Companies
Nichia: The Secretive Firm That Invented the Blue LED
How a private, family-owned company in rural Tokushima invented the blue LED and became the world's largest LED maker
How a private, family-owned company in rural Tokushima invented the blue LED and became the world's largest LED maker
The maker of about 60% of the world's miniature ball bearings — ultra-precision at massive scale, now a components conglomerate
The Japanese leader that both runs the world's factories and makes the world's number-one home blood-pressure monitors
Through its ATL subsidiary, TDK makes the lithium-ion battery inside a huge share of the world's smartphones — and is a top-three maker of ceramic capacitors
An 80% global grip on automotive emissions analyzers — and a quiet expansion into chips, medicine, and EV testing
The Japanese maker behind about 70% of the small motors in car mirrors, locks, and HVAC — billions of units a year
Nabtesco and Harmonic Drive quietly supply about 75% of the precision reducers the global robot industry runs on
How a Tokyo microscope maker came to dominate the world's gastrointestinal scopes — and bet its future on medtech
How a 100-year-old Japanese textile maker became the material backbone of jets, EVs, and the hydrogen economy
Fanuc and Yaskawa quietly run the world's factories — and they're racing to automate the labour the planet no longer has
Tokyo Electron, Advantest, Shin-Etsu, and Hoya quietly control choke points the entire semiconductor industry depends on
Microsoft, AWS, and SoftBank are pouring tens of billions into Japanese AI infrastructure — and hitting a wall called electricity