Companies
Harmonic Drive Moves the Robots
The strain wave gear is a public invention - and one Japanese company has spent 50 years owning the ability to build it
Companies
The strain wave gear is a public invention - and one Japanese company has spent 50 years owning the ability to build it
How a 2003 merger of a gear maker and a brake maker ended up supplying most of the world's precision robot reducers
The Sendai company that hired the engineers Japan's appliance majors let go - and rebuilt the value shelf
How Osaka's other vacuum-flask house turned a 1923 workshop into a private global appliance brand
How a 1918 vacuum-flask maker from Osaka became the global benchmark for cooking rice — and why its elephant mark still sells at a premium abroad.
How Japan's second-longest private railway anchors the Asakusa-Nikko UNESCO corridor — and how the Tokyo Skytree, Ikebukuro Tobu Department Store and Tobu Hotels build a ~150-group-company conglomerate.
How Tokyo's Shinjuku-Odawara private rail line became the dominant Hakone gateway — and how the Hakone Free Pass, Enoshima coast line and Hakone Tozan Railway anchor Odakyu's tourism-revenue mix.
How a 1946 Tokyo lab grew through Sekkisei, DECORTÉ and Albion to become Japan's #2 cosmetics maker — and how the 2014 Tarte acquisition extended its reach into US millennial color cosmetics.
Why a 1959 spin-off from Suwa Seikosha pivoted from precision watch movements into inkjet printheads, 3LCD projectors with ~40% global share, and industrial robots — Japan's most under-appreciated B2B technology compounder.
Why JFE — born from the 2002 NKK and Kawasaki Steel merger — sits behind Nippon Steel domestically but has a quietly global presence through JFE Engineering, JFE Shoji and the deepening JSW Steel alliance in India.
How a 1909 lecture-society publisher under the Noma family became Japan's #1 publishing house by revenue — Weekly Shonen Magazine, Morning, Young, FRaU, Vertical Comics and Kodansha USA.
How a 1925 Shogakukan side-arm grew into the publisher behind Weekly Shonen Jump, the world's most valuable manga IP portfolio and the MangaPlus translation platform — and why the family ownership shapes licensing.