Who Owns Ohtsu?

Ohtsu Tire & Rubber was founded on May 26, 1944, in Osaka as Dai-Nippon Aircraft Tire Company, a joint venture between textile maker Dai-Nippon Boseki (later Unitika) and Naigai Rubber. Its first products were aircraft tires produced at the Izumiotsu plant in Osaka prefecture for the wartime Japanese aviation industry.

After the war ended in 1945, the company renamed itself Ohtsu Rubber Industry and converted to automobile and bicycle tires, taking its name from the city of Izumiotsu where its factory stood. It listed on the Osaka Securities Exchange in 1961 and adopted the corporate name Ohtsu Tire & Rubber in 1962, elevating the long-used brand name to the company name.

Ohtsu's most durable creation came in 1983, when it launched Falken as its flagship high-performance radial brand. Falken grew through motorsport into Ohtsu's most valuable asset. The company also entered ATV tire racing and ran a test course in Asahikawa, Hokkaido.

By the 1980s, Ohtsu was losing share to Japan's big four tiremakers: Bridgestone, Yokohama, Toyo, and Sumitomo's own Dunlop operations. In May 1981, Ohtsu entered a comprehensive partnership with Sumitomo Rubber Industries, which became its largest shareholder. After more than two decades of deepening integration, Ohtsu merged fully into Sumitomo Rubber on July 1, 2003, and the corporation was dissolved. The Izumiotsu factory remains a Sumitomo Rubber plant to this day, and locals still call its products Ohtsu tires.

Sumitomo retained the Ohtsu trademark as a value brand for export markets, especially North America, where Ohtsu-branded passenger and light truck tires continue to be sold through the Falken dealer network in lines such as the FP7000 all-season and AT4000 all-terrain.