Factory that symbolised Nissan's rise may become victim of its decline
The factory represents Yokosuka's transition from a military to civilian economy during the post-war years. The U.S. Navy still has a base in the city and the shipbuilding arm of Sumitomo Heavy Industries has a plant, although it has stopped taking new orders, according to its parent company.
"As Nissan grew and developed, the surrounding area developed as well," said Kenji Muramatsu, a Yokosuka municipal official. "The entire town was essentially built around the Oppama factory."
In the boom years of the early 1990s, new cars streamed off the production lines and the streets around Yokosuka were jammed with the vehicles of Nissan employees heading to and from work, Muramatsu recalled.
Today, the area around the local train station is a mix of slightly shabby and shuttered low-rise buildings that are slated to be demolished for redevelopment.
During Nissan's heyday, Yokosuka became known as one of several "motor cities" in Japan. It was also home to a plant of a Toyota Group company which closed in 2000 and another Nissan plant, which shut in 2010. Typically, when Japanese factories close, workers are reassigned to other plants. Nissan is now offering early retirement to some employees.
HARD TIME
One Oppama worker, who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity, said Nissan had been asking for volunteers to take early retirement packages, focusing its attention on employees in administrative roles rather than on production lines.
If the plant is closed, those who keep their jobs will potentially face the hard choice of living apart from their families or uprooting their households from Yokosuka, said the worker, who was in their 50s and had only ever worked for Nissan.
Kaoru Takahashi first worked at the plant more than 40 years ago when she was still a teenager. In her twenties, she did another stint, removing rust spots from car bodies during production.
She no longer works there, but said she knows people who do.
"I feel really bad for the workers who have families and children, who bought houses and have mortgages to pay," she said.
"Subcontractors will also have a hard time," she added, rattling off the sorts of service workers reliant on the factory for their livelihoods: rubbish collectors, cafeteria workers, cleaners.
Akio Kamataki, 72, runs a bustling "tachinomiya" (standing bar) near the station. It has been in business at the same spot since 1925, first as a ceramics shop and later as a general store. Kamataki likes to quip it is older than Nissan.
"The Oppama factory is a source of pride" for locals, he said. "I still buy Nissan cars and I like them. I haven't driven other brands recently, but I like Nissan's brakes - the way they respond."
Decades ago, the Oppama plant would be mentioned in elementary school textbooks, he said.
Kamataki had expected to close down for good in March because of the redevelopment project around the station area. But the project has since been pushed back.
"Now I wonder which will close first," he said, with a grim laugh. "The Nissan plant or my bar."
(Reporting by Daniel Leussink; Writing by David Dolan; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
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