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Furukawa Bets on Light
The 140-year-old copper house bought optical fibre at the top of the telecom bubble - two decades later the assets finally fit the market
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The 140-year-old copper house bought optical fibre at the top of the telecom bubble - two decades later the assets finally fit the market
How a Nagoya temple-carpenter shop founded in 1610 became Japan's only big-five super-general-contractor that has never gone public — and built Tokyo Tower, Tokyo Dome and Roppongi Hills under a fully integrated design-build model.
How a 222-year-old Echigo carpenter's joinery in Edo became the listed contractor of Tokyo Sky Tree, the Akashi-Kaikyo approaches, Shibuya Hikarie and TSMC's Kumamoto fabs — and what the Lunar Ring concept signals.
How an Edo trading house's 1873 construction arm became one of Japan's super-zenecon big-five — without a dominant family — and built the Tokyo Olympic Stadium and Esconfield Hokkaido.
How an Osaka-founded super-zenecon built Tokyo Sky Tree, Yokohama Bay Bridge, Marina Bay Sands and the Burj Khalifa — and what the Space Elevator research signals about its R&D culture.
How a 186-year-old Edo carpenter's shop became the contractor of Tokyo Sky Tree, Azabudai Hills and TSMC's Kumamoto fabs — and what its US/Australia/ASEAN operations mean for foreign infrastructure investors.
How Central Japan Railway built the world's most profitable high-speed-rail corridor and is self-funding a $120B+ maglev Shinkansen — a single-asset infrastructure bet.
How Hitachi shed dozens of businesses and rebuilt around its Lumada digital platform, energy, and rail — one of Japan's great transformations
A 110-year-old maker of the world's industrial pumps that is also a key supplier of CMP and vacuum equipment to semiconductor fabs
A 125-year-old Sumitomo cornerstone making the wire harnesses in cars, the optical fiber of the internet, and 5G semiconductors
Microsoft, AWS, and SoftBank are pouring tens of billions into Japanese AI infrastructure — and hitting a wall called electricity
Japan builds some of the most resilient infrastructure on Earth — skyscrapers that sway through magnitude-9 earthquakes, tunnels bored through active volcanic…