Daihatsu Logo: A D Named by Osaka Customers

Daihatsu's name wasn't chosen in a boardroom. Customers coined it as shorthand for the Osaka-based engine maker founded in 1907.

Country: Japan
Active: Since 1907
Website: Official website ↗

A nickname that stuck

Daihatsu’s name wasn’t picked in a boardroom. Its customers made it up. The company was founded in Osaka in March 1907 as Hatsudoki Seizo Co., Ltd., with a single mission: to build engines in Japan at a time when almost all of them were imported.

According to Daihatsu, the business was planned by scholars such as Dr. Yoshiaki Yasunaga, president of the Governmental Osaka Higher Technical School, together with like-minded business people. Its engineers had no blueprints to copy. Even so, in 1907 they completed Japan’s first domestically produced suction gas engine, a 6 horsepower unit.

Customers soon shortened the long company name. They called it Daihatsu, an abbreviation of “the Osaka-based engine (hatsudoki) maker”. The trick is in the kanji: the character for the “O” in Osaka can also be read “dai”. In December 1951 the nickname became official, and the company was renamed Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd. Daihatsu says it has the longest history of any existing Japanese car manufacturer.

Three wheels first

Cars came later. In the early Showa era, demand for three-wheeled delivery vehicles was rising, but their engines were still imported. Daihatsu designed its own air-cooled four-stroke petrol engine and put it into a three-wheeler that was simply called “the Daihatsu”. Marketing of this Model HA began in December 1930, and Daihatsu counts it as its first car.

The vehicle that made the name famous arrived in 1957. The story behind it is pure Osaka. One rainy summer night in 1956, a sales company president watched a scooter loaded with beer bottles tip over in Umeda. A small three-wheeler with a canopy, he thought, would have saved the lot. The idea went straight to Daihatsu, and the Midget was born.

One letter, no fuss

The badge on today’s Daihatsus is about as direct as car logos get: a stylised capital D. Japanese motoring press describe it simply as the initial of the name, and as a clean, easy to remember mark that suits a maker of small, practical cars.

That is where the verified story ends. Daihatsu doesn’t publish an official explanation of the D on its corporate site, and sources disagree on when it first appeared. Some point to the Compagno of 1963, others to the late 1960s. Without an official date, we’d rather not guess. Look closely at the name itself instead: the real meaning sits in those two kanji, Osaka and engine.

In its recent brand campaign, the company has also started using the word DAIHATSUMEI, a play on the Japanese for “unique inventions”, for the small, clever ideas it sees as typically Daihatsu.

Video: TVCM Brand Campaign “DAIHATSUMEI for me” (60sec)　Daihatsu Official (DaihatsuOfficial)

Small cars, big ideas

Daihatsu has spent most of its life thinking small. The cars that wore its name were built for narrow streets, tight budgets and real working lives.

Landmark Daihatsus, decade by decade

1930: Model HA. A three-wheeler and, according to Daihatsu, the company’s first car.
1957: Midget. A light three-wheeled truck so nimble in back streets that it earned the nickname “the city’s helicopter”.
1960: Hijet. A mini cargo vehicle whose series celebrated its 60th anniversary in 2020.
1963: Compagno. Launched first as a van, with styling by the Italian coachbuilder Vignale.
1977: Charade. Sold as the “5-square-meter car”, with a newly developed three-cylinder engine. It received the ’77 Car of the Year award.
1985: Mira TR-XX. A turbocharged kei car that Daihatsu says sent shockwaves through the segment.

Daihatsu formed a business alliance with Toyota in 1967 and became a wholly owned subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation in August 2016, which makes it a sister brand of Lexus. In small cars its long-running rival is Suzuki, the Mira Cuore against the Alto. For more on how badges like these are put together, see how car logos are designed.

The company’s own timeline also records a difficult chapter. In April 2023 Daihatsu announced a procedural irregularity in certification applications for side collision tests on vehicles for overseas markets, and in December 2023 it published the report of an independent third-party committee. Its corporate site now lists “Three Pledges for Recurrence Prevention”.

Frequently asked questions

What does the Daihatsu logo stand for?

The emblem is a stylised D, the first letter of Daihatsu. No official explanation beyond that was found on Daihatsu’s corporate site.

What does the name Daihatsu mean?

It began as a customer nickname for the “Osaka-based engine (hatsudoki) maker”. The character for “O” in Osaka can also be read “dai”, which gives dai plus hatsu.

When was Daihatsu founded?

In March 1907, in Osaka, as Hatsudoki Seizo Co., Ltd. The company took the name Daihatsu Motor Co., Ltd. in December 1951.

Is Daihatsu owned by Toyota?

Yes. The two companies formed a business alliance in 1967, and Daihatsu became a wholly owned subsidiary of Toyota Motor Corporation in August 2016.