1988 – The Design Team
In the late 1980s, Nissan was struggling with sales a commissioned a team of designers to take a fresh approach, designing cars based on people’s lifestyles rather than what the manufacturer wanted.
The “Pike Factory” produced four limited run vehicles of which the Figaro was the fourth and a low riding coupe with flower bud designs throughout commonly referred to as Fleur De Lys. Nissan’s own brand appears – but very discreetly.
The Design Team
A large team who were involved in the final successful design the Nissan Figaro.
We didn’t know the identities of everyone in the photo, but thanks to information provided by Pike Cars designer Yoshiro Kobata in May 2026, we do now!
The photo includes many who were involved in the project – including some who were indirect design managers. We are immensely grateful to this wonderful team who were part of a team that helped the Figaro to be, including Yoshiro himself at number 6 and Jun Shimizu (Head of Design) at number 10.
- Mr Goto – Exterior and Interior
- Mr Tone – Exterior
- Mr Kosaka – Interior
- Mr Fujito – Indirect Manager
- Mr Matsushima – Interior
- Mr Yoshiro Kobata – Interior and Exterior
- Mr Uehara – Interior
- Mr Tsunashima – Exterior
- Mr Matsui – General Manager
- Mr Jun Shimizu – Head of Design
- Mr Kumeda – Indirect Manager
- Mr Sugino – Indirect Manager
Huge thanks to Yoshiro Kobata for providing the names of the people in the photo, and their roles.
Thanks also to Dolly Webb for requesting this information.
Key People involved with the Pike Factory
Naoki Sakai
His role was to lead many of the efforts in the Pike Factory, being heavily involved in seeing the cars get to production through liason with Nissan. After being involved with Nissan’s Be-1, the vehicle that in the late 1980s started the round-and-cute car boom, Sakai was involved with concepts for three more popular cars from Nissan — the Pao, Figaro and Rasheen — as well as the SW-1 motorbike for Suzuki and the model for Toyota’s WiLL concept car.
Sakai led the Pike designs and created a proposal for the Nissan Figaro, but the design selected for final production (first shown at the 1989 Tokyo Motor Show) was designed by Nissan’s in-house design team, led by Jim Shimizu (Shimizu Jun).
Naoki is a designer whose revolutionary ideas have made him an industry powerhouse. Naoki helped develop Olympus’ O-Product, the camera that made the aluminium body a world standard and mobile phones.
Yoshiro Kobata
Yoshiro studied industrial design at Kanazawa College of Art, and at the time was a young ambitious designer whose dream was to have more people use the things he designed.
He thought that automobiles, alongside architecture, would change the urban landscape and started working for Nissan Motor Co.
He designed the BE-1, and as one of the key designers of the Pike cars he was heavily involved with the Figaro.
He tells us the Figaro was the most challenging of the four Pike cars, with several designs tabled by multiple designers until the final car was realised.
Read more about Yoshiro Kobata.
Shoji Takahashi
One of the designers who, after winning a design competition, provided one of several designs for a retro-style convertible City Car based on the Nissan K10 Micra (March) platform.
Shoji designed the Nissan Pao which, like the Figaro, had a low volume production run of just 10,000.
The Nissan Pao was an instant hit – Nissan had to run a lottery to decide who the lucky buyers of the cars would be. It was manufactured between 1989 and 1991.
He put forward a design for the Nissan Figaro, but the design proposed by Jun Shimizu was the one that went ahead.
Published: 5th October 2012
Last Updated: 8th June 2026
Related posts:
1988 – Nissan Figaro Early Concept Drawings Revealed
1988 – Prototype of Nissan Figaro Created
1989 – Public Launch of the Figaro at the Tokyo Motor Show – Video
1988 – How the Figaro was born
2022 – Interview with Yoshiro Kobata Pike Series Designer
1988 – Original Clay Model of the Nissan Figaro
2018 – Naoki Sakai Interview – Nissan Figaro Design Team
1991 – Nissan Figaro Official Press Release 14th February
