Shinozaki Automotive A San Mateo family business sucess story.
Shinozaki Automotive has a long and prosperous history, the family owned business was started by the late Eugene Shinozaki and wife Fujie on the spring of 1974. Before starting their business Eugene studied and graduated from National Trade School in Torrance which he attended for 2 years after servicing in the army.
Mrs. Shinozaki remembers that after Eugene graduated he worked at a
local San Mateo repair shop for 13 years. They both decided that starting a business venture was a path to independence and prosperity that will benefit the family immensely. So after months of looking for the appropriate location they decided to acquire what is still today Shinozaki Automotive.
Five months after opening their doors they were joined by a young mechanic by the name of Donald Takao. He is also a graduate from 
National Trade School and a senior part of the team with 34 years of loyal service and experience at Shinozaki’s. Edmund Shinozaki the son of Eugene and Fujie who took over the business refers to Donald as one dedicated member of our family. He is ready to start before anyone else in the shop arrives and the last to leave at night, “it’s almost like he is running and caring for his own business” Edmund adds.
Five years later on April of 1979 Eugene Shinozaki passed away, that is when Edmund Shinozaki started helping his mother with their business. By then he was only 13 years old, but already showing interest in troubleshooting, learning and solving mechanical puzzles at the shop. To his advantage, on high school he received 3 years of technical courses that would set the path for higher learning later on his life.
While growing and transitioning from a young boy to becoming a teenager Edmund recalls hanging out with his friend Grant Sawai and having great
times pulling apart Grant’s father broken lawnmowers. They would fix,change parts and rebuild them to have some good working machines.Now Edmund's "toys" are a bit more elaborate, take longer to build and look much better than a lawnmower.
Grant’s loyal friendship and incredible work ethics were noticed by Mrs. Fujie Shinozaki. She remembers having Grant coming over almost every day and helping out with errands like buying parts needed for repairs, and washing some cars in the lot. But he was also keeping a close eye to what the other mechanics were doing and avidly learning from them. Grant became officially part of the team in 1984. He is nowadays an outstanding mechanic, with a passion for model building of radio controlled cars and airplanes, and on top of that he finds time to enjoy photography and an interest in computer graphics manipulation.
A few years later Edmund’s mother understood and valued her son's help during those times when she needed support and assistance. While growing the family business, she sacrificed not having him around all the time and encouraged him to attend De Anza College for two years to continue education in the automotive field. Edmund then followed 
those two years away from home at Weber State University in Utah. He graduated after 4 years and received an Automotive Engineering degree from what is consider one of the top three schools in the country to teach in this field.
Nowadays Mrs. Shinozaki is surrounded by the same group of people that started years ago. While she is now mainly “taking care of the boys” and doing some light work around the office, Edmund’s wife Cheryl is actively involved with the customer service aspect of the business, taking full care of the office, greeting new and existing customers with a smile. And if like that was not enough she is the mother of four young boys ranging from 4 to 11 years. They bring joy, excitement and most importantly a new generation of determined and responsible members to their family business.
As a loving family Edmund and Cheryl are actively involved in the education of their children, and the community in which they spend most of their time. They support the local schools that once saw them walk their halls and the ones which their children attend by funding some of the ongoing educational programs.
