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Once Totsuko decided to produce transistors for sale to other companies,
the company needed to expand its staff yet again. Shouzaburo Tachikawa, head of general administration, was faced with a
sudden request by Semiconductor Department head Kazuo Iwama. "Semiconductor manufacturing will be done by two shifts of female engineers. Hire them and find somewhere for them to live." It was November 1956. How could he hope to recruit new staff now, as the year was drawing to a close, and when most young people would have already signed on with localtextile firms? He went to the District Employment Security Office, but was given a curt response. What hope did a small, almost unknown company like Totsuko have of competing with the spinning mills, whose reputation asreliable employers dated back to before the war? He needed something different to attract competent people. He decided to advertise for "transistor girls," rather than the more commonplace "female factory hand," a name associated with mill work.
From the start, Ibuka and his management had never discriminated between "white collar" and "blue collar" employees. In their eyes everyone who worked for Totsuko, in whatever capacity, was a member of the same family. Thus Ibuka and Morita made a point of calling each staff member by his or her name.
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Tachikawa's department went as far afield as Hokkaido in search for "transistor girls." They did not have much success in Sendai and the Tohoku region, but they did find promising candidates in Tachikawa's native Hokkaido. Hokkaido had suffered crop damage due to severe cold that year, and many junior high school girls who might otherwise have gone on to senior high were hesitating to impose this burden on their parents. Hiring was based on a simple written test and an interview. Tachikawa took an unusual interview approach. He had the girls who answered his ad bring their parents along, and had them stand behind the girls. The quickest way to judge the daughter, he felt, was by her parents.
Now that Tachikawa had the staff, he had to worry about accommodation.
Since they were to work in shifts, the dormitory had to be close to the plant. Luckily he found the right place across Meiji Avenue and a little down the street, just past Nippon Carburator Co., Ltd. At that location there was a fluorescent paint manufacturer from whom Totsuko was able to buy and renovate their premises. After school graduation in March, Yamanouchi and a number of others traveled around Hokkaido and Tohoku to collect their "transistor girls" and escort them back to Tokyo. They put them on an overnight train which arrived at Ueno Station in the early morning, when Yamanouchi called the head office to report their safe arrival.
"The dormitory isn't finished. Can you keep them busy until midday?" Yamanouchi was told. So he took them sightseeing on a Tokyo tour bus. The new employees were delighted, but Yamanouchi was on the edge of his seat wondering if the dorm would be ready in time.
The following year, the company advertised in a regular way for school graduates. At that time, companies hiring personnel made use of the Ministry of Labor's aptitude screening process. In Tokyo the Ministry would take charge of the process, and companies were actually not permitted to handle it themselves. In other parts of the country officials from the local Employment Security Office were supposed to do the same, but in practice they lacked the experience so employers would provide people to assist them. Groups
of successful candidates would normally be escorted to Tokyo by a prefectural or district official. Totsuko, however, sent its own staff to bring its new employees to Tokyo. Moreover, the company felt that female workers would prefer female escorts, so male staff sent to meet these groups would always be accompanied by a female employee or nurse. These were the days when companies could not attract staff by the same methods the mills used. The escorts would provide carfare so that the new employees'parents could see them off. The parents would have lunch and wait with the group until it boarded the train. The escorts formally promised, "We'll take good care of your daughter." In this way the parents' minds were set at ease. Such thoughtfulness enhanced the company's reputation, and before lon Totsuko's ads were answered by more and more applicants.
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