While Shibaura and other Japanese corporations were growing in strength and increasing their capabilities, they were deeply debilitated by the advent of World War I. As the war began, Japanese manufacturers were cut off from Germany, England, and the United States, major suppliers of machines, industrial materials, and chemicals, forcing them to turn to one another for necessary materials and machinery to keep their fledgling industries alive.
The hardships experienced during this period had long-term advantages, however, for they forced Japanese industry into self-sufficiency and paved the way for the country's industrial advancement. Shibaura continued to grow in the interim between world wars, and merged with the Tokyo Electric Company, Ltd.
Tokyo Electric had also been established before the turn of the 20th century. Ichisuke Fujioka and Shoichi Miyoshi. Hakunetsu-sha had distinguished itself as Japan's first manufacturer of incandescent lamps.
During the late s, Japan rapidly passed from a period of self-isolation and self-reliance into a period of largely benevolent occupation and advocacy. With the assistance of the Japanese government and its citizens, the American Occupation Authority instituted social and economic reforms, and poured resources into postwar financial markets.
Japan's readmittance into the international trading community gave it access to overseas markets for manufactured goods and raw materials. The glut of raw materials available at the time enabled Japan to obtain necessary commodities in large quantities at favorable prices and, consequently, to regain its financial and industrial strength.
In this more favorable climate, Toshiba once again began to flourish. Backed by the powerful trading house of the Mitsui Group, the company's financial status was well secured.
Starting in the s, Toshiba began a program to strengthen its competitiveness in both the domestic and international markets. The company produced Japan's first broadcasting equipment in , launched Japan's first digital computers in , and developed Japan's first microwave ovens in Yet it would be some time before modern business policies affected the company in any fundamental way. Toshiba executives were criticized for their rigid adherence to a feudal system of hierarchy and status.
Top officials maintained lax working hours and were far removed from any operational business. An indisputable separation between a superior and his subordinates made the exchange of ideas virtually impossible.
To reduce the burden of responsibility on any one executive, numerous signatures were needed to approve a document. Thus innovation was easily stymied in a chain of bureaucracy. In the early s, these internal problems were compounded by an economic recession. To halt any further erosion, a radical change was in order. For only the second time in Toshiba's history the company sought an outsider to aid the ailing business.
The company's board hired Toshiwo Doko to take charge of the company. The combined status ranked Doko as Japan's leading industrialist. After Doko became president, Toshiba raised its stake in IHI as both companies shared executives on their boards and established trade agreements. This exchange, a keiretsu hallmark, strengthened Toshiba's financial standing. Doko's other corrective measures included the reduction of Toshiba's dependence on borrowed capital.
This was aided by the U. The infusion of capital enabled Toshiba to expand and modernize its operations. The new company president also initiated a comprehensive campaign to export Toshiba products around the world.
By establishing independent departments, the company could better facilitate the export of consumer and industrial goods. Major contracts were finalized with U.
Other streamlining efforts took the form of expanding the sales force, hiring new management, and consolidating operations. By Toshiba controlled 63 subsidiaries and employed more than , people; the company ranked as the largest electronic manufacturer in Japan and the nation's fourth largest company.
But in light of the dramatic expansion of such domestic competitors as Sony Corporation and Hitachi in the s, Toshiba's performance was generally considered mediocre. In , a new president, Shoichi Saba, brought renewed vigor to the company. Trained as an electrical engineer, Saba funneled vast resources into research and development, especially in the areas of semiconductors, computers, and telecommunications.
In October , Toshiba formed an Information and Communications Systems Laboratory to develop and integrate office automation products. That same year, Toshiba was responsible for the world's first direct broadcast satellite.
By the company was producing almost half of the world's one-megabyte chips. Utilized in equipment from stereos to computers, semiconductors soon became an important part of Toshiba's portfolio.
In alone, Toshiba's semiconductor facilities experienced a 55 percent increase due to contracts in France and West Germany, as well as burgeoning domestic demand. For the first time in its history, Toshiba surpassed its closest competitor, Hitachi, to become the second largest semiconductor manufacturer in the world, behind NEC Corporation.
Joint ventures and agreements with both Japanese and foreign corporations facilitated technology exchange. In Toshiba entered into a joint venture with Motorola for its Japanese production of computer memories and microprocessors. Later, Lenovo and a bevvy of no-name brands from China offered rival products at even lower prices. Toshiba, Sony, and other Japanese companies were once synonymous with sought-after consumer electronics.
That means consumers usually want the cheapest brand, not the most prestigious one. The competitive squeeze, coupled with the recession, caused the company to take a hit on its bottom line.
In Toshiba began outsourcing manufacturing of its TVs, and by it had withdrawn from the non-Japanese market. Last year the company announced it would exit the consumer PC market outside of Japan altogether, instead selling only to businesses. And rather than risk failing, subordinates cooked the books. A page report by an investigation committee set up by Toshiba stated that Nishida at times encouraged accountants to fudge the numbers. Toshiba declined an interview request for this story.
Toshiba had no expertise in the area, but at the time, the industry seemed poised to boom. After that, Japan closed nearly all of its nuclear reactors, and other countries shunned further investment in nuclear power. Those projects, Westinghouse later discovered, proved even more expensive than it imagined. Saddled with debt and unable to complete its contracted projects in the US, Westinghouse itself filed for bankruptcy in March.
The fallout has caused the company to consider selling its NAND flash business—its only division with reasonable prospects for survival —and has led it to spar with auditors and delay posting results for its just-ended fiscal year. Sony exited the PC business in , slashed its mobile phone business drastically, and is reportedly mulling a sale of its entertainment unit. Its most profitable business is now selling life insurance. Even Nintendo appeared on the brink of disappearance before Pokemon Go came along.
For Japan, more destruction is necessary before a revival can take place. In , Tokyo Denki Tokyo Electric Company; the name was changed from Hakunetsu-sha in invented the double-coil electric bulb, later recognized as one of the six great inventions in the history of bulb technology. The Great Kanto Earthquake of caused immense damage, leaving over , people dead.
Tokyo Electric Company lost many employees in the disaster. In the s, the Japanese government introduced a ban on the production of home appliances to conserve vital supplies of iron and steel for the war effort.
Hard times had arrived. As co-members of the Mitsui zaibatsu, led by Mitsui Bank, Shibaura Seisaku-sho Shibaura Engineering Works; the name was changed from Tanaka Engineering Works in and Tokyo Electric Company held cross-shareholdings and collaborated in a number of areas. As technology made progress, demand started to grow for home appliances that incorporated the advances made in heavy electrical machinery.
As the war intensified, the company grew rapidly by filling state orders for radios, vacuum tubes and other military supplies, and also producing generators. However, production capacity was crippled by bombing raids targeting factories. As production recovered in the postwar years, the company focused initially on heavy electrical machinery and then returned to making smaller electrical equipment as reconstruction progressed.
New sales subsidiaries were established to strengthen sales capabilities and exports to Southeast Asia began.
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