Kan-ichi Nakano

Background

Kan-ichi Nakano was born in Niigata Prefecture.

Career

For 10 subsequent years since 1894, he was devoted to oil mining, spending all his fortune and ex-periencing repeated failures. He succeeded in mining 3,000 koku (one koku equals 39.7 gallons) of oil through the use of American machinery (1903). He installed mining equipment on a larger scale and became a leader of the Japanese oil industry (1907). Earlier, he participated in the organization of the Nihon Petroleum Co., Ltd. (1888), together with Hisahiro Naito, etc. Went to the United States (1910) on an inspection tour of oil fields. Was elected to the House of Repfesentatives.

Achievements

• In 1874 he started mining petroleum, employing a large number of workers without any machinery. This was the first oil mining enterprise in Japan.
  
  In his late years, he established the Nakano Foundation for the education of youths.