Shunsaku Tamiya was born on December 19, 1934,[1] in Shizuoka. He graduated from the Shizuoka Prefectural High School and Waseda University.[2]
Tamiya took over what had originally been his father's sawmill business and made it into one of the largest radio-controlled car and scale model kit manufacturers in the world. Tamiya was known for his pursuit of accuracy in his scale models.[3] He personally photographed and collected full-sized subjects to recreate as models.[4] The first Tamiya plastic model kit was based on the Jaguar D-Type.[4] In the 1970s, Tamiya released its first radio-controlled car, a model of the Porsche 934.[4] In the 1980s, Shunsaku Tamiya led the company through a surge in the popularity of radio-controlled car racing as a competitive motorsport.[4] In 1982, the company developed its first Mini 4WD models, which became very popular in Japan.[4] During the Cold War, he was placed under surveillance by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department Public Security Bureau for seeking information about Warsaw Pact tanks at the embassy of the Soviet Union in Tokyo.[3]
As the chairman of the Shizuoka Model & Educational Cooperative Association, Tamiya helped turn the city of Shizuoka into a major city in the global model industry through initiatives such as the Shizuoka Hobby Show.[1] He died on July 18, 2025, at the age of 90.[3]
