After his university graduation, Issey found employment at a small machine company called Suzuki Tekkosho, while keeping his ambition of someday becoming an executive, developing products with his own technology and selling them. Even though he had many options for employment, the reasons he deliberately chose to work at a small company like Suzuki Tekkosho were that he could be hired as a chief engineer and gain extensive experience, and that it was a company managed by the unique individual Tozaburo Suzuki. At that time, Tozaburo Suzuki was well-known as a businessman, inventor, and politician, and was spoken of as “the father of Japan’s modern sugar refining industry.” He was also famous for his belief in Kinjiro Ninomiya’s spirit of moral requital. Issey was deeply impressed by these ideas of repayment and gratitude that he learned from Suzuki, which significantly influenced his outlook on life and management. As a chief engineer, he gained experience under Suzuki in large-scale facility design and installation work. However, five years later, a series of accidents and misfortune led to the bankruptcy of Suzuki Tekkosho in 1910.

When Issey went to Tokyo Imperial University, where his former teacher Dr. Inokuty was working, to report on his current situation, Kunitomo Kikai Seisakusho was recommended to him as a place to find employment. Kunitomo Seisakusho was a small machine tool manufacturer to whom Dr. Inokuty had commissioned manufacturing operations in order to commercially apply his theories on centrifugal pumps. As mentioned previously, Dr. Inokuty’s pump theories were highly praised across the world. Issey felt it would be a great honor as a former student of Dr. Inokuty’s to assist in incorporating those theories into business, so he made the decision to join the company.

However, two years later on November 3, 1912, Kunitomo Seisakusho also went bankrupt, as a result of excessive capital investments that ultimately backfired. At that time, the company owned roughly 50 machines with nearly 100 employees. Due to the aspirations to become a manager which he had held for a long time, and his wish as a favorite student of Dr. Inokuty’s to continue the Dr.’s globally recognized centrifugal pump business himself, Issey then made the decision to establish an office with five or six workers from Kunitomo Seisakusho.