In 1974, monthly sales of Mazda’s rotary-engine cars in the United States fell to less than half of their level before the oil shock. In the year to October 1975, Toyo Kogyo, as the company was then called, posted a recurring loss of 17.3 billion yen.
Its main bank, Sumitomo Bank, put a deputy president in charge of the rescue in the summer of 1974 and sent in a manager in October. In January 1975, it set up a loan department for Toyo Kogyo alone. In January 1976, a Sumitomo managing director became vice president of Toyo Kogyo.