However, Suzuki had always preferred more skilled work, so in 1901, at the age of fourteen, he started a seven-year apprenticeship under the strict guidance of the carpenter Kōtarō Imamura.

[3] When the Russo-Japanese war started in 1904, demand for skilled craftsmen was low, and Imamura was forced, along with his apprentice, to take on the work of maintaining the looms on a factory floor.

Due to his short stature, Suzuki was placed into the secondary reserve category of the Japanese Imperial draft, which allowed him to divert his full attention to the manufacture of looms.

The company went public in 1920, and gained international fame a decade later with the production of a punchcard loom which was exported across Southeast Asia, due to its effectiveness in weaving sarongs.

Not content with restricting his innovations to the manufacture of looms, Suzuki also began experimenting with automotive technology in the mid-1930s, designing a prototype automobile in 1936.