Martin Doors - Martin Doors

TOKYO, JAPAN - He has been in the door business for a long time and the parallels with Dave Martin are hard to ignore.

Ken Sadohara is a pioneer in his country for sectional garage doors and he has some of that pioneering with Martin Garage Doors.

Sadohara, now 77, is owner of Kongo Overdoor Corporation. His company manufactures commercial doors in Japan and has been selling Martin Garage Doors to the residential market since 1994. The company has 10 different facilities in Japan.

Kongo imported another American garage door for several years, but reached a working agreement with Martin Door, after rejecting a $250,000 offer for exclusivity from another American firm.

Sadohara and Dave Martin go back more than a few years. Ken was an original member of the Far Western Garage Door Association. It was at FWGDA where he met Dave Martin. Dave is a past president for the organization that has since merged with the International Door Association.

Mike and Dave Martin pose with Ken Sadohara outside a home in Tokyo. Sadohara's company, Kongo Corporation, has been a Martin Door dealer since 1994.

Ken's brother Kohei Sadohara started Kongo in 1960 but Ken took the reins in 1965 and the company began to import garage doors directly at that time from the U.S. He stepped aside as president of Kongo Corporation in 2003 and his son, Takeshi Sadohara became president. Ken is currently chairman of the board of the company. The company has 160 employees.

Born in Taipei, Taiwan, Sadohara earned a degree from a university in Tokyo and then worked for 10 years in New York City as a sales representative. Those links to the U.S. made it easier for him to navigate the import of American products into his country.

Sadohora said there are key elements in the Japanese market: safety and the burglar proof nature of a garage door. Doors are actually rated in Japan for how long it takes a burglar to break into the home.

He said low clearance in the garage is also a dominant part of the Japanese market.

Martin Doors do well on all accounts, because of the attention to safety that has been a hallmark of Martin Doors since the 1990s, the 24-gauge high-quality steel used in a Martin Door and the safer low clearance option that Martin now offers.

Takeshi Sadohara poses with a cardboard cutout of Dave Martin during a recent visit to Martin Door Manufacturing. Takeshi is president of Kongo Corporation, a company he father helped build for almost four decades.