NASHVILLE -- Yutaka Katayama, Nissan’s first U.S. president, who grabbed American consumer awareness by introducing the affordable Datsun Z sports car in the early 1970s, has died at 105.
Known publicly as “Mr. K,” Katayama left his U.S. post 40 years ago and retired from Nissan altogether in 1977. But his lingering presence as an elderly, spry and sometimes critical voice from the past has continued to sustain U.S. brand interest in both Nissan’s Z cars and Nissan itself.