after learning of Mr. Tamiya's death. 'He also built a global brand. I truly respected him.'
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